callivert - 6:31 pm on May 24, 2007 (gmt 0)

I'm an academic, and I'd argue that the problem is with the universities, not with Google.

I'm an academic too, and I don't agree. That's like saying that MFA sites are Google's fault.
The simple fact is that Universities are being gamed by new technology and ruthless players.

submitted work should be just the start of the evaluation process. Students should then have to defend (in person, without notes) the facts and opinions they offer in their work.

The problem is that such a system favors people with good presentation skills. Pity the introverts if we go that route.

Thirty years ago, you had to know the material to get through the course. Now you have to know how to operate a credit card.
The Universities have been blindsided by technological change. And, being universities (that is, lumbering bureaucracies), they have been slow to respond. I really believe that they have not grasped how serious this situation is for them. Their "brand" is under serious threat.

Certainly, the way forward is through improved methods of assessment. However, time-intensive low-tech solutions such as those mentioned earlier are not feasible for the same reason they were never widely adopted in the first place: they are simply too expensive. (or if you like, they are too time-intensive, which amounts to the same thing).
The salvation of the Universities may lie in the same technology that threatens to destroy them. There needs to be investment in developing sophisticated new evaluation methods that are not easily gamed.