Has google taught you more than school ?

[pkm]

I'm sure a lot of us now days run to Google when we need things answered and usually get the answer we want, and more as well. Can you say that google has taught you more things than you think? Have you learned what you could never have learned while in school or any other sort of secondary education?

[Sniperwolfes]

No, absolutely not

[Deleted]

Of course, my school was crap with very lazy teachers.

[crunk]

Yes, probably. I'm very much an independent learner with an interest in learning, so I've taught myself a lot of stuff using the internet.


However, it should be said that things like algebra and chemistry I wouldn't have learned without proper schooling, and I was your typical smart-kid-not-reaching-his-potential in high school. I could have learned a lot more than I did if only I had done my goddamn homework.


Also, I'm 27 years old, which is important to know in this question. My total time spent outside of secondary school greatly exceeds my time spent in secondary school.


I do think a day is coming where we will have to reevaluate how we teach our children. Remember how you used to not be able to use your calculators on tests because "you wont always have a calculator"? That just isn't true anymore. In todays world you will always have a calculator. The need to remember a lot of names, dates, the periodic table, etc is going away. The internet is part of our lives now and a vast repository of information - there is no real need to memorize this stuff when the references are so easy to get to.

[Orange Joe]

Well..... google wasn't really there until after I got out of school. So, no.

[Yunru]

Not gogle..but wiki.

[Xkiller9000]

possibly lol

[Deleted]

No, it didn't. But certain parts of the internet have tought me stuff I didn't learn (or didn't bother to learn^^) in school.

Like, my english when I left school wasn't all that good. But reading stuff on the internet (like fanfics) helped improve my english up to a point where I started thinking in english half the time. Another example: I always slept through geography, so playing Uncharted Waters Online helped me with knowing where certain harbor towns and islands are and stuff

[Noomz]

I'm sure a lot of us now days run to Google when we need things answered and usually get the answer we want, and more as well. Can you say that google has taught you more things than you think? Have you learned what you could never have learned while in school or any other sort of secondary education?

No. Gaming, reading, great TV shows and youtube has taught me more. Since I've always loved watching science, history and language videos on Youtube.
I learned all my english from gaming and reading. Nowadays I can't even look at a book in my own language.

Gaming also taught me a tremendous amount of history. Since I love the RTS genre, I've ofcourse been exposed to a lot of the epochs and eras that they're often set in and games like Civilization is steeped in history and culture. I learned a tremendous amount from just that.

Much easier to learn too, because it's a lot more fun, at my own pace and in ways that are much easier for me to take in.

[Authary]

No way. You can't go very deep with google.

I learned english quasi-exclusively through games/internet, though.

[Pozz]

Have I gotten more answers on different things from google than I've learnt? Maybe.

Do I remember (ie have I actually learnt the stuff) more from google than teachers/school? Definitely not.

[Tzalix]

Probably not Google by itself, but the internet as a whole combined with video games and other forms of entertainment such as TV, music, and podcasts, have taught me a lot more than school ever did.

[Stir]

School's primary function is to teach children how to learn.

[Deleted]

No, and i went to one of the worst school in the country.

I learned what i know by trial and error and reading books

[Tzalix]

School's primary function is to teach children how to learn.

That's the intended idea, yeah. Sadly, most of todays education doesn't actually focus on that. They instead teach you how to memorize answers that you do not understand.

[Pozz]

That's the intended idea, yeah. Sadly, most of todays education doesn't actually focus on that. They instead teach you how to memorize answers that you do not understand.

Amen.

Also here (in Denmark) each 'level' of education reteach you how you learn, so most of what you did learn is then garbage :P

[thoruga]

That's a very hard question to answer if think deeply.
Has google taught me many things? yes.
Has google taught me things I would never learn in school? yes.
Is it possible I could've learned everything I learned at school from google? no. At the very least school teaches a way of thinking, even the crappiest ones. That's most apparant with something like algebra or calculus. Even important to a degree in more verbal things like literature or philosophy.
Which one taught me more? Things I learned from google feels like so much more, but things I learned at school, mostly things I learned are high school were quite important. But I'm never taught how calculate and compare amount of knowledge.

Simple answer: No.

[Pull My Finger]

Google is a white page, it doesn't teach a thing.

[Kuntantee]

Google can't teach you thing after undergraduate level stuff. Below that point is trivial anyway.

[Waaldo]

School's primary function is to teach children how to learn.

No, schools primary function (at least in America) is to teach you how to pass your state test (FCAT in Florida) and the national tests (SAT/ACT). They don't teach you how to do algebra so you can go into the world and get a job using math. They teach you tricks to help you get answers faster so you can pass the timed test. One thing I would always ask my teacher is how I would use this in a real world application, most of them said you wouldn't or just couldn't give a proper example.

I'd say the majority of my knowledge from when I was younger came from TV shows like the Magic School Bus and Bill Nye the Science Guy and reading books. Now I'm in paramedic school where I am actually taught real world knowledge (SURPRISE! We use algebra! Bigger surprise, most of my class mates can't even do basic math yet all of them graduated from grade school) but i still watch a lot of documentaries and read a lot of books to help me along because that's what I'm used to.

Edit: and yes, I have also learned quite a bit from Google.