Teacherssaythedigitalagehashadagoodinfluence—andanot-so-goodinfluence—onthisgen­erationofAmericanteenagers.Morethan2000middleandhighschoolteacherstookanonlinesurvey.Researchersalsospokewithtea

　　Teacherssaythedigitalagehashadagoodinfluence—andanot-so-goodinfluence—onthisgen­erationofAmericanteenagers.Morethan2000middleandhighschoolteacherstookanonlinesurvey.Researchersalsospokewithteachersinfocusgroups.

　　Three-quartersoftheteacherssaidtheInternetanddigitalsearchtoolshavehada“mostlypositive”effectontheirstudents’researchhabitsandskills.But87percentagreedthatthesetechnologiesarecre­atingan“easilydistracted(分心的）generation”.And64percentsaidthetechnologies“domoretodis­tractstudentsthantohelpthemacademically.”ManystudentsthinkdoingresearchnowmeansjustdoingaquicksearchonGoogle.

　　ThePewInternetProjectdidthesurveywiththeCollegeBoardandtheNationalWritingProject.AmajorityoftheteacherscamefromAdvancedPlacementclasses，whichprovidecollege-levelworkforhighschoolstudents.

　　JudyBuchananisdirectoroftheNationalWritingProjectandaco-authorofthereport.Ms.

　　Buchanansaysdigitalresearchtoolsarehelpingstudentslearnmore，andlearnfaster.

　　“Teachersreallylikethesetoolsbecausetheyarewaystomakesomeoflearningexcitingandengag­ing.Youngpeoplelikethesetools.Andthegoalistoreallyhelpthembecomecreatorsofcontent，andmeaningfulcontent，andnotjustsortofconsumers.”

　　Butoneproblemthesurveyfoundisthatmanystudentsarelackingindigitalliteracy.Inotherwords，theytrusttoomuchoftheinformationtheyfindontheInternet.JudyBuchanansaysthesestudentshavenotdevelopedtheskillstheyneedtojudgethequalityofonlineinformation.

　　“It’sjustalottolearnabouthowtodistinguishauthenticsources.Andit’ssomethingthatreallyhastobetaughtandpaidattentionto.It’slikeeverythingelse—inaworldinwhichthingscanhappenquickly，youreallydoneedtohaveawaytostepback，reflectandanalyzetheinformationyouhave.Andteacherscandoalottoteachthat.，

　　Anotherproblemthesurveyfoundisblamedonsomethingthatmightnotseemlikeaproblematall：beingabletoquicklyfindinformationonline.Teacherssaytheresultisareductioninthedesireandabil­ityoftheirstudentstoworkhardtofindanswers.Th