It’s true that young people prefer interactive systems to passive ones and that they are generally competent with technology, but it’s not true that students today are „expert searchers.“ In fact, the report calls this „a dangerous myth.“ Knowing how to use Facebook doesn’t make one an Internet search god, and the report concludes that a literature review shows no movement (either good or bad) in young people’s information skills over the last several decades. Choosing good search terms is a special problem for younger users.
Another common trope is that respect for authority on the Web is dead (with Wikipedia usually cited as an example) and that there are no more „experts“ on the Internet; it’s all about peer knowledge. The report calls this a „myth“ as well, saying that „research in the specific context of the information resources that children prefer and value in a secondary school setting shows that teachers, relatives, and textbooks are consistently valued above the Internet.“
arstechnica berichtet von einer Studie über die Google-Generation, jene nach 1993 geborenen Menschen also, die in Großbritannien im Auftrag der British Library und des Joint Information Systems Committee untersucht wurden.
