The Wall Street Journal raised this question in an article June 5:  Does the Internet make you smarter or dumber?

Arguing smarter was Clay Shirky, who points out that those who think the newest thing will make you stupid have been saying that since Gutenberg’s printing press went to work.  What’s happening now is that some of the time we used to spend watching TV is being spent in more creative ways on the Internet, he suggests.

Arguing dumber was Nicholas Carr. Carr argues that the constant distractions and interruptions are turning us into shallow thinkers.  Research shows that people reading text studded with links comprehend less than those reading traditional text.  People watching multimedia presentations remember less than those taking information in using more focus and time. Those juggling many tasks are less creative and productive than those who do one thing at a time. And so on.

How much can you divide your attention and still get positive results? That’s an interesting question that probably is different for each individual. I can tell you that for me, I need to not divide my attention much at all, or I get nothing done.  Even when I think I am accomplishing something, it’s certainly easy to cruise around the Internet looking up stuff and not remember what I “learned” later.

How can we as homeschooling parents guide and guard our kids on this?  I think it’s pretty clear we need to get them to work on one school project at a time, for starters. We can patrol their work areas to make sure they aren’t wasting time while supposedly doing a research project. We can demand creative output, and we can be wary of letting them goof around.  Good Internet habits will include working on one project at a time!