Altilab2005 - Distance Education Blog

When was the last time i wondered  about something without Google being involved? The answer is about 11 years ago. No longer adept with reference books, I’m a horse trader shrewdly weighing up the URL and looking for the tell-tale signs of subjective tampering and hackery amongst the staggering hugeness of encyclopedia GooGlatica.

Like TV channels, more doesn’t mean better, just better is better hidden. But amongst the noise of blogs, Twitter and paradigm shifts such as Open Educational Resources, are we in fact uncovering a new openness, a willingless to share what before was kept private? So is it more and better or will we eventually become as we were before, an mis-informed mass of easily manipulated peasants going back to waving pitchforks and dunking suspected witches in the local pond? Or, as our brains are freed from the drugery of decades spent aquiring information, as we delegate that task to the wires that criss-cross the planet, we can use this new found free time to practice Thinking Very Well?

I think the answer is yes.  The ignorant will still crave ignorance  and scuttle towards that comfortable darkness. Those educated in enquiry will enquire and search endlessly for ultimate truths reconciled it is the journey not the destination which is important. Both options will just become easier to aquire that is all.

If future generations become feckless ignoramuses then I apologise.