pratiques_informationnelles - Michel Roland on Diigo

12 Mar 09

is the ocean of short writing the web has generated due to our minds are getting dumber and incapable of paying attention to long articles, as Carr worries, or is it because we finally have a new vehicle and market place for loads of short things, whereas in the past it short was unprofitable to produce in such quantity? I doubt the former and suspect the latter is the better explanation.

Carr begins his piece describing how smarter he is while using Google. What if Carr is right? What if we were getting dumber when we are off Google, but we were getting loads smarter while we were on Google? That doesn't seem improbable, and in fact seems pretty likely.

UCLA study finds that searching the Internet increases brain function / UCLA Newsroom

www.newsroom.ucla.edu/...inds-that-searching-64348.aspx - Preview

brain pratiques_informationnelles

UCLA scientists have found that for computer-savvy middle-aged and older adults, searching the Internet triggers key centers in the brain that control decision-making and complex reasoning. The findings demonstrate that Web search activity may help stimulate and possibly improve brain function.
"A simple, everyday task like searching the Web appears to enhance brain circuitry in older adults, demonstrating that our brains are sensitive and can continue to learn as we grow older," Small said.

Small added that the minimal brain activation found in the less experienced Internet group may be due to participants not quite grasping the strategies needed to successfully engage in an Internet search, which is common while learning a new activity.

"With more time on the Internet, they may demonstrate the same brain activation patterns as the more experienced group," he said.

Is Google Making Us Smarter? -- Brain Function -- InformationWeek

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brain reading pratiques_informationnelles

"The study results are encouraging, that emerging computerized technologies may have physiological effects and potential benefits for middle-aged and older adults," Small told the UCLA news service. "Internet searching engages complicated brain activity, which may help exercise and improve brain function."

27 Jan 09

The End of Solitude / By WILLIAM DERESIEWICZ - ChronicleReview.com

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privacy solitude pratiques_informationnelles digital_natives reading

