Don Tapscott, author of Wikinomics and Growing up Digital, says that Education as we know it is going to change. With almost instantaneous access to facts and figures via sites like Wikipedia, Tapscott says that there will be less influence on the ability to actually memorise reams of facts and figures, since they are only ever a few mouse clicks away. This does not mean a shy away from Education at all, Instead, students should be taught to think creatively and better understand the knowledge that’s available.

I would have to agree with him here. I was never much for education, I’m not much of a studier and got pretty average exams results. However the Internet definitely grew my quest for Knowledge. I often find myself researching the most bizarre of topics on Wikipeida, and if I hear about something I do not know or understand, I’ll usually be Googling it within seconds. To me this sounds far more sensible than what I remember from my early education of transcribing pages of history books or learning poems that I had forgotten soon after.

Teach kids how to learn, and how best to do it. Leave it up to them what topics they choose to persue.

Follow