Too Much Information 

                      By: Danette Russell                     

The internet provides us with access to anything we want to know.  The pool of information is vast and extensive.  Is this too much information for us to handle as a species?  Maybe, probably.  Isn’t it wonderful though, to have the exposure to such technology that allows us to educate ourselves and be places we otherwise would never go? Just last week I watched a whale swim right in front of me under the sea.  His eye was as big as my head. Being able to immerse yourself into a foreign language via pieces of plastic and never leave your home is amazing.   I just located a music store in Ireland,  just to see if I could.   Without the World Wide Web and the innovative use of plastics, that never would have happened.  I never thought I’d see it in this lifetime. 

On the contrary sometimes I think we have too much information, like having expendable income. Too many choices and you end up with too many pairs of shoes that you never wear and too many web sites to choose from and you end up pulling your hair out.  Consumers can become very confused if there are simply too many choices with no way to validate it all. 

We’re going to find both sides of this coin in the classroom.  As teachers we’ll need to give students tools on how to handle the given data.  It’s a discipline, really.  Knowing how to use keywords and recognizing key phrases in search results is a good start.  As teachers we can be very specific in our assignments to help alleviate an overload of information. 

It can start with the teacher being equipped to approach what is available  and then  being able to teach it to the students to understand the required task at hand and how to collect what they need.  Anything you want is out there.  WWW, DVD,s, Movies, anything, it’s  about knowing what to do with it and how to handle it all.   

Arming students with the skills to understand and evaluate the given data is essential.  Specifics with assignments,  how to do proper searches with key words and punctuation can help minimize the time spent sifting through excessive information are a few good tips.  That time could be spent more constructive by applying what was found and getting closer to completing a project.  Allow students to use their knowledge from the classroom to so they know what they see and   can find what they need. Too much information can be confusing so try to be smart about what you’re looking for.