“Google It!”: Critical Thinking and Problem-Solving in the Internet Age
This is a re-post of a blog entry for Digital Scholarship Ontario , Dec 17, 2015, by Ali Arya and Luciara Nardon. Most educators are familiar with students’ growing reliance on online search engines for finding information and researching topics. “Google It!” is a near-universal term. The ubiquity of Internet search technology has made it possible for people to find information and solve problems for which they have no personal expertise. While in daily life online searches have positive uses, in an educational setting the overreliance on search technologies may result in a reduction of student problem solving and critical thinking abilities. This, in turn, may result in weaker academic performance when search tools are not available, in the long term compromising creativity, adaptability, and originality. While everyone “sensemakes” on a continual basis, expertise plays a role in influencing what is noticed and what is the subject of sensemaking. Lundberg (2004) proposes three