Dude - Just Facebook It

"Dude, what's your project on?"

"My cousin has some weird disease. I'm doing that."

"What's he got?"

"My Mom said it once but I don't remember."

"Just Google what you remember and Facebook him."

Less than 30 seconds later, toggling multiple screens, the student had the name of the disease, a list of symptoms, and organizations promoting awareness about the disease.

Web 2.5? Students are already at Web 3.0, and they are not waiting for us to catch up. At best we, as adults, are irrelevant. At worst, we are in their way. The reality is that most of us are still trying to get over feeling stupid about using the phrase Web 2.0.

Teens are living transparently and seamlessly on the Web. Their terrain is different from ours. While we wring our hands and fret, they engage, create, and achieve a fluency and online confidence that we, as adults, can't seem to validate. Why?

What do we bring to the table? Wisdom. This student was awash with information, and struggling to develop the critical skills needed to assess, understand, and apply his new knowledge. Dude - That's what we help with in the library.

Photo credit:
Flickr Creative Commons

[54/365] Designing for the Social Web by Ben Dodson