Education 2.0 & 3.0

Where does knowledge come from? As teachers we trade in knowledge on a daily basis, but how often do we think about its provenance? We could argue that the majority of what we 'know' derives from our ability to be able to think, to reason, to reflect, to ask questions - our higher cognitive processes. Curiosity provides the impetus for us to be able to investigate the universe we are in. Exploration and discovery have formed the basis of all scientific endeavour. Asking questions is the fundamental expression and genesis of all research. We can ask how, where, what, how and when? Yet for me, the most important question of all, when attempting to understand the true nature of knowledge, is to ask the question why?

Another question is: How do we know that what we know is correct? No-one can be certain that the knowledge we hold to be 'true' today is the ultimate knowledge, because our understanding of the world changes. Scientific advances sometimes often render previous knowledge redundant or untrue. But we do build new knowledge on old knowledge, and we need confidence in that knowledge. In the digital age where knowledge seems to be increasingly democratised, how can we be sure that knowledge is not adulterated, or contaminated with false evidence?

There is much debate about this question, especially with the advent of social media and services such as Wikipedia and Wikimedia Commons, where anyone can contribute toward a global understanding of what we 'know'. What becomes of those 'elite experts' who were previously the gatekeepers of knowledge before the Internet?