Exactly. You got it all right.
The syllabus is some 5 year old thingy which still projects and teaches HTTP and Charles Babbage and stuff. Bah!!

Why the hell dont they instruct PHP, WP theme designing, Graphic Design, CSS, jQuery and stuff !!!

First of all, let me confess that I do use Google and Wikipedia a lot. Whenever I need to know about something, I quickly search in these sites and I really learned a lot of new things.
And I do agree with you about the syllabus issues. Its way too old…

BUT…….

I have some disagreements with the use of Google and Wikipedia in schools. There are lot of things to say, but I will include few links which describes what I have to say.

Wikipedia contains lots of wrong information. Take the case of our malayalam poet Kadammanitta. The page about him contained many WRONG poems of him (few of them contained even sexy words). Now the page has changed. When he died, Kairali TV used wikipedia to get info about him and the stupid reporter (a lady) used many wrong poems from him. It was broadcasted on tv but very soon the changed it.

Check the old kadammanitta site at http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Kadammanitta_Ramakrishnan&oldid=198344875 and see the list of his main works. SHOCKED?

Some other sites to refer:

http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200807/google

http://www.theargus.co.uk/news/1961862.lecturer_bans_students_from_using_google_and_wikipedia/

After reading above links, pls comment.

Education is what remains after one has forgotten everything he learned in school.
- Albert Einstein

Not even textbooks are accurate these days. Can we claim that our history text books present events exactly as they were ?

Wikipedia might contain wrong information, and thats were teachers can come in and help.

And I dont think google is crippling us. Tools have always helped us to grow and scale new heights. Google is changing the way we learning. Learning is shifting from the knowledge domain to the search domain.

Some of my teachers is too poor in some aspects as compered to the students. Even we have an incident when one of my friends corrected a teacher in her c programming class, she left the class crying, and followed by a big issue from the side of the teachers.

I think the internet is a really useful tool. When I had to learn about the working of 2-stroke and 4-stroke engines, I understood it without a hitch, being already informed thanks to the excellent animations from howstuffworks. Also mainstream media is now in a dizzy rat race. So where do I ge honest movie reviews, and news about things that matter to me? Am I supposed follow only TV and newspapers since they are the media my parents approve of?

Yeah, some of the internet generation are also careless about the internet. See all those news items about jilted lovers creating fake profiles of their exes and sending threatening messages to others. Also I search for online communities of my college in orkut and i see hate communities for my college. These communities feature open bashing of teachers and the authorities. The perps may have long forgotten about their irresponsible online behaviour, but its just a matter of time till their teachers and (horrors!) employers are able to log into the conversation. That may include commenter #4 too. Yea google may soon be able to answer the question ” what does X think about his teachers ” with relavent quotes!

Some teachers from my former school and current college actually discourage internet use. My parents also follow the advice religiously. They consider stuff like reading blogs and using social networking as a waste of time. I blame all the cybercrime news as well as “the evils of the internet” artivles for this. All the generations should see the internet as more than an anonymous free-for-all and see how to make the most out of the internet.

@Kenney

textbooks contain wrong info.. wikipedia contains wrong info… so how to know the real facts? Its only by THINKING. We should train our brain to think in all possibles ways.

Google and Wikipedia should only be learning TOOLS. I have seen people (including myself) depending entirely on these sites. Even for very basic info, we tend to look in these sites. So first we should think ourselves for finding infos and solutions. And later learn more with the help of these sites. I hope u got what i mean. Its a good tool but use it properly. And I believe kids should think more to train their brain.

Suppose I need to create a program is a particular language. I can google for sample source codes to create one. But would you suggest that? The best way is to analyze the requirements and use our own logic to create one. At one time we may be stuck and we will try our best to solve. If failed, we can google it for more help. In this case, we used our brain and also we learned new thing (by getting a new solution for where we were stuck).

So let the kids learn by themselves first. Don’t make them addicted to google

@Saju

Its true, even I have seen similar teachers. One of my teacher made a similar mistake in class. Later I met him personally and pointed out his mistake. He thanked me and later corrected his mistake in class. We still are good friends. Teachers are humans only and is prone to error. When they make mistakes, we should point it out only without hurting them. May be personally. Recent teachers are very youngsters and they dont have enough maturity. I was very scared of my maths teacher. He was very strict and we were scared to attend his classes. But later only I realized that how much positively he influenced my life. I didnt mean that teachers should scare students I just told my my experience…..and yeah, teachers should realize that they too can make a mistake. and should accept it when someone points it out.

I never said students shouldnt think for themselves. All I asked is that these tools be not hated !!!

and I forgot to tell….. dont think that I am against internet and all (if so I won’t be reading this blog). What I mean is use is as a tool. Don’t entirely depend on it. As jesvin said..he was able to understand engines. and i use howstuffworks.com a lot too.

we are on the same boat kenney.. but may be on opposite ends..:)

yeah, no one should hate these tools. and we also should encourage kids to think for themselves. whenever we want to know about something, the very next step should not be searching google.

Dismissed for creating a poll?

Whatever happened to freedom of speech?

Kenney, searching google and using wiki might work for school students. But I dont think it will do good in professional education, in higher studies as well.

In my uni, we are not adviced to use google and wiki, saying these are not professionals stuffs. In a sense that is true, we are having a wide network of resources, including hundreds of libraries and research centers which offers much more credible resources than google and wiki. The resource can be a teacher, a book or anything which can guide to a particular goal. The problem in Indian education i had in my college life is lack of personal freedom, free thought and resources.