The Joy of Search: Augmenting intelligence by teaching people how to search
Dan Russell, Senior Research Scientist, Google
Matrix 2019 Symposium
June 11, 2019
1pm to 2pm, UVic Bob Wright Centre

Abstract:  I’ve been teaching people how to augment their cognition by becoming more effective online researchers for the past decade.  In that time, I’ve taught thousands of people (think students, librarians, professional researchers, and just plain folks) how to find out what they seek through Google (and many other online resources and tools).  This talk covers my experiences in learning how to teach these skills, and what I’ve learned from direct interactions with my students and from various studies I’ve run in the lab and with live search traffic.  I’ll discuss my MOOC (PowerSearchingWithGoogle.com), which has had over 4M students, my live classes, and various publications in paper, book, and video formats.  I can tell you which methods work best, why, and how it changes the way people think and answer difficult research questions.

Bio:  Daniel Russell is Google’s Senior Research Scientist for Search Quality and User Happiness in Mountain View.  He earned his PhD in computer science, specializing in Artificial Intelligence.  These days he realizes that amplifying human intelligence is his real passion.  His day job is understanding how people search for information, and the ways they come to learn about the world through Google.  Dan’s current research is to understand how human intelligence and artificial intelligence can work together to better than either as a solo intelligence.  His 20% job is teaching the world to search more effectively.  His MOOC, PowerSearchingWithGoogle.com, is currently hosting over 3,000 learners / week in the course. In the past 3 years, 4 million students have attended his online search classes, augmenting their intelligence with AI.  His instructional YouTube videos have a cumulative runtime of over 350 years (24 hours/day; 7 days/week; 365 weeks/year).