Stupid Googlers, Part II

James Bowman's article is a critical response to "Is Google Making Us Stupid?", written by Nicholas Carr. He dismisses the idea that the problem is the lack of "deep reading", as suggested by Carr, and even rejects Carr's notion that he needs to feel guilty about going online. Instead, he proposes and defends the idea that the problem is teachers thinking that they need to make learning fun, which immediately sets listeners on guard and unresponsive to the teachers. This method, not the tool, is the problem.

Because the article is titled so similarly and directly referenced, "Is Google Making Us Stupid?" is clearly connected to Bowman's "Is Stupid Making Us Google?". Marc Prensky's "Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants" supports the idea of teachers needing to make learning fun, of which Bowman is highly critical. While Prensky emphasizes the differences of "immigrants" and "natives", Bowman focuses on the result of "learning must be fun", which is bad for all parties involved; the "immigrants" watch their culture become oblivious and unimportant, and the "natives" do not receive the benefits of reaching outside of their cultural bubbles and truly expanding their horizons and minds.

In twenty or thirty years, this computer that I'm typing on will be ancient history and culture. How do you think that my grand- and great-grandchildren should learn about my experiences, or should they? Just a thought.