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We often talk about how our customers (a.k.a. users, researchers, authors, readers, etc.) are being overwhelmed by the flood of information available today. Let's not forget that we are consumers of information as well. How are we handling information overload? How are we finding the "must-reads" in our profession?

Very interesting. The answers from this blog actually correspond with a conversation I recently had with a customer (I am a librarian). He said his first source of keeping up in his field (computer-human interface) is via Twitter, the same as several people said here.

Twitter as a source of information about information.

Rheingold puts his thoughts, videos,course syllabi on the skills to be network smart on this site. Here is his introduction: The future of digital culture-yours, mine, and ours-depends on how well we learn to use the media that have infiltrated, amplified, distracted, enriched, and complicated our lives. How you employ a search engine, stream video from your phonecam, or update your Facebook status matters to you and everyone, because the ways people use new media in the first years of an emerging communication regime can influence the way those media end up being used and misused for decades to come. Instead of confining my exploration to whether or not Google is making us stupid, Facebook is commoditizing our privacy, or Twitter is chopping our attention into microslices (all good questions), I've been asking myself and others how to use social media intelligently, humanely, and above all mindfully. This book is about what I've learned.

This study conducted by the International Center for Media & the Public Agenda (ICMPA), documented the experiences of 200 students at the University of Maryland as they "unplugged" from all media for 24 hours. The results were simultaneously astounding and totally predictable. Their top five findings were: 1. Students use literal terms of addiction to characterize their dependence on media. 2. Students hate going without media. In their world, going without media, means going without their friends and family. 3. Students show no significant loyalty to a news program, news personality or even news platform. Students have only a casual relationship to the originators of news, and in fact don't make fine distinctions between news and more personal information. They get news in a disaggregated way, often via friends. 4. 18-21 year old college students are constantly texting and on Facebook-with calling and email distant seconds as ways of staying in touch, especially with friends. 5. Students could live without their TVs and the newspaper, but they can't survive without their iPods.

I love this lecture by David Levy at GoogleTechTalks from 2008. I found the required video by Levy to be a bit too short for my taste, so for anyone who is interested in hearing more, I would recommend this lecture.

I'm reading "Men Like Gods" by H.G. Wells, and there are quite a few things that seem prophetic. The book was published in 1923 and the setting includes things like connecting by voice and visuallly when talking to others at different locations. (Skype, Facetime) A screen where the words move instead of your eyes. (SPREED.com)

I too worry about the world of work, that I am only the efficiency at which I function.

Concentrix Management (CM) is a model for distributing and managing information with the intent to cross pollinate ideas and concepts across sub-groups so that each part of the system knows about the 'whole' (of which all working groups within it reside) without overloading any one person.

"When you're reading for information, you should ALWAYS jump ahead, skip around, and use every available strategy to discover, then to understand, and finally to remember what the writer has to say. This is how you'll get the most out of a book in the smallest amount of time." This has been a very useful article for me. After reading this the first time I found that every thing that I did when I was reading was the opposite of what I "should" be doing according to this article. I treated all the definitions, table, and sections that were highlighted as if they were advertisements and just ignored them. This was a very useful article in helping me get back on track when it came to learning how to study in an academic environment, and I was very happy to get new and better skills from it as well.

Muy útil para todos, gracias.

Thanks for sharing! Great refresher and reminder on how to read (esp. for a communications student where reading and writing is essential!)

Kay, R., Lauriclla, S. (2011). Exploring the Benefits and Challenges of Using Laptop Computers in Higher Education Classrooms: A Formative Analysis. Canadian Journal of Learning and Technology. 37:1

a. Laptops and mobile devices are ubiquitous in todays classrooms as students are digital natives. Because of decreasing prices of technology over the past few decades, an overwhelming majority of the university students surveyed own a laptop (87%). Because of this quick onset of technological adoption, culture has lagged, in terms of re-defining the social institutions that such mobile and computer technologies affect. According to this analysis, students feel that the use of a laptop helps in aiding studies, is useful for gathering course and supplementary materials and engaging in peer collaboration. Several challenges have been noted: communication based challenges, relating to social media, email and messaging services; and entertainment based challenges, relating to media consumption. These challenges serve as potential sources of distraction for the student using the technology and others. In their findings, 16% of students reported being distracted by pornography during class, on their own or others' computer screens, which ranked higher than computer games, at 1%. The authors conclude that the benefits of laptop use in class outweigh the challenges 2:1. Possibly, if the functionality of student laptops are integrated into course curriculum further, students can benefit from further peer collaboration, increased academic benefit and decreased distractions.

Young, K. (2004). Internet Addiction: A new Clinical Phenomenon and Its Consequences. American Behavioral Scientist. 48:402

a. Although this is a psychology article, it poses an important concern over the rise of internet addiction in connected populations. This article is relevant to this course, as it relates to the notion of critical consumption; some users are unable to filter information effectively, which should be recognized as a concern. Young states many statistics from educators and researchers discounting internet use in the classroom as it is far too distracting and the loss of productivity (in both students and the workforce) is immense.

Some might argue that this article shows the downside of connected learning and e-resources, however this is not the case. Certain web activities mentioned in the paper such as chat rooms, social media, and video games are not the focus of this course. Open Knowledge deals with the light side of the internet, which is the interconnectivity, the accelerated learning, and the ability to publish ones own content. The internet can definitely be misused, but not every web activity is "junk food". If someone obsessively became a mathematician and ultimately ended up being the best mathematician in the world due to "addiction" people would call him or her a genius. The trick is to filter which content and activities one engages in.

because of overload information, our memories becoming lazy

This article is an interesting take on how public libraries can participate in empowering patrons to develop a personal information management strategy. This can in turn strengthen a sense of community in the digital realm and support the development of community repositories.

An example of how one person establish his "filter" for accepting/rejecting invitations in this networked world.

Do we need a network for possible contacts or is Linkedin a source for active contacts? How many true contacts are realistic to handle and whatfor?

I totally agree! One genuine connection is better than a thousand random "contacts".