:: basic concepts of new media ::

Week 3: Information Overload

questions

• Teaching: How do you think teaching methods in school will change as we continue to move further towards internet-based knowledge and information? How do you think they will change as the those who are currently teaching grew up without computers and the students have grown up with computers? How will the teaching methods change when both the teachers and students have grown up never knowing a time without computers?
• How do teachers beginning in K-12 education teach students about the information overload? This should not be just a higher education issue or adult issue.
• Control: Should there be a way to control the information that is being put onto the Web?
• Who is in control of the flow of information and if there is no control, does this spell disaster in the future?
• Jobs: How will information retrieval on the Internet redefine some jobs, like librarians?
• Generations?: Since we are part of a generation that have grown up using the internet, do we not share the same struggles regarding searching the internet as older generations?
• Tactics: When doing research for a topic do you already feel like you spend have the time trying to weed out what is and isn’t relevant to your topic?
• What search engines do you use most frequently and what kind of information do they usually provide?
• Other than Google, what search engines do most students use? Have sthere been any that have proven more reliable?
• How do you manage information? And do you generally feel that you're bombarded with it or do you find it pretty easily managed?
• When searching for information online, do you have a specific way of going about it? Do you depend on one search site, or a newspaper source, for instance?
• Have you bought/would you buy any programs to help you sift through information online?
• What is your strategy for not getting lost in all the information that pours at us from all directions?
• What is the best way to reduce one's "information anxiety" as issues and resources stand in our present time?
• Responsibility? Should students learn to be most skillful in using the Internet as their primary source of research or should they physically go to their libraries and learn to be skilled researchers?
• What can we do to increase information technology literacy to those who have not had as many opportunities?
• Effects: Do you feel that you are able to get the most effective accurate information you are seeking most of the time? Do you experience symptoms of information overload?
• What aspects of using the internet make you feel frustrated or overwhelmed?

• As more information has become available on the internet, has it become easier or harder to tell which pieces are reliable?
• Do you think that as a society, we are finding ourselves more willing to sacrifice accuracy and credibility of information in exchange for "instantaneous responses"?
• How can we be sure that Christopher Carlson and Mark Nelson’s statistics are reliable and valid data?
• Will the problem of verifying information ever be alleviated?

• Change: In the second article the author claims that “nothing about the internet as it is is going to change significantly in the foreseeable future.” Do you believe that this statement is true?
• Deep Web: What is the “deep web?”
• Were you aware of the “deep web” or “invisible web” before reading the article by Dr. Carlson? What exactly does it mean that we have so much information that we can’t even index it?
• Crash: Put aside the fact that the amount of servers will always increase, is it possible that a substantial information overload could "crash" or "freeze" the internet?
• Good or Bad? Are the volumes of information online more of a necessary evil, or a time consuming aggravation factor?
• Signal-to-Noise: One of the readings talked about the signal-to noise ratio on the internet. Is this problem going to get better or worse is the future? How? Why?
• Is the increase in "noise" to "signal" proportion, as discussed in the Carlson article, worth the added value of pertinent information? In other words, are you willing to dig through more junk to get to more variety of good information?
• SPAM: What are some possible solutions to reduce junk e-mail? What are some ways junk e-mail can be regulated?
• Tech v Human Solutions: Carlson also continues to say in his essay that, “Excessive emphasis on technology-based solutions should definitely be avoided.” Why or why not?
• Whose responsibility is it to "filter" the information available on the web? Should the search engines come up with strategies to increase "precision"(as defined by Nelson's article), or is that the responsibility of the information seekers?
• How does Google do what it does? And what methods are there for measuring material based on its relevance, besides searching for key words?
• What is the role of Search Engine Optimization in controlling overload?

• How has instant access to information changed our views on traditional media such as books, magazines and newspapers?
• If one site put a ton of news articles on the internet for free without advertisements, how would that impact other news organizations?
• Is EPIC possible? Is it necessary given increasing rapidity of news?
• Books have always been the gateway to knowledge, is there any need to worry that books will become obsolete and everything will be published on the Internet?
• How has research on the web influenced library research and other "physical" research?
• Can this information overload force some people to revert back to only using books and hardcopies of newspapers and magazines for their research?

• What is the next step that search engines such as Google, Infoseek and Lycos need to take to help eliminate 'information overload'?
• Do you think that the internet will eventually provide so much information that we will have to spend hours trying to find exactly what we are looking for?
• In the future, even if search engines are modified to the point where they can effectively separate B.S. from accurate data, is it realistic that they be able to keep up with the ever-accumulating false and inaccurate information?
• Do you think that the Internet is going to diversify into “channels” that will each concentrate on providing a certain type of information such as the television channels?
• Will the future hold a system of search capabilities which is more integrated and accessible? Or more chaotic with individuals becoming more responsible, as they are today, for their own filtering of information?

Course Info

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