Burton, Jonathan. “E-learning: Hooray for Google.” Work Based Learning in Primary Care (2005): 351-4.
Summary The article “E-learning: Hooray for Google” discusses both the good aspects and the bad aspects of Google, a popular search engine. Google, whose motto is ‘do no evil,’ is widely used by people throughout the U.S. and UK to find information or research on various topics. Many healthcare physicians including doctors, nurses, and general practitioners in addition to patients, themselves, find Google to be extremely helpful in determining what disease or illness a person may have and the necessary steps that need to be taken in order to cure it. However, the article also describes how Google can be unreliable and not trustworthy. Also the author described Google as being “muddled and jumbled up” and only helpful if used properly. In order to stop the inefficiency of this search engine, the author states that people should be trained in order to discern which websites on Google are actually reliable.
Importance This article is important for various reasons. One reason why it is important is because it shows how Google can prove to be helpful in real life situations. For example, the article describes how a lady had a baby who was born with an odd birthmark covering the baby’s eye. Initially, the doctors did not have an explanation for the birthmark, so the lady took it upon herself to Google the word “birthmark.” Instantly, she found various websites that, in the end, helped save the baby’s life. In addition, another reason this article is important is because it makes people aware of the fact that although Google can be helpful for some people, some sites are unreliable and provide information that could easily misguide someone.
Connections This article is similar to many of the articles and ideas we have studied in class. In the passed few weeks we have discussed various articles and stories concerning issues with the Internet and the reliability of websites. For example, various people in class brought up the fact that Wikipedia, like Google, allows anyone to type in a subject and search for absolutely anything. However, the information that Wikipedia presents is not reliable because anyone, whether they have credentials or not, can change, delete, or add information to Wikipedia. Similarly, Google provides various websites for web users when they search for a certain topic. However, unless a person is trained to decipher a good website from a bad website, it is almost impossible for an average person to know whether the information they are reading is factual or just someone’s random ideas or opinions.
Supporting Source
This article could be used as support for my argument that Google does not always provide reliable websites. First I could use examples from the article to explain why one side of the population thinks that Google is an efficient website that provides good information. Then I could refute this using further examples from the text that demonstrate that the way in which Google presents information is inefficient. I could further use this article to help explain that there is nothing on the Google search engine that notifies the web user of the reliability of the website. Because of these minor flaws in the Internet, many people could end up having huge misunderstandings between what information is truthful and what information is untruthful.
Argumentative Source
If I had to critique this author’s argument I would bring up the fact that the author only takes into account the actions of the general practitioners and health care physicians. The author spends much time proclaiming that Google is extremely helpful for both doctors and patients because it helps them to be prepared for what they are going to tell the patient or ask the doctor. However, the author does not ever talk about people’s opinions towards Google who are not doctors or nurses. Giving more examples of people besides practitioners might strengthen the author’s argument. Furthermore, the author seems to place more importance and reliability on Google than medical textbooks or dictionaries. I find this hard to believe simply because of the fact that websites to not always contain the same factual, reliable information that textbooks possess.
Proper MLA CitationThis source is classified as an Online Article. The proper citation is:
Wolfsberg, Jeffrey S. “Student Safety from Cyberbullies, in Chat Rooms, and in Instant Messaging.” Education Digest Oct., 2006: 33-37. EBSCOhost. University of Southern Mississippi, Hattiesburg. 7 Mar. 2007 <
http://web.ebscohost.com/ehost/>
Summary This article is about the dangers of online predators and ways to make kids’ online habits safer. In the beginning of the article the author discusses how kids are now taking bullying to another level by not only being mean to kids on the playground but by also bullying kids through the use of internet. There are two main categories in which the author explains people are taking advantage of in order to intimidate others: chat rooms and instant messaging. The author then goes on to explain various steps that teens, parents, and school administrators can take in order to regulate and stop bullying on the Internet. For example, kids should not reveal personal information about themselves to people they do not know. In addition, they should use non-descriptive or general user names. Furthermore, parents should monitors the child’s activities on the computer, and teachers and principals should penalize students who bully other students online.
Importance This article is important because it makes people aware of the risks of online predators. Although many parents are well aware of everything their child does, some parents are quite naïve and ignorant of the new technology children use on computers. By reading this article, parents can become extremely informed as to how bullying can occur over the Internet and how they can put an end to it. One idea that I thought was important was the fact that schools play a major role in monitoring internet bulling and can even penalize students for this just as they would for kids who bully others on the playground. This could surely help lessen the threat of kids being caught verbally abused or caught in the trap of a shady, online predator.
Connections This article is similar to many of the topics we have discussed in class. For example, there were various articles we had to read throughout our textbook that explained how blogs could be a bad way for students to communicate with others. Although many people use blogs to just post what is on their mind, there has been a common trend lately of students, especially girls, using blogs to verbally abuse, slander, and bully other students. These exact occurrences were also brought up in this article, except with the use of chat rooms and instant messaging.
Supporting Source
This article could be used for support of my argument that online bullying is an apparent problem among students. The article provides much support and numerous ways to put an end to the problem. By using the information from this article, I can explain how bullying can occur both in chat rooms and through instant messaging and how parents can prove the bullying is occurring by printing and keeping a record of any abnormal conversations their children may have with predators.
Argumentative Source Overall, I thought this was an extremely informative article that provided countless ways in which to solve the problem of cyber bullying. However, I thought the article would have been better if he provided specific examples conversations children have had with strangers online to demonstrate just how easy it is for a child to be bullied or sucked into the trap of an online predator. I also thought that providing more examples would have made the article a bit more interesting and would have lessened the monotony of the lists of rules to avoid online bullying.
