We can help students overcome information boom. The different symptoms that show an overload of information are general fatigue, reduced attention span, change in attitude, behavior, sleeplessness, over indulgence and wrong eating habits . These multiple resources in varying quantity and quality definitely impact the students. Information is increasingly abundant and accessible to the students who are overwhelmed by the amount of data they have to process called information overload. Overload means inability to process , assimilate, understand and implement. As trusted adults , we can help and make use of these diverse perspectives instead of unidimensional ones like textbooks earlier. It is information galore and not an overload, that is how information is structured today on the net (question, perception, opinions). To avoid such situation a set of rules and guidelines would be beneficial. As teachers we have to step in here and draw the rules to help students realize the harmful effects of excess data and guide them.
Provide clear instructions, limit the amount of information to be accessed. Encourage students to reduce social media use and avoid getting distracted from the tasks that need attention. They can be selective in identifying the data needed and avoid confusion and potentially damaging effects on the quality of their decisions. The quality benchmark should be based on the students age, ability and level of knowledge.
The different methods that can be used to reduce overload of information is to break the relevant information into smaller chunks, sort and arrange the topics that are important. Assisted use of social media will be beneficial and will help change the mindset. If it is made a part of school session where teachers and students can research on different topics together, it will not only help monitoring them but also be helpful to the students. Simultaneously, age appropriate awareness workshops from toddlers to teenagers would help them to stay safe and secure from cyber bullying or abuse.
We need
to discreetly put in place different benchmarks, so students
can be better equipped to manage the overload of information thus
avoiding any major concerns we foresee.
Students should be made to understand how to navigate, not get burdened, get their own unique perspective and not become a chat GPT
master / slave to too much content.
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