So much information

an #etmooc participant blog post published on
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I have 3 reasons for joining etmooc.

  •  interest in the topic, especially as a forum to learn and discover new tools for content creation and management.
  •  participating in an online community of smart dynamic people
  •  an opportunity to revive my blogging

Several people have already described the etmooc experience with words like fire-hose, sea of information, flood, etc. (curious, all related to water)

It’s not so different from the Internet at large except that a random look around etmooc results in even more interesting stuff than a random look around the Web. It’s much more concentrated.

Side of a building with 4 satellite dishes

photo: N Wright CC Attribution, Noncommercial, Share Alike

It’s been called information overload, and the Blur, among other things. I wrote about it once before, when I was starting out in the Pedagogy First class.

Here’s a link to my earlier post.

I’ve been checking etmooc each morning to see whats new. I usually find something like this:

That’s a lot of new information to fit into an already busy day for me. Really too much. I’ve been scanning through everything, trying to pick out what’s most interesting to me. Right now I’m focusing on how others are managing the fire-hose, and stories about blogging.  Many experienced bloggers here have offered a lot of great tips; but its really interesting to look at what new bloggers are doing and seeing new approaches being tried and tested. And of course, I’m always interested in reading reviews and news about new digital tools, online or otherwise.

There are many other topics under discussion as well, but limiting myself to a few areas is enough to keep very busy. I’ve read a lot about blogging this week and last, but haven’t had much chance to practice. The thing is, if I can set a few hours aside some evening to focus on etmooc, I’m faced with the choice of blogging about something I already know or have done, or I could spend the time learning about and doing something new. I usually go for the new, and the blogging gets pushed side. I suppose that’s a bit selfish, choosing to take rather than give, but that’s how it seems to work out. Well I found a few minutes to write up this post. Now its back to the fire-hose.

I’ve really enjoyed the live sessions, or the recorded playbacks of the sessions I couldn’t attend live. It’s great to have the recordings available.

Well, if you’ve seen any other posts with strategies for dealing with the information flood, feel free to link them in the comments. Especially interested in hearing from fellow etmooc-ers on the subject.

Are there any questions?