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The reason we find it easy to believe the internet is making us dumber is because, in some ways, it's making us less self-reliant. Our GPS devices navigate for us and we neglect to remember things because we have Google search. That doesn't make us dumber, necessarily, but rather causes us to rely more on what psychologist Daniel Wagner calls transactive memory. This type of memory is actually very useful because it allows us to, in essence, store more data in less space.

So how did I learn all of the technology I use in my instruction and in my online collaborations with teachers? I learned it on my own.

So, I started using the internet to learn how to do what I wanted to do – blog, make videos, make podcasts, publish student work, etc. Of course it wasn’t easy, but I wanted to learn it so I did. (That is key – my learning was self-directed.)

are we independent learners?

But it struck me – why not create course materials with this? As a teacher, why shouldn’t I just craft my course documents and all the rest, package it up, and distribute it to my students? Well, there are several reasons iBooks Author isn’t ready for this.