Child Crafting

Traditional Encyclopedia VS The Internet

Many people suggest that traditional encyclopedias are now obsolete in the presence of the Internet. It is true that the Internet has potentially much more information than any encyclopedia, and its presentation is not just limited to text. Sounds and videos can produce precise and accurate impressions of various matters. Retrieval of data is quick and convenient with the help of search engines, instead of lengthy research through mountains of books. However, the knowledge empowering Internet has its drawbacks, especially when it comes to education and young learners.

1. Loss of focus and reading impairment

The ease of access to the information available on the net has resulted in a significant reduction in our ability to focus for long periods of time, a vital skill when absorbing long articles and learning new concepts. Being a major key to knowledge, the decline in reading focus results in great adverse effects on learning.

A recently published study of online research habits , conducted by scholars from University College London, suggests that we may well be in the midst of a sea change in the way we read and think. As part of the five-year research program, the scholars examined computer logs documenting the behavior of visitors to two popular research sites, one operated by the British Library and one by a U.K. educational consortium, that provide access to journal articles, e-books, and other sources of written information. They found that people using the sites exhibited “a form of skimming activity,” hopping from one source to another and rarely returning to any source they’d already visited. They typically read no more than one or two pages of an article or book before they would “bounce” out to another site. Sometimes they’d save a long article, but there’s no evidence that they ever went back and actually read it. The authors of the study report:

It is clear that users online in the traditional sense; indeed there are signs that new forms of “reading” are emerging as users “power browse” horizontally through titles, contents pages and abstracts going for quick wins. It almost seems that they go online to avoid reading in the traditional sense.re not reading

Thanks to the ubiquity of text on the Internet, not to mention the popularity of text-messaging on cell phones, we may well be reading more today than we did in the 1970s or 1980s, when television was our medium of choice. But it’s a different kind of reading, and behind it lies a different kind of thinking-perhaps even a new sense of the self. “We are not only what we read,” says Maryanne Wolf, a developmental psychologist at Tufts University and the author of Proust and the Squid: The Story and Science of the Reading Brain. “We are how we read.” Wolf worries that the style of reading promoted by the Net, a style that puts “efficiency” and “immediacy” above all else, may be weakening our capacity for the kind of deep reading that emerged when an earlier technology, the printing press, made long and complex works of prose commonplace. When we read online, she says, we tend to become “mere decoders of information.” Our ability to interpret text, to make the rich mental connections that form when we read deeply and without distraction, remains largely disengaged.
It is clear that users are not reading online in the traditional sense; indeed there are signs that new forms of “reading” are emerging as users “power browse” horizontally through titles, contents pages and abstracts going for quick wins. It almost seems that they go online to avoid reading in the traditional sense.

- Excerpt from “Is Google Making Us Stupid” by Nicholas Carr  
(theatlantic.com/doc/200807/google)

The very nature of how information is presented to us on the web has various implications to our reading behavior.

In a research study, although people spend more time on pages with more words and more information, they only spend 4.4 seconds more for each additional 100 words. By calculating reading rates, they concluded that when you add more verbiage to a page, people will only read 18% of it. On an average visit, users read half the information only on those pages with 111 words or less. Also, people spend some of their time understanding the page layout and navigation features, as well as looking at the images. People don’t read during every single second of a page visit. On average, users will have time to read 28% of the words if they devote all of their time to reading. More realistically, users will read about 20% of the text on the average page. 

- Excerpt from “The Stats Are In: You’re Just Skimming This Article” by Sarah Perez   
(http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/the_stats_are_in_youre_just_skimming
_this_article.php)

Reading books are still the best ways to cultivate focus and patience. A child will be able to acquire more than the information he/she was looking for during the looking up and reading of the articles in encyclopedias.

2. Inaccuracies and undiscriminating of information

Anyone can upload information to the Internet, regardless of the integrity of the data. Indeed, the Internet can be a valuable extension to information collection, but it being mammoth in scale, unordered, and mainly unchecked calls for discernment.

WIKIPEDIA and other online research sources were yesterday blamed for Scotland’s falling exam pass rates.

 

The Scottish Parent Teacher Council (SPTC) said pupils are turning to websites and Internet resources that contain inaccurate or deliberately misleading information before passing it off as their own work.

The group singled out online encyclopedia Wikipedia, which allows entries to be logged or updated by anyone and is not verified by researchers, as the main source of information.

 

Eleanor Coner, the SPTC’s information officer, said: “Children are very IT-savvy, but they are rubbish at researching. The sad fact is most children these days use libraries for computers, not the books. We accept that as a sign of the times, but schools must teach pupils not to believe everything they read.

 

“It’s dangerous when the Internet is littered with opinion and inaccurate information which could be taken as fact.”

 

- Excerpt from “Falling exam passes blamed on Wikipedia ‘littered with inaccuracies’ ” by Martyn McLaughlin, The Scotsman   
(http://news.scotsman.com/education/Falling-exam–passes-blamed.4209408.jp)

 

It would be a tall order, but parents around the world may want to make every effort to keep their kids away from Wikipedia.com, the enormously popular, user-generated online encyclopedia.  While doing homework, research for term papers, or for just plain fun, millions of kids visit Wikipedia every day.  That’s why parents may be alarmed to learn that, as recently exposed by WorldNetDaily.com, Wikipedia features hundreds, if not thousands, of hardcore pornographic images and online sex videos, making them easily accessible to children. 

