We all know by now that students these days are generally pretty adept at using various forms of technology, whether it’s text messaging and snapping pictures on their cell phones, listening to their iPods, or networking on sites like Facebook and MySpace. But are students really skilled at processing the tons of information out there on the Internet and determining what’s useful versus what’s useless? As Inside Higher Education reports, in a lot of cases, the answer is no:

A new report released Tuesday by the Educational Testing Service finds that students lack many basic skills in information literacy, which ETS defines as the ability to use technology to solve information problems. The original impetus for the study came from librarians and professors who have found that students can use technology for socializing or entertainment but still have problems finding information, evaluating it and then putting it to use, said Irvin Katz, a research scientist with ETS. . . .

Results also show that students might even lack the basics on a search engine like Google. When asked to narrow a search that was too broad, only 35 percent of students selected the correct revision. Further, 80 percent of students put irrelevant points into a slide program designed to persuade an audience.

I think the bottom line here is that all the technology in the world does not change the fact that in order to function well in college today (and in the contemporary globalized society in general), students still need to know basic research skills. These research skills are different from the ability to program addresses into a cell phone or to upload a video to one’s iPod. In other words, it seems as though students still need lots of practice when it comes to analytical and cognitive reasoning abilities.