Once upon a time, not so very long ago, information was difficult to come by. Most of the time spent on getting an education was devoted to two things: searching out facts that you needed; and committing the facts to memory so that you would have them in the future.
That time has changed. We are now officially in the Information Age. Information is everywhere. We are bombarded with it as we go about our daily lives. New data rapidly replaces that previously available. Much information becomes quickly outdated.(How much would YOU pay for last week's stock data? Yesterday's for that matter??? ) Many of our textbooks are obsolete before they are adopted for us to use!
Rather than searching for data as in the past, it is essential that we be able to manage the information we find (or which finds us!) effectively. We must teach our students to analyze information, evaluate its worth, and communicate pertinent data clearly to others. The time that students used to devote to locating information can now be spent analyzing it.
The Internet is a vast collection of data, but unlike a brick and mortar library it is not prescreened for value. Anyone may publish anything on the net. Taste, style, or accuracy are not prerequisite. There is not necessarily an editor correcting grammar, spelling, or syntax. Teachers who wish to use this resource must do the screening and make decisions on the material that will be used in class. For reasons of both pedagogy and safety, teachers must assume the role of electronic librarian, directing elementary students to resources which contain the data that students need to complete projects.
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