I am a member of the “Google generation” however, sometimes I wonder if my students are.
Typical conversation:
Student: “Mr. C”
Me: “Yes.”
Student: “I can’t find any information on my topic.”
Me: “What did you type in the search box?”
Student: “My question.”
Students don’t know what to type, so they type their question, as if they were asking a person. So I have to begin teaching my students how to search and what to search.
I agree with the authors of “How Teens Do Research in the Digital World.” They have found that most teachers give student modest credit for knowing and understanding how to research; however, students could improve their skills by learning how to research more effectively rather than just relying on the “commercial” sites such as: Google, Yahoo, Bing, Ask, and others. We as teachers cannot rely on the notion that just because students use the internet they know how to really “USE the internet.”