I think, therefore I know?

The Internet is changing the way the people attain information and learn. In our society gaining a diploma or degree is how we show that we are qualified to do a particular job. In the past this was necessary. You could not go on-line and learn the information on your own. With the growing use of the Internet this is definitely changing. Berkeley has decided to put many of their lectures on YouTube so that the community as a whole has access to the information ( http://youtube.com/ucberkeley ). They are interested in sharing knowledge. So what does this mean for the current state of education? At what point do companies or people hire someone, because they can demonstrate knowledge previously not attainable without a higher degree? Will this practice ever change? Will what having a higher degree means change? The ability to home school your child is completely different than it was 20 years ago. The curriculum and information available online is incredible; everything from itunes university podcasts to sites like http://www.curriki.org/. I am not sure, but I do believe that things have to change with the times. International schools are going to become much more appealing to those who want to become knowledgeable about the global world in which we live. The advances made in Web 2.0 are making this kind of interaction much more accessible and effective. We do not have to read a book about the culture in a particular region of the world. We can talk to someone from the region and they can tell us. Better yet we can virtually travel there and be submersed in a different culture, all without leaving the house. Could you argue that it’s different than actually going there, could you argue that it’s not “real”? Of course you could, but be careful because we are also in the midst of redefining the word “real”.

The bottom line is that our ability to attain information and learn in different ways is growing exponentially. This change is not a change for the few, it is a change that provides opportunity to the masses. You no longer have to live somewhere to get a feel for the town, get a job from a company in that town, or learn from the professors that work at the University in that town. The way information is presented is changing as much as the way we are seeking information. The question is, is how we turn information into knowledge changing? Does it need to?