if the property that grounded the self, in Romanticism, was sincerity, and in modernism it was authenticity, then in postmodernism it is visibility.
the act of being alone has been understood as an essential dimension of religious experience, albeit one restricted to a self-selected few. Through the solitude of rare spirits, the collective renews its relationship with divinity.
23 more annotations...
- Communal experience is the human norm, but the solitary encounter with God is the egregious act that refreshes that norm.
- solitude was democratized by the Reformation and secularized by Romanticism.
- Don Quixote. The last figure alerts us to reading's essential role in this transformation, the printing press serving an analogous function in the 16th and subsequent centuries to that of television and the Internet in our own.
- Protestant solitude is still only figurative. Rousseau and Wordsworth made it physical.
- "sincerity": the belief that the self is validated by a congruity of public appearance and private essence, one that stabilizes its relationship with both itself and others.
- With exceptions, like Woolf, the modernists fought shy of friendship.
- Protestant self-examination becomes Freudian analysis, and the culture hero, once a prophet of God and then a poet of Nature, is now a novelist of self — a Dostoyevsky, a Joyce, a Proust.
- The child who grew up between the world wars as part of an extended family within a tight-knit urban community became the grandparent of a kid who sat alone in front of a big television, in a big house, on a big lot. We were lost in space.
- Under those circumstances, the Internet arrived as an incalculable blessing.
- The goal now, it seems, is simply to become known, to turn oneself into a sort of miniature celebrity. How many friends do I have on Facebook? How many people are reading my blog? How many Google hits does my name generate?
- Young people today seem to have no desire for solitude, have never heard of it, can't imagine why it would be worth having. In fact, their use of technology — or to be fair, our use of technology — seems to involve a constant effort to stave off the possibility of solitude, a continuous attempt, as we sit alone at our computers, to maintain the imaginative presence of others.
- The two emotions, loneliness and boredom, are closely allied. They are also both characteristically modern. The Oxford English Dictionary's earliest citations of either word, at least in the contemporary sense, date from the 19th century.
- But the great age of boredom, I believe, came in with television, precisely because television was designed to palliate that feeling. Boredom is not a necessary consequence of having nothing to do, it is only the negative experience of that state. Television, by obviating the need to learn how to make use of one's lack of occupation, precludes one from ever discovering how to enjoy it. In fact, it renders that condition fearsome, its prospect intolerable. You are terrified of being bored — so you turn on the television.
- The alternative to boredom is what Whitman called idleness: a passive receptivity to the world.
- the Internet is as powerful a machine for the production of loneliness as television is for the manufacture of boredom.
- If boredom is the great emotion of the TV generation, loneliness is the great emotion of the Web generation. We lost the ability to be still, our capacity for idleness. They have lost the ability to be alone, their capacity for solitude.
- And losing solitude, what have they lost? First, the propensity for introspection, that examination of the self that the Puritans, and the Romantics, and the modernists (and Socrates, for that matter) placed at the center of spiritual life — of wisdom, of conduct. Thoreau called it fishing "in the Walden Pond of [our] own natures," "bait[ing our] hooks with darkness." Lost, too, is the related propensity for sustained reading. The Internet brought text back into a televisual world, but it brought it back on terms dictated by that world — that is, by its remapping of our attention spans. Reading now means skipping and skimming; five minutes on the same Web page is considered an eternity. This is not reading as Marilynne Robinson described it: the encounter with a second self in the silence of mental solitude.
- But we no longer believe in the solitary mind.
- cognitive scientists tell us that "our decision-making is powerfully influenced by social context"; neuroscientists, that we have "permeable minds" that function in part through a process of "deep imitation"; psychologists, that "we are organized by our attachments"; sociologists, that our behavior is affected by "the power of social networks." The ultimate implication is that there is no mental space that is not social (contemporary social science dovetailing here with postmodern critical theory). One of the most striking things about the way young people relate to one another today is that they no longer seem to believe in the existence of Thoreau's "darkness."
- The MySpace page, with its shrieking typography and clamorous imagery, has replaced the journal and the letter as a way of creating and communicating one's sense of self. The suggestion is not only that such communication is to be made to the world at large rather than to oneself or one's intimates, or graphically rather than verbally, or performatively rather than narratively or analytically, but also that it can be made completely. Today's young people seem to feel that they can make themselves fully known to one another. They seem to lack a sense of their own depths, and of the value of keeping them hidden.
- The university was to be praised, Emerson believed, if only because it provided its charges with "a separate chamber and fire" — the physical space of solitude. Today, of course, universities do everything they can to keep their students from being alone, lest they perpetrate self-destructive acts, and also, perhaps, unfashionable thoughts. But no real excellence, personal or social, artistic, philosophical, scientific or moral, can arise without solitude. "The saint and poet seek privacy," Emerson said, "to ends the most public and universal."
- The last thing to say about solitude is that it isn't very polite.
- Friendship may be slipping from our grasp, but our friendliness is universal.

30 Sep 08

Your Brain on Google - ChronicleReview.com

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reading pratiques_informationnelles digital_natives chroniclereview

Now my concentration often starts to drift after two or three pages. I get fidgety, lose the thread, begin looking for something else to do."
Maryanne Wolf.

In her new book, Proust and the Squid: The Story and Science of the Reading Brain, she points out that reading is not an innate ability for humans but something we have to learn how to do, and there is no reason why different forms of literacy should not emerge as new technologies do. (BBC)

On Stupidity, Part 2 - Chronicle.com

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education digital_natives pratiques_informationnelles learning chronicle.com

Essentially I see students having difficulty following or making extended analytical arguments. In particular, they tend to use easily obtained, superficial, and unreliable online sources as a way of satisfying minimal requirements for citations rather than seeking more authoritative sources in the library and online. Without much evidence at their disposal, they tend to fall back on their feelings, which are personal and, they think, beyond questioning.

