Look it up, dear.

I’ve known for a long time that the reason I love the internet is because it completely destroys the learning curve. I’ve always done best in environments where the learning curve is very steep – and I’ve always lost interest when the curve flattens out. Because of this, I don’t generally refer to myself as an expert on much of anything. I actually thank “the internet” for this. It’s almost as if the tables have turned completely around versus 20 years ago.

When I was in elementary school, there was a series of commercials – I think they were for Encyclopedia Britannica – where a child would as his mother some off the wall question like, “Mom, who is Herman Goering?” and mom would answer by saying, “Look it up dear!” – encouraging the child to break open the Encyclopedia Britannica and find her answer. Today, if parents would only ask their children questions like this, I’m certain the children would reply by saying, “Geez mom. Just look it up.”

But I’ve gotten a good sense over the last year how much students are actually using the internet to help them learn using traditional methods. Last September, I created a small web application that generates Cornell Notetaking Method style notepaper. Though I made it mainly as a way to familiarize myself with a particular php class, it has bee hugely popular and still has over 200 unique visitors per day.

Wanna know how to take better lecture notes? Look it up, dear.