EVEN in the digital age there are no short cuts to learning.

Thanks to the power of the internet we may easily be able to lay our hands on facts and figures - and boundless trivia - but that does not equate to the useful acquisition of knowledge.

That applies especially to today's youngsters, often disparagingly referred to as "the Google generation". They may look as if they are know-it-all technological whizzkids - but appearances can be deceptive.

According to senior research scientist Dr Dan Russell, it is a myth that children are necessarily more computer literate than their parents - they can be fluid and fast when playing a game of Minecraft, for example, but that is largely down to practice. Their field of expertise can be extremely narrow.

More importantly, there is the danger that youngsters can easily cut and paste information for a homework assignment, without having used the research skills older generations had to painfully and assiduously acquire.

As with most things in the classroom, the answer is to be found in the skill of the teacher. Even in computer science, the art of the educator is king.