Anyone who regularly uses search engines understands the tremendous resource available through searching the Internet to find information quickly and easily. Once you start using search engines regularly, you wonТt likely ever stop, and seemingly everyone we knowаhas reached this milestone.аThe widespread use of search engines in the general populationаis a truly transformational technology.
How does this affect the training landscape? If your target audience is "web savvy" it is safe to assume that they will be able to fill many knowledge gaps on their own through basic web searches. In effect, this provides a partial safety net for training programs. It never hurts to encourage learners to seek supplementary information from the web. That said, for highly proprietary knowledge, the internet will not provide much help, though a company intranet can use the exact same technology to provide similar results.
It is always wise to encourage your learners to be skillful at finding the information that they need when they need it. Nobody can remember everything they need to know. Finding information quickly and efficiently is just as important as committing information to memory.