{"id":54559,"date":"2023-10-20T16:28:03","date_gmt":"2023-10-20T16:28:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/startupsmart.test\/2023\/10\/20\/whats-the-point-of-education-if-google-can-tell-us-anything-startupsmart\/"},"modified":"2023-10-20T16:28:03","modified_gmt":"2023-10-20T16:28:03","slug":"whats-the-point-of-education-if-google-can-tell-us-anything-startupsmart","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/uncategorized\/whats-the-point-of-education-if-google-can-tell-us-anything-startupsmart\/","title":{"rendered":"What\u2019s the point of education if Google can tell us anything? – StartupSmart"},"content":{"rendered":"
Can\u2019t remember the name of the two elements that scientist Marie Curie discovered? Or who won the 1945 UK general election? Or how many light years away the sun is from the earth? Ask Google.<\/p>\n
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Constant access to an abundance of online information at the click of a mouse or tap of a smartphone has radically reshaped how we socialise, inform ourselves of the world around us and organise our lives. If all facts can be summoned instantly by looking online, what\u2019s the point of spending years learning them at school and university? In the future, it might be that once young people have mastered the basics of how to read and write, they undertake their entire education merely through accessing the internet via search engines such as Google, as and when they want to know something.<\/p>\n
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Some educational theorists<\/a> have argued that you can replace teachers, classrooms, textbooks and lectures by simply leaving students to their own devices to search and collect information about a particular topic online. Such ideas have called into question the value of a traditional system of education, one in which teachers simply impart knowledge to students. Of course, others have warned<\/a> against the dangers of this kind of thinking and the importance of the teacher and human contact when it comes to learning.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Such debate about the place and purpose of online searching in learning and assessments is not new<\/a>. But rather than thinking of ways to prevent students from cheating or plagiarising in their assessed pieces of work, maybe our obsession with the \u201cauthenticity\u201d of their coursework or assessment is missing another important educational point.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\nDigital content curators<\/h2>\n