Blog 10 Week 11
This week’s industry blog that I thought was worth monitoring is called BuzzMachine, a personal blog site written by Jeff Jarvis. According to the website, Jarvis is an Associate Professor and Director of the interactive journalism program at the City University of New York’s new Graduate School of Journalism.
A post that particularly caught my eye was Hacking Education: Google U. Jarvis posts a chapter from ‘What would Google do’, which poses the question of who needs a university when we have Google? It explains that all of the world’s digital knowledge is available with a simple search, enabling a connection with ‘those who want to know with those who know’.
Obviously this links us with the knowledge from experts, but is a Google search really any comparison with the common text book? Do we really have to filter through useless information that may or may not be correct, or read people’s opinions on a Wiki who may not even be qualified? I think the internet is an exceptional information source, but really should not be limited to any one education. Let’s not forget our wonderful libraries!
Jarvis asks the question of why we are still teaching students to memorise facts when they are available through a search. He goes on to explain that memorisation is not as vital as curiosity, research and reasoning. I do not totally agree with this. Although I think this is an important tool in helping a student’s resource skills, I still believe memorisation and knowledge of information and how to do something is essential. I hope I won’t have to consult Google for every question I have about how to do my job when I become a PR Practitioner.
References
http://www.buzzmachine.com/2009/03/06/hacking-education-google-u/
http://www.journalism.co.uk/staging/assets/4/93//buzzmachine.jpg_resized_300_240.jpeg
