When I was a kid, we were told that it was critical to learn the three R’s – reading, writing, and arithmetic. Set aside the oxymoronic fact that these do not all start with R, and ask yourself the question “what is critical for kids to learn today?” I have a few answers that I hope society pays attention to because it will have far reaching impacts. Let’s start with this… the traditional model of learns was the Jug and Mug concept. The teacher was the Jug of wisdom and he or she poured out their wisdom into the mug of the student. This by nature limited the knowledge transfer to the limits of what the teacher had, and the speed in which they could pour. In effect, we as students could then stand on the shoulders of the teachers that had invested the energy to fill their jug. Standing on shoulders is a great concept, and theoretically each generation could add more to their jug and humanity would become smarter with each iteration.

New technology concepts are changing that model in ways that we need to consciously leverage as parents. More than that, it would be nice if the education system clued into this fact faster than they are today. We now have a worldwide source of knowledge sharing that allows for an archive of a massive scale, and a transport mechanism to share real time information and knowledge. We call this the Internet. Consider for a moment that this is a new jug of information that can be poured into our mugs on a constant basis each day, and this jug is every growing, and will never max out as to it’s ability to add new content. The ability to purposely tap into this source of knowledge is something I call building a river of information. Let me stop here and deal with the arguments naysayers want to throw at me…

1 – All the information on the Internet is not “correct.” Yes I get that and that is why we need to teach kids the ability to have discretionary thinking capabilities. By the way, all the information that teachers used to transfer in the old days was not correct either. People do need to develop a filter to gauge credible sources from non-credible.

2 – The Internet cannot teach people how to learn and teachers and schools have that as one of their main purposes. To teach kids to learn. I actually believe that the skill of learning is something that most people pick up naturally as they struggle to survive in this world. I believe it is innate for people that want to prosper – this skill of learning. The Internet has the ability to facilitate this skill pretty well on its own. Besides, what some schools think of as teaching kids to learn is really teaching them to memorize and that is not the same thing.

3 – The Internet cannot replace the social experiences of group learning in schools. OK, I give you that, however, I have noticed my daughter using Skype to do study sessions with her friends. That is an interesting use of the Web to facilitate group learning.

OK, back to rivers of information and harvesting knowledge. If you are a parent, I strongly suggest that you consider helping your kids learn to see the Internet as both a massive archive of information, and a river of content that can be tapped into many times a day. The next generation needs separate itself from the world I grew up in where the vast amount of knowledge transfer was from teacher to student. They need to know that for the rest of their lives, the vast amount of knowledge transfer will come from the Internet to their brains. In effect, they can now stand on the shoulders of millions of people around the world, instead of a handful in school. Now, do I want my kids to stop going to school? No. Schools have lots of social and learning aspects that are valuable. We leave schools in our early twenties however, and the formal learning process stops. We can help young people by integrating them with their own skills of tapping the river of information from a young age so that they continue for the rest of their lives. In this way they will learn to harvest knowledge from the largest knowledgebase humanity has ever known.

By the way, it is not too late for you. I now connect my twitter stream, Facebook profile, and Google Reader sources to Flipboard on my iPad and tap into my river of information in a rapidly digestible way. Try it sometime…

Scott Klososky
Scott@klososky.com