The Google Effect In Schools

    Today, students all around the world are experiencing the Google Effect and its positive attributes. This technological globalization is very useful in schools today because many programs and teachers are fading away from strictly memorization based techniques and more creative thinking and applying these concepts to outsource your knowledge to the teacher. This is beneficial because now students may access any information at any time. In an article from Forbes, the author states "To some education theorists, this might read as a positive development. After all, if everything we know is stored online, and we all carry around smart phones to instantly aid with factual queries, and our brains are actually adjusting to these changes, then it appears that technology and biology have at last converged into one seamless, packet-fueled stream"

    Even in a personal primary perspective, I have experienced the Google Effect in high school when we programmed our classroom with a classroom from overseas and we were learning about the topic of globalization with them and asked questions from a primary source that we would not have been able to obtain if research was entirely completed offline.

   Research is evolving and is helping design new ways to obtain it which in any terms should be considered beneficial as long as a balance is demonstrated between offline and online research as mentioned in previous posts.

Google is Changing Our Brains

When speaking in terms of the Google Effect, the term 'digital amnesia' tends to come up. Though it has been proven that our brains are functioning differently due to the rise in daily technology, are we really suffering from a form of amnesia?

I tend to think that one of the main reasons we end up not mentally storing important things is because we are confident enough in the resources we have. We know that everything we need to find is just the push of a button away, so why remember it? Studies have not shown that the google effect is making our brain less competent in any way, rather they show that we are still very capable of remembering things. We just "outsource" the search of information to our computers rather than searching for the information internally.

In a previous blog, I referenced Prof. Sparrow's experiment with Harvard and Columbia University students. Sparrow exclaimed how amazing it is that we are "becoming particularly adept at remembering where to go to find things", which pretty much stresses the fact that our brains are not becoming less competent at remembering, but instead our brains are changing in the way they choose to store information and data. The surveyed students showed that people are better at remembering where to find the facts rather than the facts themselves. This isn't something negative either. The study says that this is no different than the old-fashioned reliance on 'group memories'. For example, I may not recall what I did for my 10th birthday, but I'm sure I could find out by asking one of my parents. Sparrow noted that we have many people in our lives that we share memories with and that know specific facts that we can access through talking with them when we desire or need. It turns out that we are possibly just using the internet and smartphones, the same way we used to use people in regards to memories and specific data.
All in all, why must we remember things that are just 15 seconds, and one internet search away? Many speculate that once we stop worrying about memorizing information such as contacts and dates, we are able to concentrate better as a whole. Me personally, I find it intriguing that technology has advanced to a level where our brains can choose which information to store based on it's availability elsewhere, which is the google effect.

References:
http://www.mercurynews.com/2011/07/14/google-is-changing-your-brain-study-says-and-dont-you-forget-it/

Digital Amnesia In Practice (mobile phone use)

       From the unlimited access to information on the internet, to the smartphones that we carry all of our information on, technology is changing the way our brains store information. With infinite information only a few clicks away, it tends to be very natural for us to rely on digital devices to store the info we otherwise would have to remember. This is called 'the google effect', or 'digital amnesia'.

       Digital Amnesia In Practice

       The Kaspersky Lab shows us that most phone customers in the United Kingdom can't remember important phone numbers from memory including; those of their children, their children's schools, their place of work, their partner. However, half of these interviewed people could easily recall their home phone number from when they were younger. This directly shows how nowadays people don't bother to store certain crucial information, simply because they know it is available to them through their everyday mobile device.
       Researchers say that as we store more information on mobile phones, our brain is actually encouraged to forget the information it formerly stored. This is due to our limited brain capacity.

       Modern Day Reliance

       Kaspersky's lab shows that over half of the younger people surveyed, admitted that their phone holds pretty much all of what they need to know. Clearly, this shows how crucial smartphones and that other technology has become in regards to the information we rely on day to day. This study shows that the loss of a person's smartphone can not only be inconvenient, but devastating. Almost half (44%) of women surveyed, said they would be overwhelmed and saddened if they lost their smartphone due to the fact that they believed they would lose memories they could never get back. Also, a quarter of the women surveyed (and 38% of the younger people surveyed) said they would be 'completely frantic' since their smartphone is their primary source of data, images and contact information. Years ago these images would be tangible, and the contact information would be mostly stored in your brain and written down somewhere as a backup, not as a primary source of the info.

