I don't care if they know what a simple machine is they can google it!

I once had a head teacher who in no uncertain terms stated (quite loudly I might add) that he did not care if the students knew what a simple machine was, they can google it but that they must understand the concepts.

I liked this comment when I first heard it 3 years ago. Even before I embarked on my masters. The reason I liked it was it is similar to my mind set. I don't know something, I will google it to find out. I don't like not knowing but as long as I can find the answer when I want it I am happy in my ignorance. But now I am rethinking this comment made so long ago. Is the answer really to google it? and more importantly do the students have the skills to google it effectively?

When addressing the first I would argue that it would depend on the question. Did I need to know how to get to AlKhor or am I finding the causes of the first world war? For some questions googling it is sufficient but then you also have to look at the reliability of the information and the source it is coming from, also you need to consider what you will do with the answer and the consequences of being misinformed. So I would say yes googling it was fine as long as the student could evaluate their results and knew other channels to follow if they failed to find a sufficient answer.

The answer to the second question I have come to realise is a no. At that particular school they didn't possess the skills to google effectively. The librarian did nothing, there was no information literacy. I taught 4th grade and we could give an assignment and moan about how they had just printed reems of paper they couldn't read and sat there blaming the teachers in the year before. In hindsight we should have been teaching them the skills they needed. We should have identified their misconceptions and then worked to correct them. The second year efforts were made to address the problem. We liased with the computer teacher to teach the students boolean searches but then for some reason it never occurred to the team to speak with the librarian. Now the question is, was that our fault or was it hers that we did not see her as the go to person and the first port of call??

Needless to say I am trying to teach my current class the concepts and give them the skills so that when they want to know what a simple machine is they really can google it!