The vision of Web 3.0, better known as the Semantic Web, is one in which humanity’s search for meaning (not just information) is governed by machine intelligences—and these machines—intelligent agents—not only locate relevant information, but coordinate and unify it according to our individual needs.

At the time of this writing, a number of preliminary technologies have already appeared, harbingers of the third decade of the web to come. (See the Web3 Learning Network for examples.) Educators had better pay attention to this. If technologists succeed in reframing the utility of the web so that “search” is resolved to near-instantaneous “answer,” the roles of the teacher and student in our planetary educational culture will undergo the most dramatic shift since the extinction of the Neanderthals. This shift will be both disruptive and liberating. It will be a shift that we can, and should, prepare for.