References:
http://www.cbc.ca/news/technology/digital-amnesia-kaspersky-1.3262600 , https://blog.kaspersky.com/digital-amnesia-survival/9194

Maintaining Brain Fitness

    Although internal online storage of information through search engines such as Google may propose a new and efficient method of research, there is an on going oscillation on opinions of whether or not it is good or bad and although we believe this is a good method of research, it is important to maintain a balance between various ways of obtaining research. If we just stick to one method of obtaining research, we will become paralyzed when it comes to other aspects of getting this knowledge that sometimes the internet does not include. Although many generations have grown up through offline research and also when online research boomed, many new generations are being introduced to strictly online research with very few exposure to the offline world which may result in issues.   

    Like mentioned above, it is important to maintain a balance when it comes to almost everything in life which includes the use of online research and offline research. According to studies . "There were 3.5 million searches in 1998, now, there are 4.7 trillion search queries everyday.1 When something changes our lifestyle so monumentally, you can bet it’s changing us as well"(http://academicearth.org/electives/internet-changing-your-brain/).

  This statistic demonstrates the gradually increasing popularity of "google-ing" information. The brain needs to have balance and the brain works just like every other muscle in the body. If the brain is not constantly being trained and maintained, an individuals memory will not be as strong as it used to be or it will not increase in memory strength. The fact is that Google does not promote long term thinking because most of the time individuals who use Google seem to just skim through the information.  "Our brains use information stored in the long-term memory to facilitate critical thinking. We need these unique memories to understand and interact with the world around us. If we rely on Google to store our knowledge, we may be losing an important part of our identity." In general searching information up on Google is a great tool, however it is not to say to only focus on online research because as pointed out, it may be harmful to only use online research. It is important to maintain a healthy balance between the two forms of information. It will do no good to neglect one or the other completely.

Reference:  
How the Internet is Changing Your Brain - Academic Earth,  Academic Earth RSS,  http://academicearth.org/electives/internet-changing-your-brain/
                        

To Look Up or Learn With Easy & Hard Questions

Often when we look to search things on the internet it’s usually something we don’t have the direct specific answer to. This is because what were usually intrigued to answer doesn’t fall into the simple or easy question category. When we don’t know something and refer to looking it up later on the internet, it’s usually unique and of great difficulty compared to our knowledge at the current moment. Because of this, we can infer that the Google effect concludes of difficult things we are sure to be unaware of and isn’t something we should already know. Therefore it’s usually something were most likely to look up so that we can learn it. When we are asked difficult questions we do not know the answer to we tend to turn to the internet and when questions aren’t too difficult we answer them directly. Although we may look up specific facts we may end up forgetting them because they might not have important value in meaning or they might not be worth remembering just because we had to look it up. For example, if you ask the average person “How many points did Lebron James average in his 2015-2016 NBA season?” The average person wouldn’t know that question as it would fall into the hard question category as specific as it is. This person might need to reference this question later on but is it really something that they have to know? The importance of the specific question really matters.

This brings up another topic as to are these questions, questions we have to learn or look up that determine the importance of what was being asked. In most cases when the Google effect occurs is when people say they will “look up” the information later. “To "Look up" means making a conscious decision to want or need to seek more information about a topic later; to remember where you may find information later, but not to memorize it now. For example, you decide not to memorize math formulas because you will be given a formula sheet during the test. “Learn” means being able to reproduce the information from memory.” GENERATION AND THE GOOGLE EFFECT.... - Jessica Siller Page 36. Analyzing what is said, It’s important to properly categorize what is being asked to determine how we go about these questions. The example of the Lebron question asked fell into the to “look up” category as we did not need to memorize what was being asked. We could also imply that age is a factor as those who are more likely to learn information are typically younger people such as students who are in school compared to older people who are not necessarily learning as much in their current stage of life. Therefore they would be more likely to look up and less likely to learn information.

In Appendix A of the link below people were surveyed on “Easy Question Block” where a simple “Yes or No” question was asked on basic knowledge. These questions were found to be quite answerable and less complicated and challenging. In Appendix B  was a survey on “Hard Question Block” and the results were that only 51% of the hard questions were answered correctly compared to a 90% correct rate for the easy block questions. Not knowing the answer to the hard questions primed the need to search for it in most cases as prior information and knowledge were not there. The Implications that set it all was the 3rd part Appendix C which was a “Look up or Learn” survey and results showed that there was a strong tendency for people to learn rather than look up which goes against the Google effect in results to show that instead of forgetting to look up what we intentionally were to look up, we actually look it up to learn it. Appendix A:31 Appendix B:33 Appendix C:35/Siler_Jessica_B_201308_BS.pdf

