The search for learning

Image by dullhunk via FlickrGoogle is undeniably one of the greatest tools for the proactive learner. Google does a great job of returning related pages to specific content, but it still falls short of answering my questions and as Ken Caroll's latest article points out, of providing me with a learning framework.

Luckily, technology trends are moving towards a solution to this search problem very quickly. The atomisation of online content (breaking up content into pieces), combined with advances in tagging convention is primed to be the basis of "learning-centric" search engines.

There is the so-called semantic web which can pull these atomised content chunks into (learning) insights. Take, for example, the learning potential of a semantic app like trueknowledge.

Then there is the search function itself. Human powered search engines (e.g. mahalo), tags and bookmarks are all pushing search to new levels. But a better integration of search with content would transform any online object into a learning object. Hyperlinks throughout wikipedia is a basic example, but for something more revolutionary check out photosynth's ability to hyperlink pictures (there is a great TED talk on this).

The extension of exploratory learning would be that it starts anywhere, not just in Google. This is a huge different spin on search. But as this infrastructure is potentially harder to monetise, don’t necessary look to Google at all!