Re: Digital =?iso-8859-1?Q?grazing=8A?= byte by byte

Barry L. Chad (chadb@clpgh.org)
Sat, 29 Mar 1997 11:33:43 EST 

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Subj:	Re: Digital =?iso-8859-1?Q?grazing=8A?= byte by byte

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From: Suzanne Alejandre <salejan@e2.empirenet.com>

Dear Kam,

Since I wrote this,

>>I often wonder if we are becoming frenetic in how we look
>>at information. Actually I thought of it this morning as
>>I was reading the newspaper. I found myself jumping from
>>topic to topic much faster than is my normal style.
>>
>>Is this a way to gain more information? or filter
>>information? so that we can spend time on what is important?
>>or are we just going to become superficial information
>>gatherers?
>>
>>Suzanne Alejandre

I have been thinking more about how I have come to process
information and I love the words you used to describe it!

>Actually, Suzanne, your digital grazing techniques are on an upswingŠ

VERY interesting illusion - makes me think of WIRED   :) and the
way they present things.

>Seriously, I would proffer the notion that it is not so much a function of
>speed or randomness, but one of storage capability and on demand recall of
>meaningful content.

I guess my worry of myself (and therefore of my students...) is that
I need to remind myself that I should stop once in awhile and work on
one idea.....or read thoroughly one article...or relate only to one
person....rather than frenetically jumping from topic to topic, person
to person, thought to thought as if I were scanning all possible things.

There is a tendency sometimes (because of the MTV mode of our lives) to
forget to stop and relate (whether it be to an idea, a person, or a task)
and that is what I want to remember!  Hmmmmm....kind of sounds like
one of the ideas of the TIMSS report - not jumping from concept to concept
but taking some time and work on something in depth?

***Richard Saul Wurman, back in "Information Anxiety" suggested that it is
possible to follow an idea on a path through all knowledge.  I don't think your
manner of gathering information is so much wrong as it is symptomatic of the
volume of information available today and as it is predictive of the desire to
unify all human knowledge.  "Hypertext" is a primitive herald of the
interconnectedness of all knowledge.  The essential inadequacy of all the major
search engines is another aspect of the growing pains.  Mystics/Scientists in
the 1500s are probably our most direct ancestors in the attempt to codify and
unify all human knowledge.  That is what is both so scary and so exciting about
the advent of the Web.  You are not alone in your patterns of garnering
information.
bchad





Suzanne
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Date: Sat, 29 Mar 1997 08:10:22 -0800
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From: Suzanne Alejandre <salejan@e2.empirenet.com>
Subject: Re: Digital =?iso-8859-1?Q?grazing=8A?= byte by byte
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