If you extrapolate to a future where all information is on-line, how important is “knowing” vs having the ability to find what you need?

“Knowing” will always be important, especially when combined with experience.  I wouldn’t want to cross a bridge designed by someone who learned finite element analysis by reading Wikipedia.

But “finding” is an increasingly important skill, and we largely just assume people figure it out.   But when I watch people use Google (or other search engines), I see a huge range of skill — some search, go through page and page of results, and declare “I can’t find it”.  Others are adept at tweaking:  quoting key phrases, negating words to omit unwanted categories of results, doing site-specific searches, etc.

I think we need to start teaching the skill, and I’m noodling on the idea of teaching a short class (1-2 hours) on how to search with Google.