The other day I was "fixing" my uncles computer (he doesn't want to have to login) when my sister called me. "How do I hit enter to make two lines in a cell in Google Sheets? It just keeps moving me to the next cell."
"Did you Google it?" I asked her, because I Google everything. The printer problem? Googled it. Setting up Windows 10 so my uncle didn't have to login? Googled it.
"That's what I have you for," she replied. And so I took to Google and searched "how to force a line break in a cell in Google Sheets" and send her my findings. She was grateful. She had tried the help feature, but when you don't know exactly what it is you want to do, it's not always, well, helpful.
There is a world of thought out there that Google is making us dumber. "Kids these days don't need to learn nuthin cuz they can just Google it." Well of course they can. But it's not as simple as it sounds. You have to know what you are looking for. My sister could have typed "How do I hit enter to make two lines in a cell in Google Sheets" into the Google search bar, and she may have even found what she was looking for. But using the words "line break", as opposed to "page break", gets better results.
I completely disagree that Google is the cause for lazy brains. I actually believe the opposite. No longer do we have to pour over facts, numbers, dates, or formulas, memorizing information to regurgitate it later. Instead, we can spend our time creating, analyzing, thinking, and doing.
Instead of taking the time to learns things, we can spend time learning how to do things.
In school we learn how to add, multiply and divide fractions, but we rarely learn to understand fractions. And even rarer is the use of fractions for the purpose of creating. We are giving students information that they can find on their own.
Because of Google and Youtube (which is owned by Google, actually Google is owned by the parent company Alphabet, Inc., which I found out by googling it) we don't have the study all of the names of all of the parts to be able to fix something.
Google has given me the confidence to fix computers, cars, sinks, my niece's tantrums. I am smarter because of Google. I can easily find expert information and explore countries around the world. Not only that, when I have a wonder, I can Google it, which makes me wonder more!
Like with everything, it has to be taught how to be used. I am better at Googling that most of my family. Instead of shying away from using Google in classrooms, we should teach our students how to find the answers to their questions. That is the their questions, what they want to know, not the questions we pose to them for the sake of the final exam looming at the end of the marking period.
Google is not our foe; Google is our friend. Our much smarter, older friend who can answer questions, give advice, and show you how to do practically anything.
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