References: http://etd.fcla.edu/CF/CFH0004473/Siler_Jessica_B_201308_BS.pdf

Connectivity & Reliance

Through years of development in human progress and technology our understanding of the world and the way we communicate has never been any better. The more and more connections we make today, the more and more opportunities we will have tomorrow. The underlying importance of connectivity is that because of it, we evolve at a faster rate discovering new things and assessing new challenges only for the better. Our reliance on technology expands as we develop technologies itself shifting towards more complex things. Our physiological needs shift because of technology. Our initial needs become fulfilled and satisfied as we no longer need to depend on the essentials of life such as water, food, and health. We don’t live in a day in age anymore where not too long ago our main concern was about cooking food and being limited to how little we can do in a day. Or the fact that we have to do things with time and effort such as going to the library, looking for a book, checking it out, and finally reading it. In relation to the google effect, if you go by it, you are more than likely to be utilizing the reliance of google and what it has to offer. Always trusting the internet to find new information may not necessarily be a bad thing as it encourages us to learn, connect and develop. There are those who say they would look something up later on google and might and up forgetting but to those who actually do learn something from it.

“Through the reliance of the Internet we can fulfill all our physiological needs, therefore our reliance on the internet is making us much more aware and smarter of our individual self and what’s around us”

According to research findings from the Digital Amnesia Report (1). “The results reveal that the “Google Effect” likely extends beyond online facts to include important personal information.” Through these findings an increasing amount of people ranging from young consumers to adults had connected devices as their primary source of knowledge as well as default space for storage information. The study showed that the 16-44 year olds surveyed categorized two main broad categories which were recalling knowledge and insight, and the recall of personal information. A trust and reliance on these two categories can benefit an individual with the ability to link connections, understand and learn more about themselves. Retrieved from Digital Amnesia Report (Page 4) Kaspersky Lab.

One thing we take for granted and hardly realize is our reliance on technology. Every day we begin to trust technology more and more. We realize the benefits of such things and utilize it to the best of our ability. As our reliance grows on technology so does the development of human progress. We begin to work more efficiently, smarter, and with ease. One could argue that there are so many disadvantages to the reliance of technology but what underlies is the fact is that it’s the little things such as the google search engine that change our lives inch by inch.

References:

https://kasperskycontenthub.com/usa/files/2015/06/Digital-Amnesia-Report.pdf   

Helpful or Harmful?

  Technology is constantly advancing into a phenomenon that individuals are taking advantage of for multipurpose uses. Technology is gradually increasing in the areas of gathering resources from multiple sources in a very short amount of time with little effort due to the fact that it may be accessed by anyone with a network connection. The common concern regarding The Google Effect and the act of disregarding useful offline information is whether or not it is a modern technological distraction or an educational tool for obtaining resources for knowledge. Many scientists and experts believe that The Google Effect is a positive advancement in learning with much evidence to support the claim, while some others believe the advantages are close to none or very slim.

    Many experts believe that The Google Effect is a positively progressing online depiction of the future of technology used for research. Anthropologist Dr Genevieve Bell, a vice-president at Intel and director of the company's Corporate Sensing and Insights Group, believes that the use of google to research and store our mental information, is in fact a positive thing. Dr. Bell proposes a valid point when speaking of new mothers questioning if their baby is sleeping enough when she said "These are all questions that technology may be able to address quicker than calling your own parents," she says. "This isn't making consumers more dumb, instead it's helping them to think smarter." One of the most widely noble man Albert Einstein has even supported the idea of storing information in a place where you may always have access to instead of wasting space for things such as phone numbers and addresses. Although many find it useful, some find that it may actually negatively affect people and make them less aware of offline information because of it being available with just a click away. It also brings up the argument that people are not attempting to learn offline and it results in overall less productivity and knowledge transmitted. Through research and primary experience of the topic, we believe that if you are affected by the google effect, then it will lead you to obtain more knowledge than offline research.

References:

https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/therapy-matters/201107/the-google-effect

http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/gadgets-and-tech/features/google-effect-is-technology-making-us-stupid-10391564.html

The Internet’s Impact on the Brain and Memory

Some refer "The google effect" as a flash drive to your computer hard drive seeing it as an external memory to our brains. Whether it’s good or bad the internet and the way we use google affects our brain and memory. Through the process of storing information and referring back to it, we look at google as a search engine to find information when we need it at one specific time. We see it as a form of database where we can tap in to access more information at the instance. It's not a matter of choosing to memorize what we googled but to understand the directions of where the information were looking for is. It was questioned that people who would rather look something up on google are more likely to forget the information they learned opposed to those who took the time and didn't use google as a first option, but instead found alternative methods. In relation to that thought it comes down to the approach of what was being questioned. And our thought process was the determining approach to anything that occurred afterwards. Just because one googles information doesn’t mean that they are less likely to remember what they attained because the deciding factor is how they approached what they were looking for and if it was stored in the short term or long term memory. The difference between memorization and knowledge is that one could argue the Google Effect is outsourcing our memories, and freeing up space in our brains for more analysis.