In that context, professors are seen as peevish bureaucrats from whom students need to extract high grades on the road to a career in which problems with writing and critical analysis will somehow not matter.
One of the purposes of teaching, as I see it, is to negotiate the differences, real and imagined, between generations. At the moment, that means meeting the "digital natives" where they are, but it also means expecting them to meet the "digital immigrants" — the people who were not raised in front of personal computers — where we are.
3 more annotations...
- For example, I have continued to lecture in many of my courses, but I have gradually learned to make lectures more stimulating and interactive by weaving together multiple threads of analysis using images, video, audio, artifacts, and readings — and asking the students to perform those readings. The lectures are designed to make a sustained argument, but they also have multiple points of entry, so that students are not lost after a momentary lapse of attention. Added to that are intervals of rest — in which concentration can slacken for a few minutes, as concepts are considered and discussed — before the harder analysis is resumed.
- I know there are educators who strongly oppose the use of the lecture. "Chalk and talk," they call it, and insist upon group work. And I respect that view, particularly since it has nearly banished the dry, droning professor, reading from yellowed notes. But the taboo against lecturing sometimes impairs the freedom of teachers to experiment with a traditional method in a way that can both respond to the skills of the "digital natives" — such as interconnectivity and intuition — while training them in the use of evidence and rational argumentation.
- If digital technologies are a cause of "stupidity," it is because we have spent freely on computers — among other things — without also giving comparable support to college teachers. The students have been left to negotiate a cultural paradigm shift, comparable to the print and industrial revolutions, with inadequate support from the institutions created to help them.
  
  And that strikes me as unambiguously stupid.

On Stupidity - Chronicle.com

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education anti-intellectualism USA pratiques_informationnelles

Richard Hofstadter's Anti-Intellectualism in American Life (1963)
With some cyclical variation, Americans tend to distrust, resent, and even feel moral revulsion toward "intellectuals."
6 more annotations...
- Now, in the post-9/11 era, American anti-intellectualism has grown more powerful, pervasive, and dangerous than at any time in our history, and we have a duty — particularly as educators — to foster intelligence as a moral obligation.
- The Anti-Intellectual Presidency: The Decline of Presidential Rhetoric From George Washington to George W. Bush (2008), by Elvin T. Lim, examines speeches and public papers — noting shortened sentences, simplified diction, the proliferation of platitudes — to show a pattern of increased pandering to the lowest common intellectual denominator, combined with a mockery of complexity and analysis.
- Gore argues that the democratization of information and the community-building power of the Internet can play important roles in the creation of a "well-connected" citizenry and the restoration of a rational democracy.
  
  Nevertheless, several books — with an emphasis on education and the young — argue that it is precisely the point-and-click culture of the Internet that is damaging our intelligence and our civic culture.
- the prevalence of multi-tasking — of always being partly distracted, doing several things at once — has diminished the quality of our thought, reflection, self-expression, and even, surprisingly, our productivity. Baron's solution is to turn off the distractions and focus on the task and people at hand.
- Carr, author of The Big Switch: Rewiring the World, From Edison to Google (2008), argues that daily use of the Internet may be rewiring our brains for skimming rather than for the sustained concentration that is required for reading books, listening to lectures, and writing long essays.
- It seems that our students are dumb and ignorant, but their self-esteem is high so they are impervious or hostile to criticism. Approaching his subject from the right, Bauerlein mentions the usual suspects — popular culture, pandering by educators, the culture war, etc. — but also reserves special attention for the digital technologies, which, for all their promise, have only more deeply immersed students in the peer obsessions of entertainment and fashion rather than encouraging more mature and sustained thought about politics, history, science, and the arts.

