Brains working towards machine consciousness

 My Godson is two years old.  He can, after a fashion, clothe himself.  He actively searches out new experiences, and tries to learn how to do things.  If he can't figure something out, and if he reckons he won't get into trouble for trying to do whatever it is he is focussing on, he will ask for help.  He doesn't expect, in general, to be spoon-fed, and shows a definite preference for us to respect his independence.

Many undergraduates on the other hand...

Why is it that they don't seem to want to learn? Why is it they have an apparent inability to find even some of the simplest information on the Web, or come to that, in the VLE? (OK, I think I might know the answer to the last bit...).  Why is it that so many of them seem to need to have information fed to them in tiny spoonfuls, and why do they not seem to be willing/able to communicate with each other to collaborate and get some meaningful learning done?  And the collaboration thing - it isn't that they are fearful of being accused of cheating (or at least it shouldn't be) - they have been told to collaborate on this piece of work for the first few weeks.

Some of the undergraduates on this module are great.  And it isn't just those who have prior experience in the subject either - I am very impressed with a number of them from across the ability spectrum present in the group.  The problem, as I see it, is that 'a number' is much smaller than the size of the group, and it is exasperating.

Rant over.