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?<\/p>\n
“Knowing” will always be important, especially when combined with experience.\u00a0 I wouldn’t want to cross a bridge designed by someone who learned finite element analysis by reading Wikipedia.<\/p>\n
But “finding” is an increasingly important skill, and we largely just assume people figure it out.\u00a0\u00a0 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”.\u00a0 Others are adept at tweaking:\u00a0 quoting key phrases, negating words to omit unwanted categories of results, doing site-specific searches, etc.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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.\u00a0 I wouldn’t want to cross a … Continue reading