 

- Excerpt from “Wikipedia Peddles Porn to Kids” from CWA   
(http://www.cwfa.org/articles/15167/MEDIA/pornography/index.htm)

 

3. Research skills depreciated

A Google query may or may not lead to valuable resources online, but many students today are unable to discern legitimacy. Online information is taken as true, without any cross reference or further enquiry by the user.

Pressure from Queen’s Park to increase high school graduation rates has led to a generation of “Wikipedia kids” who are not prepared for university, a survey of professors and librarians has concluded.

Students are immature, they rely too heavily on Internet tools such as Wikipedia as research sources, they fail to learn independently and they expect success without putting in the effort, said respondents to the survey by the Ontario Confederation of University Faculty Associations.

- Excerpt from ” ‘Wikipedia kids’ ill-prepared for university” by Joanne Laucius, The Ottawa CitizenApril 8, 2009   
(http://www.ottawacitizen.com/News/Wikipedia+kids+prepared+university+professors/
1475293/story.html)

Furthermore, the option of “copy and paste” has resulted in prevalent cases of plagiarism in the student’s work, and independent writing is compromised.

Encyclopedias and other books promotes the value of  research in a child by cultivating their focus during the reading of long articles, and introducing the written books as another great source of knowledge, instead of just relying on the Internet. According to the national Teachers Association, encouraging children to use encyclopedias also teaches them invaluable research skills and helps in learning how to spell. The logic is that if a student is looking up the information they have to have an idea about how to spell it, how to research it and then what to do with the information. Once the skills of research are learnt, they will be able to apply it to their education, regardless of the research medium.

When a child with a cultivated reading habit is presented with an encyclopedia, the doors of knowledge are opened to him/her. Besides being a faster and better reader, information processing and formation of thoughts will be improved.

In elementary school Bill Gates quickly surpassed all of his peer’s abilities in nearly all subjects, especially math and science. He read the World Book Encyclopedia from A to Z by the time he was nine years old. He was so far ahead…

- Source from “The Road Ahead” by Bill Gates

What makes a Great Encyclopedia

The following is excerpted from a speech given by encyclopedia reviewing critic Ken Kister, a writer, librarian, educator and author, one of the most respected reviewers of encyclopedias in the world.

I hardly need to tell you that encyclopedias are the lifeblood of any reference collection - whether in the home or library or classroom or office. It is good to come together on occasions like this to remind ourselves that, as your conference theme suggests, Encyclopedias Do Change Lives.

That is exactly right! Over the years I have talked with or heard about numerous people who in later life recall how an encyclopedia was instrumental in their early intellectual development.

The late C.P. Snow, the famous British scientist and novelist, often told the story of how, at age 8, he read about the atom in a children’s encyclopedia. It was “the first sharp mental excitement I ever had,” he said. This profound early experience set Snow, a poor working class boy, on a path to a grammar school education, a university degree, and eventually an illustrious career in the top circles of science, government and literature. Suffice it to say that an encyclopedia helped change his life.

But here is the rub. Not all encyclopedias have what it takes to change lives. Let’s face it, some encyclopedias have trouble just delivering the basic facts in a readable manner. Some encyclopedias are about as exciting as leftovers.

In order to turn people of any age on to the thrill and rewards of learning, an encyclopedia must do more than simply record facts accurately and intelligibly. It must consistently meet the highest editorial and production standards. Every page, every article, must offer the reader the potential for that “sharp, mental excitement” C.P. Snow recalled so vividly.

Which brings me to my basic question: What makes a great encyclopedia? Herewith are my thoughts on the matter and I’ll immodestly call them KISTER’S TEN HALLMARKS OF A GREAT ENCYCLOPEDIA:

1.  To be great or outstanding, an encyclopedia requires exceptionally talented and dedicated people. Over the years World Book has been blessed by enlightened ownership and innovative editors.

2.  A great encyclopedia should provide both broad and deep coverage of the world’s basic knowledge. It is here that mediocre encyclopedias and their makers are overwhelmed. The great ones like World Book accomplish this difficult editorial work confidently and expertly.

3.  My third hallmark of a great encyclopedia is reliability. Not surprisingly, World Book passes the reliability test with flying colours.

4.  A great encyclopedia must be clearly and interestingly written, as well as comprehensible to its intended readership. World Book offers its users a high degree of clarity and an extraordinary broad readability range, from elementary school students to educated adults.

5.  A great encyclopedia must be up-to-date and well maintained - meaning that it is conscientiously revised on a regular basis to keep abreast of the world’s burgeoning knowledge and information. I know of no encyclopedia with a better record over the years on continuous revision other than World Book.

6.  It must present its material in a fair and impartial manner. Here again World Book is up to the mark. For instance, the article “Fluoridation” concludes with a paragraph labelled “Controversies over Fluoridation,” which briefly discusses both sides of the question of putting fluoride into the public water supply.

7.  The encyclopedia should include both informative and aesthetically pleasing illustrations and maps. From the beginning, World Book has been an industry leader in the area of quality illustrations, including colour reproduction when it was introduced in the 1930s.

8.   A great encyclopedia must be organised in such a way that it is convenient to use and readers can quickly and easily retrieve even the most specific bits of information from the text. With its more than 100,00 cross-references, and its detailed analytical index, World Book is among the most user friendly encyclopedias currently on the market.

9.   A great encyclopedia must have an inviting and well constructed physical format. I apologise for sounding like a broken record, but again World Book passes the greatness test with ease as far as physical form is concerned.

10.My tenth and final hallmark of a great encyclopedia is that it must possess all of the other nine hallmarks. Only when an encyclopedia passes all of the tests can it be considered great.

- Source (www.worldbook.com.sg)

Part 1

Part 2