The idea of information overload is something that I think so many of us can relate to. The amount of information at our fingertips in quite overwhelming at times. The short video "InfoWhelm" puts this into perspective. The amount of digital output is 500 Exabytes. I had no idea what an exabyte even was. Learning that 500 exabytes would be the equivalent to 13 stack of book from the earth to Pluto is hard to comprehend! No wonder we are overwhelmed! This number is growing exponentially. It is important for us to learn and teach our students how to access the information we need as well as think critically about the information we encounter.
Learning how to organize all the information we encounter, or information wrangling as Bryan Alexander calls it, can also be quite overwhelming. I have a tendency to want to "input" as much as I can about all of the new technologies and tools out there that teachers are using and sometimes it feels like I'm going in circles. I have to remind myself that sometimes more is just more. It is my goal to find a few things I feel would benefit me or my students and get comfortable using those before I move on to something different.
Education is changing. At one point in history, a school was the only place students went to get information. This is no longer the case. Students can access information 24/7 from numerous sources. The article "Creating Classrooms We Need: 8 Way to Inquiry Learning" provides great insight on how to guide students through their own learning paths. Teachers need to be ok with letting go of some of the control and putting it in the hands of the students. Help students learn how to ask good questions and where to find good answers. Kids of this generation are "digital natives" and in order to teach them, we need to speak their language.
The amount of information out there can be quite overwhelming, but it is also liberating as well. Anything I need or want to know is right at my fingertips any time I want to access it. Learning how to access and organize this information for my own learning will also help me to teach my students how to do the same.
I agree! I had no idea what an exabyte was either! I have only been a teacher for 6 years. Imagine what our learners will be like by the time I retire! What amount of information will we have access to 20 years from now? Hopefully teachers will begin to "let go" of the traditional views of "control" by then!
ReplyDeleteAimee, I'd never heard of the term exabyte either and was a bit "overwhelmed" by the "infowhelm" video myself! I like your comment about sometimes more is just more. I have made a similar statement before..... sometimes MORE is not always BETTER!
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