Photo by "My Life Through A Lens" on Unsplash
Defining characteristics of today's internet which stimulates information production Information is produced at an ever-increasing rate, stimulated by several key aspects of our digital world. Information is no longer the sole domain of the wealthy and influential, with open-source software freely available, blogging platforms and wikis open everyone, and social media forums influencing trends, it is no longer a closed, controlled and rarified world. Photo by freestocks.org on Unsplash The general populace has much more information available to them, instantly, whenever they want it, instead of waiting for the newspaper, or for the library to open. This deluge of information is all free, enabling anyone with an internet-connected device to find the information they want, and use it as an educated consumer or commentator.
Speed-to-market is increasingly vital, particularly for news businesses. Many news publishers have introduced websites, apps and blogs in an effort to maintain their relevance, and to streamline and make more cost-effective their business model, while continuing to generate revenue. The growth of social media and news commentary sites such as the Huffington Post threatens more traditional news publishers by allowing subscriber commentary and sharing. Wikis and other collaborative publishing modes have strongly contributed to this upheaval in the way information is produced and disseminated, although some publishers, like Wikipedia are finding that their volunteer contributors (mostly white, Western volunteer men) have skewed the quantity and quality available on topics in which they are interested. Challenges of these models for educators As mentioned above, there is now a deluge of information available to anyone with an internet-connected device. One of the challenges we now have is how to wrangle all this information for our students. Classification and curation is part of the answer, but how to we ensure the source is credible? Classification requires knowledge of specialist computer programs, and statistical analysis is of increased importance. Barcodes, as used in retail, can help with physical books, but there are also extremely detailed, extremely numerous digital assets to manage. It is therefore important to develop a strong understanding of classification both structured data (such as data with identification numbers), and unstructured data (such as reviews, information derived from emails and similar). Compounding these challenges is the rapid pace of change in the information we use, and the lack of control owners of information now have, with the rise of blogging and crowd-sourced review sites. #inf532 Reference De Saulles, M. (2015). Information 2.0 : new models of information production, distribution and consumption (Second edition. ed.). London: facet publishing.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
About meI'm a learning designer from Geelong in Victoria. I have worked in vocational education and training for many years, and for the last four have concentrated entirely on creating learning content to support teachers and students. Archives
May 2019
Categories
All
|