Knowledge is exploding! I have heard it stated that the sum of all that is known doubles every seven years. That’s good and bad. It’s good in the sense that we have literally, at our fingertips, the ability to accumulate more knowledge in one year than previous generations accumulated in a lifetime. It’s bad in the sense that, at the same time, the shelf life of knowledge is declining. There are many fields of study, for example biotech, that those pursuing a traditional bachelor’s degree may find much of what they learned in their freshman year obsolete by the time they are a senior. Even those who are entrenched in the workplace often find themselves relying upon knowledge that is not has not kept paced with this knowledge-based, global economy.
How can individuals (of any age group) keep pace with this knowledge-based economy? I think you know my answer to that. We must leverage the same technological advances that fuel this explosion of knowledge by integrating them into the way we learn.