Critical thinking critical: Educators

US school administrators are at least as concerned about information literacy as about online safety for their Web-researching students, a new study found. "Four out of five (79%) school principals and administrators see danger for students on the Internet increasing, and commercial and pay sites rank as their greatest concern," said the press release from tech education company Thinkronize, which commissioned the study. "When asked to rate the specific types of dangers facing students on the Internet, 61% of survey respondents said pornography and 58% said adult predators were a great or significant danger. Concern over getting useless or irrelevant results when using search engines was also high at 59%. The issue rated highest, however, at 76% was concern over unauthorized redirection to commercial or pay sites when conducting online research." A tech educator in Sacramento quoted in the release said she's worried about the 50,000 students in her district being "bombarded by inappropriate ads in the one place that should be all about learning" – as well as the distraction and time waste these irrelevant sites represent.