Question: How is the Web changing education? Jimmy Wales: One of
the impacts here is that we have a much higher degree of
informal learning than we used to have. That’s not to say that
formal learning is declining. It’s just to say that after people
are finished their formal education, they have such a greater
opportunity for informal education. Thirty-five years ago, you
might read a newspaper story about, I don’t know, Albania. And
you might think, “Hmm. Albania. I barely know anything about it,
and I don’t know the history. I should go to the library and
look that up.” But frankly nobody ever much went to the library
to look things up. It’s quite a journey. You have to put aside a
lot of your energy to go and do something like that. Whereas
now, when somebody wonders about Albania, they just type
“Albania” into a search engine and, typically with the Wikipedia
article, they get a nice, basic history and background, and they
can really dig very deep if they want to; follow the sources and
you can really lea