Online Literacy Makes Information Warfare Easier
October 21, 2011
If you are a fan of information warfare, disinformation, and weaponized data—you will find that opportunities for “shaping” content are going to become more plentiful.
Common Dreams reported on a thought-provoking study about just the opposite of that. The article entitled, “Study: Many College Students Not Learning to Think Critically,” provides an overview of research that once again says U.S. education isn’t making the grade.
New York University Sociologist Richard Arum conducted a study which followed 2,322 traditional-age students from the fall of 2005 to the spring on 2009 from 24 different colleges and universities–all ranging in selectivity. He took into account their testing data and survey responses.
Fort-five percent did not have any significant improvement in critical thinking, reasoning, or writing skills after the initial two years. Even after four years the percentage held strong at thirty-six percent remaining stagnant.
These depressing results are not because the curriculum has stayed the same in changing times: a common misconception. In fact much of education theory centers around collaborative learning. However, Arum’s study shows that independent students make more gains.
The article states:
I’m not surprised at the results,” said Stephen G. Emerson, the president of Haverford College in Pennsylvania. “Our very best students don’t study in groups. They might work in groups in lab projects. But when they study, they study by themselves.
The fact that this is the first study that has followed a cohort of undergraduates to determine if they are learning specific skills is meaningful in and of itself. We as a society don’t feel the need to analyze and research what we perceive to be successful. Everyone from teachers, taxpayers, politicians, to students are spending too much time criticizing and analyzing our education system instead of investing in it–emotionally and financially.
Interesting and somewhat disconcerting. But since we don’t do news and are owned by an addled goose, the Beyond Search staff wouldn’t know good information if it fell in the goose pond. That’s okay for us in rural Kentucky. For others, hmmmm.
Megan Feil, October 21, 2011
Sponsored by Pandia.com
Comments
One Response to “Online Literacy Makes Information Warfare Easier”
-
- Subscribe to Beyond Search
Feature archive
News archive
-
[…] Online Literacy Makes Information Warfare Easier (arnoldit.com) […]