Guest post: Angela Maiers on the importance of being genius: NYU professor Clay Shirky says that most people "overestimate the value of access to information and underestimate the value of access to each other." There are a wealth of online resources where students can ask questions of researchers or subject matter experts online and possibly find a mentor or collaborator. Many local, county, and college libraries offer virtual "Ask a Librarian" services through which students can ask trained librarians for reference help. Quora is a question and answer site where most answers are provided by professionals. Skype in the Classroom offers premium tools free of charge to educators, including a service to connect with guest authors, expert teachers, and others. With the right hashtags, Twitter can be an excellent resource for students who want to find people who can provide them insight. Students can explore many free avenues online to connect with experts in almost any field of study or area of interest. All they need is for adults to open the door and point them in the right direction. An excerpt from Genius Matters: A Framework for Epic Transformation by Angela Maiers. Click here to download the free book.
