Is Google Making Us Stupid?

Is Google Making Us Stupid?

This was one of the articles we read in the Library Leadership Academy in Anchorage last month. I forwarded to my principal in hopes to share with the staff. We do a lot of professional reading, and I am trying to insert as much information literacy reading as I can. If, as Carr says in this article, that his thinking attention is changing due to the Internet then what does this say about our students who spend hours online... reading? Is the definition of reading changing?

As a school librarian I am wondering how we bring students who spend hours reading on the web to at least begin to appreciate a good book. It feels like a reference interview maybe with this scenario... student needs to read a mystery book for an assignment; doesn't like to read; the questions begin- What do you do with your spare time? Do you go online? Are you a gamer? How about MySpace? Do you use the Internet for research? Then you read! We still have to know the best books to hook them.

Then too, we need to know when to draw on this expertise when searching for info on the web, and let these guys be the experts.