If we can search for and find just about any knowledge on the web these days, the key question must be: what is left that we cannot search for? This question has huge implications for education, for schools, colleges, universities, indeed any organisation that has learning at its heart. If all knowledge is now available online, what place is there for formal education processes, for academic courses, for classrooms, indeed... for teachers? One response of course, is that formal education will always have some relevance in human society, and there will always be a place for teachers. This is because education is, and has always been more that simply content. Learning involves a process that is lifelong, incorporating a great deal more than the acquisition of knowledge. Formal education is partly responsible for helping us to learn what it is to work together, and it is where we acquire many of our (transferable) skills, develop specific attitudes and beliefs, and where we are inducted into some of the specific roles we need to play in society.
The unGoogleable question never the less raises some hugely important philosophical questions however. One relates to the nature of knowledge, and how we come to 'know'; another is how we manage and organise knowledge once we have it. There are at least two specific areas of questions that are unGoogleable. In future blog posts I intend to explore each of these and draw out some important principles about how we are living our lives, and learn about our world, in this century. In the meantime I would be fascinated to hear about what you consider to the the 'unGoogleable questions', and what they mean to you. The comments box is open...
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