Education and the Internet for Dummies

We didn't spend much time around WritEdge.com or its sister site, DailyTwoCents.com, mostly because the overwhelming amount of advertising made both sites almost impossible to read. We did get by every once in a while, though, and on one trip one of our researchers came across a marvelous example of dumbassery. It was written by someone who called herself LivelyAurora, and was entitled "Internet vs. School."¹ We'll be honest: it's pretty much the quality you'd expect from someone who brags, "Im [sic] just a random nomad writer. I can write an 700-word article in 15 minutes!"

We don't think her name is Aurora Lively, we suspect she just uses that name because it's her favorite brand of lip gloss. Whatever the case, her writing style suggests that she's too young to sign a contract and probably shouldn't be collecting cash from WritEdge or Wikinut, where she also blathers incessantly. "Blathers?" you ask? well feast your eyes on this:

"Both of these teach knowledge, and can teach us things in the real world. This article explains which side is actually better. Do you believe that kids should take notes and do work on paper? Or digitally, where all they have to do is type it all out? I would definitely prefer the internet, but there is one thing that I will do this time. Instead of making it all about how the internet is better, it will go for both sides. Are you ready for your eyes to feast on information?"

Yeah, that's Aurora's introduction, which suggests that she didn't quite comprehend the difference between the internet and keyboarding. We were taken aback, however, to learn that anyone who has spent even the barest time in front of a qualified educator would claim that

"The Internet, like I said all that it requires is typing. When you have to do research for projects, the information is in that gigantic space of info. This makes handwriting no longer a problem, and when doing computer-made tests, all you need to do is click A, B, C, or D."

For the moment, we'll ignore Lively's conflation of keyboards and the internet – for now, let's look at the assumption that "When you have to do research for projects, the information is in that gigantic space of info": not only does that suck grammatically, it suggests that Aurora buys into the sarcastic meme that, "It's on the internet so it must be true." As we've learned – so many times – since the beginning of the 2016 election cycle, making that assumption leads to disaster. When Aurora finally gets around to the end of those 700 words written in fifteen minutes (stream of consciousness from a fifteen-year-old's brain is frightening toread!), she comes to this conclusion:

"The main reason I actually picked the internet, because if you search up about something, they easily give you straight-forward [sic] answers."

Oh, sure, Lively – in case you haven't noticed, we have no problem whatsoever coming up with at least one answer every day that isn't straightforward, but is stupid, dangerous, wrong, or all of the above (sadly, some of those answers are given by teachers). But we think anyone who depends on the internet for "education" is definitely fooling him- or her-self, just like our Dumbass of the Day.

¹ This website is now defunct, but you can still see the post using the Wayback machine at archive.org. Its URL was   writedge.com/internet-vs-school/

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DD - EDUCATION