The Importance Of Critical Thinking For Student Use Of Internet

The Importance Of Critical Thinking For Student Use Of The Internet
Students are increasingly so dependent on the Internet for their information that critical thinking programs that do not address the form and quality of persuasion on that medium are flirting with an anachronistic pedagogy. This paper documents the absorption of postsecondary students with the Internet as a source of "knowledge", spells out the attendant dangers, and suggests the essential first step in applying critical thinking to the Internet.
Critical thinking is the systematic evaluation of the arguments of others (Browne and Keeley, 1998). In a world where arguments and counterarguments flourish with respect to almost all social questions, students have a fundamental need for the development of attitudes and skills that permit them to negotiate the inescapable dissensus that surrounds them. But why focus on the arguments that arrive via the Internet?
The answer is direct and compelling. Students are increasingly so dependent on the Internet for their information that critical thinking that does not address the form and quality of persuasion on that medium are flirting with an anachronistic pedagogy. This paper documents the absorption of postsecondary students with the Internet as a source of "knowledge", spells out the attendant dangers, and suggests the essential first step in applying critical thinking to the Internet.
Increasing Dependence of Students on Computers as a Source for Their Conclusions
The Internet has become a way to communicate, a way to conduct business, even a way to shop. While the Internet is often considered as a source of entertainment, it began primarily as a research and scholarly tool, and it is this academic aspect that is becoming increasingly popular among students (Scherer, 1997; Iseke-Barnes, 1996). There are several advantages to using the Internet as a research tool. Using the Web can allow students to access information that cannot be readily found in print. In addition, the Internet is convenient: unlike resources housed in a library, the Internet is available all day, every day. Finally, the interactivity of some academic Web sites makes them unparalleled as a resource. To a student able to discern the academic merit of the information he finds, using the Internet may be well worth the extra evaluative effort because of these advantages.
When using the Internet for research, students have access to information from universities, observatories, government agencies and other sources worldwide. The availability of library catalogs on the Web enables students in small and remote institutions to search the collections of larger institutions like Oxford University and the Library of Congress. (Silva and Cartwright, 1993; Change, 1996). Up-to-date information from sources ranging from independent researchers to government agencies can be found on the Web, as can otherwise unpublished information (Sorapure et al., 1998). Students using the Internet carefully may find more in-depth information than would be available without such technology. For this reason, the Internet is of great advantage as a research tool.
In addition to the scope of information available on the Internet, the unique convenience afforded by electronic resources is also noteworthy. While most students are able to complete library research within the library's normal hours of operation, the Internet offers an advantage to those who cannot. The Internet is "open" at all hours of the night or day, every day of the week, and even on holidays. This convenience presents a definite advantage to students for whom the nearest library's schedule is a constraint to research
It is clear that the Internet offers certain advantages to student researchers. Yet relying heavily upon the Internet for academic purposes makes research seem easy and allows students to confuse information with knowledge. Once this confusion exists, the careful evaluation by which meaningless data evolves into knowledge seems unnecessary. If relying upon the Internet causes students to cease evaluating information with which they are presented, then one of the primary purposes of higher education is jeopardized. "Our institutions' primary mission is to expand students' intellectual capacities," writes Alexander W. Astin, director of the Higher Education Research Institute at the University of California at Los Angeles (1997). Without the acquisition of knowledge transformed from random pieces of information, the intellectual capacity of students of higher education is not being expanded. Therefore, despite the advantages of Internet research, it is arguable that reliance upon the Internet as a source of research poses a threat to one of the fundamental goals of higher education.
The seeming ease of using the Internet makes scholastic research seem similarly effortless; with a few keystrokes and a click of the mouse, students are provided with hundreds of sites from which to draw information on a particular topic. Hypertext links, ubiquitous on most sites, amplify the seeming ease of research by allowing students to quickly cross-reference information and pursue promising leads. However, the ease with which we can find information is not directly proportional to its quality as research.
Students may develop a "misunderstanding of research itself" by using the Internet as a research tool, Darnton (1999) claims, due partly to the decontextualized nature of information found electronically. Historical research, for example, involves recognition and appreciation of context; the handwriting, typeface, layout and paper qualities of a document are valuable clues to a document's meaning (Darnton). Such contextual clues are unavailable to students who find a document on-line as opposed to in the library archives. In using the Internet to find the majority of research on a topic, students do not learn the importance of information's context, leading to a very narrow understanding of what careful research requires of the researcher.
When manipulated, this data becomes information, and only through careful evaluation does this information evolve into a well-informed conclusion (Iseke-Barnes, 1996). Student researchers need to have an appreciation of this distinction and be able to evaluate data found on the Internet to form a conclusion. In assuming that the Internet provides conclusions rather than wandering pieces of data, students may also assume that evaluating what they find on the Internet is unnecessary. Such a habit might explain the declining quality of student research papers noticed by educators. Knowledgeable statements belong in research papers, while information in raw form usually does not; it might be expected that papers containing "summaries of summaries" have been written by students who do not clearly understand the distinction between "information" and "knowledge."
While the Internet can be easy to use and while Web sites often provide statements that seem conclusive, information found on-line needs to be evaluated just as carefully as information found elsewhere (Halverson, 1997). Without carefully considering the source from which an argument has arisen and the reasoning behind the argument's conclusion, students are doing little to develop their minds. If the goal of our educational system is indeed to "expand students' intellectual capacities," (Astin, 1997) then we should expect students to evaluate any arguments they encounter. Sites on the Internet have varying purposes, perspectives, and credibility in the same way that non-electronic sources do. Any individual who wishes to conduct research via the Internet must consider these qualities.
While written material is edited and revised before publication, Web pages simply "appear" on the Internet. There is no governing board or editorial staff whose responsibility it is to ascertain that Internet sites present well-informed conclusions or even truthful statements. In some cases, Web search engines provide rating systems to help people find reliable sources of information. Lycos, Infoseek, and Yahoo are examples of searching tools that rate sites along a scale, typically awarding ratings from "excellent" to "poor". While such tools can be helpful, Sorapure, Inglesby and Yatchisin (1998) note that the criteria by which sites are judged are often left unspecified, as are the qualifications of the reviewers awarding the ratings. It is essentially up to the student to determine a Web site's worth as a resource.
The creation and expansion of the Internet has changed the way we communicate. There are many advantages to letting this technological advance also change the way we learn: information on the Internet is readily available, convenient, and interactive. Having access to advanced technology does not mean that the student researcher is using an advanced form of information, however. Information found on the Internet is subject to the same careful evaluation as that found in other mediums. Even the best of Web sites, those that state their purpose, recognize their origination from particular political or social stances and are well grounded in their content, must be carefully scrutinized. Thus, the Internet is of value as a research tool only to the extent that the student is willing to practice careful evaluation.