My 9 year old daughter and I were doing some research together for her school project. She asked how we looked things up before the internet. I told her we went to the library and hoped there was a book there that answered the question. But mostly, when we didn't know something, we just lived without knowing it. I know she thinks we were all idiots back then because we didn't have the whole sum of human knowledge available immediately in our homes.
I don't know how we did it either. If my internet connection goes down for a few hours, I'm lost.
Maintenanceguy,
An interesting point you raise.
I think the Internet has made us lazy in that respect, that is however only my opinion, I still frequent my local library and you can tell by the sheer lack of people in there, the effect that the Net has had on libraries.
Sure it is good to have information at your finger-tips, but there are also a lot of things on the internet that they make you buy, that a library should have.
Take for instance, I was looking for a service manual for my Honda CR-V a few months ago, to find out where all the lubrication points on it are.
I found a LOT of sites that wanted to sell me a service manual, but nothing in the way of one on-line.
(Which is fair enough, that would be a breach of copy-right)
So to the local library I drove, found the Auto section, got the actual manual for my vehicle out on loan for 2 weeks, I read it from cover to cover twice.
However, I do have a problem with kids using places like Google to do thier homework, being able to comprehend what you are reading, is a very important skill that everyone must learn.
There will be kids around that will copy something rote from a web-site and submit it as thier answer, without actually understanding what it is that they are putting down on paper, that is a real shame.
One thing I will say though Maintenanceguy,
A big thumbs up for being involved with your childs education, there are a LOT of kids out there that don't have the help of an older, wiser person.
