I just found a sweet feature in Google Goggles. If you are not familiar, Google Goggles is a aspect of their mobile search engine that uses your phone's camera. Take a picture of an item like the Eiffel Tower or the Mona Lisa and the search result comes back with a whole bunch of info about that item. This is a pretty useful tool when traveling, and you want to know who that statue is of, or what that cool building is.
I discovered today that if you take a picture of a Soduku puzzle - whala!, it solves it for you right before your eyes.
Now I know most of you are going to think - well, that's cheating. - I beg to differ. In today's word, it is not as much about knowing the answer, as it is about knowing where to find the answer. I think understanding how to access the information and being able to cull urban legends and myths from the real deal is more important. I can't wait to see what my kids, kids are going to have for resources at their disposal.
Sure, the three R's are important, but critical thinking skills are what sets my rock star employees apart from the mediocre ones every day of the week. I can train them how to do the specific job - but you have to hire for critical thinking. Besides, when was the last time you had to write a cursive sentence? Aren't you glad you spent a bunch of time on it in elementary school?
- not to mention the goggles technology is very cool!