Julie Ayroles (March 2018), De la spécificité et de la complexité de la recherche d’information sur internet (On the specific nature and complexity of searching for information on the internet)
https://www.reseau-canope.fr/agence-des-usages/de-la-specificite-et-de-la-complexite-de-la-recherche-dinformation-sur-internet.html
Julie Ayroles, a doctoral student in cognitive psychology (CeRCA and Réseau Canopé), examines what is specific about searching for information on the internet, drawing on national and international scientific studies.
The internet and new digital technologies add factors of their own that tend to make searching for information more complex. To understand this activity properly, the author points out that reading activities fall into two categories: “Reading comprehension, used when we read a text from beginning to end for the sole purpose of decoding it and understanding its meaning; and functional reading in a goal-oriented situation, that is, reading done for a specific purpose, which therefore requires strategies suited to an effective search for information.” The latter relies on different cognitive factors that require “the acquisition of skills of its own and the development of suitable strategies”. And this necessary distinction will make it easier to understand and take into account information searching in students’ learning.
Julie Ayroles draws on numerous studies in cognitive psychology to clearly distinguish between searching for information in a “traditional text medium” and “searching for information on the internet”. Students need to acquire particular skills, such as synthesising information, critically evaluating information, planning, thoughtfully selecting the links offered by a search engine, locating relevant information, choosing keywords and their syntax carefully for an effective search, and using and knowing how a search engine works…
This article makes us reflect on the educational questions raised by the growing use and development of the internet and digital technologies in classrooms.
CDB
Cécile Dolbeau-Bandin, ATER (temporary teaching and research fellow) in section 71 at the University of Caen, is a researcher at CERReV