Googleable Questions

Recently, I had my college class of future teachers creating products to use in their class with Google Apps for Education and other cool Google tools. Some created instructional activities while some created learning products. Some students had made the comment that Google Forms allow students to take the quiz or assessment at any time - better fitting the needs of the class and the students. Throughout the activities, the common question, was "well, can't a student just Google that answer or use Google to find the answer" while completing that Google Form? Well, yes they can. However, if a student can just Google the answer to a question, is it really a worthwhile question? My answer is no.

If we go back to Bloom's Taxonomy and review the levels of understanding and questioning, simple recall and search and find answers are lower on the spectrum. Students need to be able to synthesize, analyze, evaluate, and create. None of those skills should be able to be answered through a Google Search. So, when teachers or future teachers worry that answers can be found online, I say, "great!" That means they need to reformulate their questions and make them work the higher order thinking skills on Bloom's Taxonomy.

What do you think? Have you encountered this line of thought before - fear of using online materials because students can "Google" the answer?