"You don't need to memorize every specific detail to get through life" - Dico Angelo

Knowing that we know more than we did now than before, our brain has stored more information and uses google as an external database memory just as a computer uses an external hard drive or a flash drive. Because of this we get something called Information overload whereas there is too much information to provision. To relate there is a great quote in which the word “filter” greatly applies to how our brain processes the new age.

"In the Information Age, the first step to sanity is FILTERING. Filter the information: extract for knowledge.

Filter first for substance.

Filter second for significance. These filters protect against advertising.

Filter third for reliability. This filter protects against politicians.

Filter fourth for completeness. This filter protects against the media.” Marc Stiegler, David's Sling 

Retrieved from Overcoming Information Overload: We need to start doing something about it ... (Page 2) Can Akdeniz- Business & Economics

         Referring to this quote it’s a matter of how we choose to filter information due to information overload. We can say that through the google effect, instead of having a tendency to forget knowledge or information, we could instead filter and specialize. Filtering down to the right source where we can utilize information to the best of our ability is a way where our brain has adapted providing efficiency and less stress. The effect of this quote also applies to how our brain is re-shaped in a thinking strategy when it comes to how we approach information. A method of strategizing debunks the Google effect where people may be less likely to remember certain details we believe will be accessible online. Our brain concludes that once we know what we want we can easily refer back to google as a more directive and efficient approach. Yes, people may be less likely to remember certain details that are believed to be accessible online but this applies to all circumstances. For example, one could say the same thing about a textbook “I’ll find it in the textbook later.” and yet they still forget or are less likely remember. It’s a balance of putting things into short term or long term memory.

"Filtering it down"

Refrences:

http://science.sciencemag.org/content/333/6043/776.full    

Experiment Involving Students

In 2011, experiments were conducted by Prof. Betsy Sparrow, as the google effect was analyzed based on the cognitive memory of over one hundred selected Harvard and Columbia University students.

Experiment #1

• 40 different trivia questions were presented, and the students were to type the facts down for themselves
• Half of the group was told that their notes would be saved and could be seen later, while the other half was told that the computer would erase their notes.
• To the students surprise, everyone had their notes erased and were asked to answer the 40 trivia questions.
• As expected, the students who expected to have the facts in front of them, performed worse than the students expected to memorize 

Experiment #2

•  In the next set of experiments, Sparrow used the same method but with statements instead of questions, but this time each statement was placed into a specific folder (for example; facts, items, places).
•  Students were given altered versions of the statements and tested on whether or not they could identify if the statement was altered. They also were asked to identify which folder each statement belonged.
• Once again the students who knew that the information  would be erased performed stronger, but the most intriguing observation was the accuracy in which students could point out which folder each statement belonged.

Observations

• Even though the google effect was supported by the results in the first experiment, the second experiment showed that students ended up knowing the location of where to find specific information a lot better than they knew the information itself

 

What is the Google Effect?

    Technology is an advancing function in today's world that is used by almost everyone worldwide. Technology is a progressive force and only increases in its influence on individuals globally. Some may see the progression of technology as one of the greatest modern tools for research, while others have a different opinion that revolves around the classic methods of learning and research through offline sources. Although some may not agree on advancing technology in the sense of education and research, it is undeniable that technology is far from elusive and is accessible to almost everyone around the world. When speaking of technology, Google in particular has demonstrated an ideal progression in their use of technology and has become the most commonly used search engine in the world. Google, being a search engine provides online content of mass variety of different topics and research with just a click away making it nearly impossible to avoid when doing a research project or just simply wanting to find out about any topic. However, Google has become so popular and used that it brings up many thoughts and beliefs of positive and negative perceptions on the idea of an online information storage. Today, experts have given the name to a phenomena known as The Google Effect.  The Google Effect is the tendency to forget information that can be found readily online by using Internet search engines such as Google. In The Google Effect, people are less likely to remember certain details they believe will be accessible online which may introduce a level of indifferences in opinions on whether or not it is helpful or harmful.