There’s was once an argument that calulators made students dumber - this was in the 1960’s and 1970’s when Electronic Calculators were quite new.   Now some people think the same is true for Search Engines.

Edward Tenner’s recent NY Times op-ed piece suggested that search engines are making today’s students dumber. David Schatsky at Jupiter Research quipped:

"Will a new generation of students fail to develop library research skills the way my parents’ generation did? Probably. But then I’ve lost the art of hunting and gathering."

 

I don’t think Search Engines make students dumber - we’re just in a different age where it’s more important knowing how to pull data you need and use it effectively - as opposed with knowing how to create the data yourself.

No one argues we should master certain skills - however; including how to do basic reseach without Search Engines and to think creatively - with out having the internet to draw from.     Yet this is so much part of our life now - it’s unnatural not use Search Engines and the Internet.