A sea of information: run!

One of the things that continues to take my breath away when learning within on-line networks is just when you think (and I'm sure that some of you may relate even just a little) that you're progressing, a sudden tsunami-like wave of information feels like it is looming on the horizon and there is the biggest temptation to duck and hide until the deluge subsides.

Of course the temptation abates and you continue swimming through the influx that wasn't even a tsunami, it was more like a giant wave at the beach, or something a lot less life threatening! Although you still thrash about you eventually do manage to begin free-styling your way through. The key word being eventually. ;)

What I am beginning to realise is we are living in a different era, one that does not reflect the seemingly calm waters of television, educational institutions and traditional media that I grew up in. I never for a second felt that there was an abundance of information with a plethora of gateways. It was either reruns of Mash or a whole day of sport. Not any more. I asked my sixteen year old what he thought of my evaluation and he laughed and said: "There's not enough!" For a moment I thought he was kidding but he continued: "There will probably be too much after 100 years but the Internet hasn't been around long enough to be too much."

This makes sense as all my sons have ever known is the world wide web and I, not only they, cannot even imagine what it was like before. Although I find it exciting and am forever grateful for all the access I have, as I think boredom will definitely be a thing of the past (at least for me), I do sometimes feel like there is so much to look at, read, view, and navigate through that it can seem like there are endless possibilities.

What I have found as a voice validating my experience is a talk by Professor George Siemens at the University of the Sunshine Coast. In "Connecting learners: technology, change and higher education," which was shared via Goksu Dines, a peer of mine's, blog (http://ggdines.wordpress.com/). Siemens put up the quote that the "21st century is a terrible time to be a control freak." I immediately laughed as I could see it happening within the schooling system for many years. There is a constant attempt to control learning. Although this may have worked in the past, when schooling was more entertaining that being at home, well, it was in my case. Now, young people, at least, find school to be "boring."

Siemens also talks about how there is a grand narrative that asserts "learning is a wonderfully smooth process of running through meadows." "No," he asserts, "learning is violent." The paradigm shifts and "restructuring" of neuro-pathways, or of just conventional ways of thinking causes the learner to initially feel "frustrated" or "irritated." (I know I have certainly felt the former.) However, he says, when the learner persists he or she will become active "sense-makers," meaning connected individuals who contribute to learning rather than "duplicate" what is known.

I don't think the drowning feeling will forever go away but at least I know now that I am definitely not alone in navigating this open sea.