The image above shows a girl, watched by a couple of avid younger observers, as she captures fish images in the Montreal Canada Biodome. My title for this article is a slight variation of a line from a song in this summer’s hit movie “Knocked Up.” The movie’s credits that roll at the end are illustrated with a delightful series of images of the actors and cinema personnel with their own babies — as the song is sung about the proud star characters’ baby in a swimming pool: “That’s my daughter in the water, everything she’s got I bought her . . . .”

It is a satisfying and appropriate feeling to be proud of providing for our children. Outside of the photo I took above adults where standing and keeping watchful eyes on their little ones. The grown ups had brought their kids to the Biodome — for them to learn by seeing the exhibits. It is great that the children in this picture were able to experience the Biodome. There are, as we know, enormous numbers of kids their age around the world who do not have a similar opportunity. Yet there is a quickly developing way that we can bring the opportunity to them — virtually.

Creating the knowledge commons online and delivering it globally to individuals will vastly increase the interaction of children around the world with knowledge. Perhaps the little fellow in the center of the picture above is three-years-old. He will be entering high school in ten years, in about 2017. Ten years ago, when you were high school age if you are now in your twenties, the Internet was barely starting. Ten years from now—if we see to it that the global knowledge commons grows—children like the ones in the picture above will be able to learning anything they want to with a click or two on their personal mobile device.

For me, one of the top reasons for building the commons is for our sons and daughters—so they can all learn from open interconnected knowledge. The song lyric from “Knocked Up” says: “all she’s got I bought her.” Elite education has pretty much been that way in most human cultures over thousands of years. When parents paid for it, children had the best teachers and schools. There have been many efforts—with varying degrees of success—to provide equal learning opportunities. Once the global learning commons has emerged, the equality of knowledge is built in!! It is automatic because everyone studies from the same virtual page.

To accomplish this, the wireless networks must be built and smart mobiles must get into the hands of the children. Language translation of the knowledge in the commons must be done to make this equality of knowledge truly universal. But the knowledge itself—open educational resources (OER)—is equal. It cannot be anything other than equal because everyone studies from the same page, in common. The kids in the picture above will richly experience the knowledge commons in their teen years if we keep up the push to make it happen.

We are already far down the road toward achieving the commons. If we take, for example, learning oceanography, studying what is going on underwater will be possible virtually for anyone with a mobile device that interfaces the Internet. The most surprising fact for most of us is how close we already are to being able to learn the best and most complete knowledge about subjects online. If you have a daughter or son who is interested in learning about underwater, here are three places you can point them to right now that abound with virtual knowledge:

MISO Facility

Zebra Shark Pup Webcam (and photos when the Webcam is off)

New Zealand American Submarine Ring of Fire 2007- NZASRoF’07

tags: New York United States education knowledge commons children oceanography learning open mobile

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