Is anyone else out there overwhelmed (and a little frightened) by the amount of information available to anyone with Internet access? There’s so much great information – and some not so great - coming at us faster and faster! If you don’t believe me, look at the following visual provided by Adam Thierer, senior research fellow at Geroge Mason University.
Here’s a link to the entire article: http://techliberation.com/2011/06/13/visualizing-information-abundance-every-60-seconds-on-the-web/
How in the world are we supposed to make sense of all this information? How can we teach our students to make sense of it?
Does the answer lie somewhere in the idea of becoming curators?? What would being a curator of information mean??
Please share your thoughts and ideas…..
Think of a museum. A curator is someone who finds the best pieces for their exhibit and keeps those pieces polished and safe. They preserve important pieces (objects, documents, works of art). Then they plan how they will be laid out in a way that will help visitors better understand the exhibit (topic). Can we, as educators, do this for our students? Absolutely!
Whatever happened to yellow pads of paper
Amen!
bye bye
As we integrate technology into curriculum, part of the time has to be used to show students how to time manage their information intake. It has to (like most things in life) be a healthy balance of personal needs, professional/educational needs and a need to not stagnate. For example, if you use email, Facebook and Twitter for communication, any time you begin to explore another communication avenue, others need to be reevaluated for their value and time consumption.
Next is how to organize the information for easy access on their device of choice, so when you’re pressed for time, technology is not slowing you down. That can be bookmarks in your browser or folders of apps in your iPad.
Of course, another part of this is not to get stuck in just accessing the same information day after day and to build in some time to explore other options ourselves and to let our students know that there is so much more out there and taking some time to seek more/different avenues of information is not bad.