13 Jul 08

Pioneering research shows ‘Google Generation’ is a myth

www.bl.uk/...pressrelease20080116.html - Preview

digital_natives information_literacy UK google pratiques_informationnelles

A new study overturns the common assumption that the ‘Google
Generation' – youngsters born or brought up in the Internet age
– is the most web-literate.
A new study overturns the common assumption that the ‘Google
Generation' – youngsters born or brought up in the Internet age
– is the most web-literate. The first ever virtual longitudinal
study carried out by the CIBER research team at University College
London claims that, although young people demonstrate an apparent
ease and familiarity with computers, they rely heavily on search
engines, view rather than read and do not possess the critical and
analytical skills to assess the information that they find on the
web.
2 more annotations...
- research-behaviour traits that are commonly associated with
  younger users – impatience in search and navigation, and zero tolerance
  for any delay in satisfying their information needs – are now becoming
  the norm for all age-groups, from younger pupils and undergraduates
  through to professors.
- “We welcome the report findings, particularly on information and
  digital literacy skills. We focus on research skills, creativity,
  critical thinking and visual, verbal and information literacy, within
  our overall learning programme.”

11 Jul 08

Despite The Internet, Google Generation Lacks Analytical Skills -- Google Generation

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google information_literacy pratiques_informationnelles digital_natives

For one, information literacy has not improved with the widening access to technology. Instead, the speed of Web searching means little time is spent evaluating information for relevance, accuracy, or authority.

Young people also have difficulty in developing an effective search strategy. As a result, they have a strong preference for using natural language in searching, rather than analyzing which keywords might be more effective.
The study also dispelled some myths about the Google Generation. For one, researchers found no evidence that young people were more impatient in fulfilling their information needs than others. Research also found that young people do not place more credibility on the Internet and their peers as information sources, but place more value on teachers, relatives and textbooks.

BBF 2006-02 | Dossier Dossier Les étudiants en bibliothèque

bbf.enssib.fr/...document.xsp - Preview

étudiants bibliothèque students pratiques_informationnelles librairies

La maîtrise (ou à tout le moins
une bonne compréhension) du langage documentaire utilisé à la bibliothèque ou la capacité à juger de la pertinence d’une ressource
en ligne sont intimement liées à la connaissance du domaine scientifique dans lequel chacun est engagé. C’est pourquoi les
compétences documentaire et informatique d’un étudiant débutant ne peuvent être dissociées de la compétence disciplinaire
qu’il acquiert peu à peu.
L’évolution des méthodes d’enseignement à l’université, qui passe d’une pédagogie « frontale » à une
approche par projets [2] devrait conforter les BU dans ce rôle de conseil, plus que jamais nécessaire, alors que la masse de l’information potentiellement
disponible augmente de manière exponentielle, sans que les responsabilités autrefois assumées tout à la fois par le bibliothécaire,
le libraire, l’éditeur et l’auteur aient encore pleinement trouvé leur équivalent en ligne. L’effacement de ces responsabilités
laisse les étudiants seuls face à celle, très lourde, de devoir juger par eux-mêmes de la pertinence d’informations dont,
sous couvert d’une idéologie libertaire sûrement discutable, les fournisseurs ne sont bien souvent que des pseudos.
1 more annotations...
- Aujourd’hui, accéder à l’autonomie documentaire ce n’est pas savoir utiliser un moteur de recherche pour afficher une page
  à l’écran, mais comprendre ce qui fait la valeur d’une information, d’une parole, d’un discours et comment l’évaluer, au-delà
  de son éventuelle cohérence ou justesse apparente. Au-delà des discours actuels de promotion d’une « société de l’information »,
  il est de première importance de réfléchir aux compétences particulières que demande un usage raisonné de la documentation
  électronique et à la manière dont les étudiants, et plus largement tout citoyen, peuvent les acquérir.

Étude sur les connaissances en recherche documentaire des étudiants entrant au 1e cycle dans les universités québécoises, août 2003

www.crepuq.qc.ca/spip.php - Preview

pratiques_informationnelles information_literacy quebec students

Le Sous-comité des bibliothèques de la Conférence des recteurs et des principaux des universités du Québec (CREPUQ) est heureux d’annoncer la publication en version électronique des résultats d’une enquête menée en septembre 2002 auprès d’un vaste échantillon représentatif d’étudiants entrant au 1er cycle dans les universités québécoises, afin de vérifier leur maîtrise des connaissances de base requises pour effectuer une recherche documentaire.

