Information Brat
My lesson planning group just finished brainstorming for this Saturday’s class which centers around nature, God’s creation, and the limitations of human capability. It’s quite poignant, really. We’re tossing around all these ideas, trying to bring in creative, multimedia options when all of a sudden I remember this awesome, awesome video about the earth - it zooms in and out and shows the vastness of the universe and the tiniest part of a cell.
I want to find this video while I’m still running on the excitement of lesson planning (nerdy, I know) and I don’t want to put it off because I’ll either forget or I’ll lose steam. Basically, I want to find this video, and I want to find it NOW!
I could just write this post and reflect on how wonderful it is to even have access to these types of information and resources. I mean, even ten years ago this would be something that I would probably have never seen, and certainly something I couldn’t show my students. In fact, I wonder if the material would even be there. Does the fact that there is a platform for displaying information create more information? I bet a ton of these videos and blogs that crack me up on a daily basis would not even have been conceived if not for the fact that they would be heard or seen.
But alas, this blog is not about how wonderful the Internet and the Knowledge Society is. Here’s where it gets bratty.
Actually now I feel bad writing about how annoyed I was a few minutes ago when I was trying to find this video. This is the issue with the internet and the vast VAST amounts of information that have been generated and are made available on this platform. At least ten years ago, when I needed resources I knew that my local library was the limit. And I’m creative - I can work with what I have. It’s when the sky’s the limit that I start to panic. I vaguely remember that this video was about the earth, it involved degrees of ten, and had molecules and galaxies. So how do I search and find this?? I typed in those words and a few synonyms and was near giving up after not finding it. What the hell, internet!! Gimmie my video!!!
Eventually, it popped up, but for the moments that it took me to locate it I was perplexed, frustrated, and annoyed. Having so much information at your fingertips is not always a good thing. After all, isn’t that the premise behind lamenting on “The Good ‘Ol Days”?
That plus I’m a brat.
