Too Much Information? :: Information Management Learning Essays

Too Much Information? The pervasive, invasive reading infrastructure...is as much a part of our lives as religion was for medieval surfs (Tetzeli 1994, p. 60). unless is it too much? Weve wholly seen the mind-numbing statistics about the exponential growth of teaching and of technological means of distributing and accessing it. However, some volume question whether the problem really is one of overload. One source of the problem is actually the multiplicity of conference channels. Unlike earlier eras, such as when printing presses replaced manuscript copying, freshly technologies are not replacing older ones but are adding to the phalanx of media choices (Davidson 1996). With these multiple channels the information flow is now simultaneous and multidirectional. However, or so traditional information management practices are too linear and special they were pipes developed for a stream, not an ocean (Alesandrini 1992). The sheer quantity of information and the speed with wh ich it can be acquired give an illusion of accomplishment (Uline 1996). besides what good is all this information if it is not usable? Almost all our resources are dedicated to gathering the raw material--information--and almost nothing is played out on the most important job of transforming information into intelligence (Milton 1989, p. 6). Milton suggests that it is achievable to have negative information--that which ca consumptions the recipient to know less than in the lead because it is not integrated, applied, and transformed into knowledge. Essential to information mastery is understanding the family relationship between selective information, information, and knowledge (TAFE-TEQ 1992) data are raw facts and figures, information is data organized into a meaningful context, and knowledge is organized data (i.e., information) that has been soundless and applied. Perhaps it is not too much information, but an explosion of noninformation (Wurman 1989) lack relevance, qualit y, and usefulness. What is needed is better judgment of the quality, accuracy, and reliability of what is received(Kinnaman 1994). According to John Seeley Brown, people may perceive overload because the information they receive does not buy the farm into current mental models for understanding the world (Tetzeli 1994). The problem of information overload thus has both technological and human aspects. The solution is also twain pronged both technological--create better technological tools and make better use of them--and human--revise mental models and sharpen the capacity for critical reflection and analysis. Ive Got to Keep Up Many people believe they have to try to stay on top of information because of economic, social, and employment-related pressures.