Net results: knowledge, information and learning on the Internet

Abstract

This paper considers the rapid uptake of information technologies in the higher education sector, in particular the increasing use of the Internet as a resource for academic research. It argues that very little fundamental research is currently being undertaken into the consequences of Internet research, and poses some serious questions that may arise unless serious efforts are put into assessing the nature of the process. The paper puts forward arguments indicating that Internetresearched papers in the humanities and social sciences are increasingly devoid of reflexivity and criticality. The author puts forward the argument that in a worstcase scenario, the higher education sector in the developed economies is producing not only a generation of students who lack ‘cultural literacy’ and the problems that arise from this, but over the long-term this will pose serious problems for the functioning of a healthy civic-democratic society.

Voices in the wider society speak of knowledge, breadth, critical reason, freedom and even critical conscience, but voices speak more loudly of skills, impact, standards, accountability and efficiency. (Barnett 2000, p 34)