Our View of Knowledge and Learning

I appreciate a recent LinkedIn comment where a friend queries: "I am interested in the way that incorporating social media into our lives and teaching will change the way we perceive knowledge, and therefore how we will assess knowledge," to which I reply, "It seems we used to consider knowledge a thing we could possess. It may be however, with the exponential doubling of the world's knowledge base that we now view knowledge as something we "access" rather than "possess."  Therefore, the most prepared people would be those who command the greatest access on a superficial level, and who have developed the skills required to 'mine' what they need on a more intrinsic level. (posted 7/8/09)