They interviewed Sugata Mitra, winner of this years TED
Prize.
________
Sugata Mitra:
In the Victorian age there were no telephones and books were
expensive. Knowledge resided in individual minds. What choice was there to but
to say "If you know something you tell it to me. You describe it and I
will learn it from you."
As books started to proliferate then the statement changed
to "Even if you don't know all of it can you tell me what books that I can
read so that I can learn this and having read those books are there any more
books that you would recommend"
Then the Internet arrived.
The internet is different to books as books don't talk about
themselves and they don't talk about other books. The Internet talks about
itself and pieces of information point to other pieces of information. You
don't need the Wiseman and you don't need the Guide either. What you need is
access.
__________________________
Dr. Kieran Murphy:
Up until the early 1800s medical knowledge was quite limited
and there were really only two specialities either medicine or surgery. At
that time it was still possible for one person to know all of medical
knowledge but with the advent of advances such as antisepsis
and anaesthetics the range of medical knowledge started to rapidly expand
and specialisation became necessary.
Medical knowledge expanded rapidly but was maintained and
disseminated only within the medical profession and in medical libraries
where laypeople were not allowed access. This situation continued until
after the Second World War when with the advent of the doctors page in
women's magazines and later in the 60s and 70s the advent of self-help books
a limited and selected amount of medical knowledge was made available to
the general
public. Still however the knowledge was in control of the
medical profession and was not accessible to the general public.
Suddenly with the advent of the Internet all of medical
knowledge was available to everyone with an Internet connection and the
medical profession were no longer the exclusive custodians of medical
knowledge. It is no longer possible for one person to know all of medical
knowledge but as doctors we need to know how to find out. A critical skill
for the modern doctor is knowledge management. Though lay people have access
to the knowledge they do not have the background skills or experience to apply
or integrate this knowledge in terms of their own care or that of their
relatives and while the patient sitting in front of you may know more
about the condition than you do and
it is your job to integrate that knowledge into their
care.
__________________________
Tech Weekly Podcast: Tech and the future of educating
children
Alek Krotoski and guests explore how tech is kickstarting a
revolution in education
