Learning from Searching

As a follow up to my post on Can Google help me? I’ve been doing more searching on eLearning and Blogging, and found this rather tidy blog post: Is Surfing the Internet Changing Your Brain?

Michelle brings the research of Gary Small, a Neuroscientist from the good ‘ol US-of-A that proposes the thoughts that we are undergoing an evolutionary change. In this New World there will be winner and losers: the winners will be the technical literate, the losers the ones who resists or cannot adapt.

Thankfully, it is not a case of the geeks taking over. Gary says:

“Technology can accelerate learning and boost creativity. But it also allows people to isolate themselves and ‘live’ online. But succeeding in the new ‘digital’ era will require a mix of traditional and technological social skills.”

From my view point I think I’m well suited to the New World as I’m learning the technology from a background in the real world. But what of the new generations; the Generation Y and Generation Z? They’ve not had to learn the ‘real world’ but have been launched head-first in to the new ‘tech world’ without the basic concepts and understanding of how to build and work with a real friendship, face-to-face.

Will this matter? Hell yes, How can you survive if you are incapable of interacting in real-time with real people? You must be able to know the difference between a real persona and the (often) fake virtual one. Gary concludes by saying that “tomorrow’s winners need to be comfortable in two worlds”.