Enquête sur les pratiques documentaires des étudiants, chercheurs et enseignants-chercheurs de...

www.credoc.fr/...abstract.php - Preview

pratiques_informationnelles students paris librairies

L'enquête révèle que les recherches documentaires nécessaires aux études sont aujourd’hui pratiquées par tous les étudiants via les moteurs de recherche sur le Web. Au lieu de se développer dans les espaces de travail largement informatisés des bibliothèques universitaires, ces recherches sont réalisées massivement à domicile. Il existe, de ce fait, un décalage important entre le développement des collections numérisées dans les grandes bibliothèques et l'usage qui en est fait dans les salles de lecture. Néanmoins, on constate aussi qu’en dépit de la diffusion généralisée des outils informatiques, il y a des déficits importants tant dans le nombre d’étudiants qui reçoivent une formation en recherche documentaire que dans le degré de connaissance des bases de données.

10 Jul 08

Urfist Info: Digital natives et (in)-compétences informationnelles

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pratiques_informationnelles literacy students digital_natives

étonnés par les compétences techniques des
« digital natives » (pourtant loin d’être aussi développées), de
nombreux enseignants et responsables éducatifs (du secondaire comme du
supérieur) font encore l’impasse sur les compétences informationnelles,
persuadés que les élèves et les étudiants savent désormais chercher seuls
l’information, à partir du moment où ils interrogent le couple
Google-Wikipedia. Cette enquête est donc une nouvelle pierre dans le jardin de
ce que j’appelle « l’illusion spontanéiste », consistant à croire que
les étudiants seraient spontanément acculturés à Internet, à la recherche et à
l’évaluation de l’information, et qu’il n’y a donc aucun besoin de formation
documentaire systématique.
« Nous plaiderons pour le renforcement des
cours de recherche documentaire dans l’enseignement supérieur alors que nous ne
sommes pas sûrs, actuellement, qu’ils soient maintenus. Nous souhaitons la
généralisation des formations à la recherche documentaire dans l’enseignement
secondaire. »

Nuls ! archinuls ! « Le nombril de Belle Beille

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pratiques_informationnelles digital_natives information_literacy libraries

C’est peut-être du mauvais esprit, mais je pense qu’il y a une vertu à ne pas mélanger les genres et qu’il est bon parfois de confier à des sociologues et des spécialistes des sciences de l’éducation l’étude de notre terrain que ne sauraient privatiser les seuls bibliothécaires, à la fois juges et parties, afin d’éviter toute orientation, inconsciente bien sûr…
deux réponses possibles des politiques : je suis d’accord avec vous, mesdames et messieurs les bibliothécaires, renforçons les moyens OU ce que vous faites depuis des années est nul et sans effet, puisque même les doctorants formés par vos soins durant leur cursus sont nuls…

Michel Roland's Library tagged pratiques_informationnelles → View Popular

The Technium: Will We Let Google Make Us Smarter?

UCLA study finds that searching the Internet increases brain function / UCLA Newsroom

Is Google Making Us Smarter? -- Brain Function -- InformationWeek

The End of Solitude / By WILLIAM DERESIEWICZ - ChronicleReview.com

Your Brain on Google - ChronicleReview.com

On Stupidity, Part 2 - Chronicle.com

On Stupidity - Chronicle.com

Pioneering research shows ‘Google Generation’ is a myth

Despite The Internet, Google Generation Lacks Analytical Skills -- Google Generation

BBF 2006-02 | Dossier Dossier Les étudiants en bibliothèque

Étude sur les connaissances en recherche documentaire des étudiants entrant au 1e cycle dans les universités québécoises, août 2003

Enquête sur les pratiques documentaires des étudiants, chercheurs et enseignants-chercheurs de...

Urfist Info: Digital natives et (in)-compétences informationnelles

Nuls ! archinuls ! « Le nombril de Belle Beille

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