80% of Buenos Aires secondary school students use copy-paste - that is, they copy, paste and print - to solve their school tasks, and nine out of ten use the information available in the first link that the Internet search engine returns as a result of their queries. These are two of the several conclusions reached by a study that surveyed 650 students between 15 and 17 years old from public and private schools in Buenos Aires, and which reveals an uncritical use of the web by the majority of adolescents. Another indicator in that direction is that only one in ten kids distinguishes between advertising content and informative content.
"We did the same: we went to the library and copied what the books said. If the kids respond through copy-paste it is because the slogan can be answered that way; the challenge is to formulate slogans that are proof of copying and pasting," reflects Fabio Tarasow, educator and one of the general coordinators of the Education and New Project. Technologies of the Latin American Faculty of Social Sciences. Claudia Romero, director of the Education area at the Torcuato Di Tella University, agrees with him: "For children to be able to make creative use of a tool like the Internet, the instructions must be copy-paste proof; it is not the students' fault if that does not happen. There are capacities, such as creativity, that the use of the Internet cannot develop on its own, and that is where education comes in."
The youth culture specialist Roxana Morduchowicz was the one who coordinated the organized research. by Microsoft, and also maintains that "when the questions point to a specific piece of information, such as the date of a battle or a birth, a thoughtful and creative use of the Internet is not thought of." The study also came to the conclusion that half of the adolescents "believe that everything that appears on the web is true" and that, by limiting themselves to the information provided by a single website, students do not compare the data or find out which source they consulted.
"We must aim for information to be the kickstart for children to build something more complex or creative, something with added value: that is what the construction of digital citizens is about, who can use technology to expand their cognitive abilities," explains Tarasow, adding: "Children make functional use of the computer, it is necessary to develop critical use." One of the ways, this educator maintains, is to articulate the work of school teachers with a specialist in information and communication technologies: "It is a process of several years, but we have to show teachers how to build these critical Internet users. That is the most expensive and least visible part of the plans that distribute computers."
For Romero, one of the ways to explore the sophistication of the use of digital tools is the teaching of programming. "It places students in a different place than the consumer: they are producers," he explains.
According to the survey, 90 percent of kids from lower-income sectors use the Internet to entertain themselves through games, videos and social networks. 90 percent of students from sectors with greater economic resources add schoolwork and watching movies to that use. "In the most popular sectors there is often no connectivity, and so the kids reserve the moments of connection for a use that entertains them," describes Morduchowicz.
Through copy-paste, children manage to meet the standards required of them in schools. "They don't feel it as a trap nor do they question it, with that they approve," says the research coordinator. Specialists expect a paradigm shift, something that does not resemble transcribing a few paragraphs from Billiken, as several generations did.
Updated on: 18/11/2016 00:00:00
Source of Information: Julieta Roffo para Clarín
