Here’s a question that I’ve pondered about – what are the implications of real-time web information and accessibility towards knowledge acquisition and learning?  There’s been a lot of research into studying the role and influence of technology and media in the educational process and experience of children.  What does it mean when a student is working on a school research paper and is referencing information from wikipedia?  What sort of research and analytical skills are we trying to develop as technology increases accessibility (whether or not the information is accurate and correct)?  How does this inform the types of so-called 21st century skills not only school-age children, but adults are supposed to develop and utilize?

I find these all to be interesting questions, many of which have already been explored by researchers and educators.  Moreover, with the current economic environment in the U.S. (and perhaps, collectively, around the globe), what does it mean to be adaptive not only to how one consumes, creates, and critically analyzes information and content, but towards how one relates and uses that information?

And, thus, this leads to even further questions regarding the increasingly widening gap between the countries that “have” technology and those who do not.  Beyond the issues of hardware and software accessibility, how does one even begin to address those challenges of effectively and productively using these tools to obtain, understand, and create knowledge and information?  There are times I feel that so many countries, companies, and communities are speeding ahead in all this creative experimentation in technology, while basic, core challenges are only expanding and deepening in so many other places.  How do we start and/or continue to create a more even playing field?