Information Overload Essay

Information Overload Essay Information Overload is an increasing problem both in the workplace and in life in general. It is a state in which the amount of available information is so overwhelming a person is unable to effectively process and utilize it. Information overload is intuitively noticeable in our daily lives. Walking any street, we can hardly measure the amount of information we are exposed to. Information hits us from all directions, newspapers, television, voice mail, cellular phones, email, electronic memos, and the World Wide Web, to name a few. This increase in information, combined with the factor of change in many aspects of our lives, can lead to an unhealthy effect. Information Overload is when you are trying to deal with more information than you are able to process to make sensible decisions. The result is either that you either delay making decisions, or that you make the wrong decisions. Understanding Information overload The first recorded use of the phrase information overload was used by the futurologist Alvin Toffler in 1970, when he predicted that the rapidly increasing amounts of information being produced would eventually cause people problems. Heylighen (1999) noted, People exposed to the rapid changes of modern life may develop a state of helplessness and inadequacy. Nelson (2001) defines information overload as the incapability to obtain a form of knowledge from a massive amount of information for one reason or another. Information overload can take place for one of these reasons: 1. Not understanding the existing information 2. Feeling inundated by the need to absorb huge amounts of information 3. Not knowing if the needed information exists or not 4. Not knowing where to obtain the information 5. Knowing where the information is but have no access privilege Causes of Information overload Information overload was experienced long before the appearance of information technology and electronic gadgets. Complaints about too many books echo across the centuries, from when books were papyrus rolls, parchment manuscripts, or hand printed. After Printing innovation books were produced and accumulated in unprecedented numbers, and, given their drop in cost, many more readers than before had access to more books than they could read. In the Internet era where millions of smart phones and gadgets are sold every day, zillions of tons of data are being produced. Thus making people spoilt for choices. With a touch, one can easily get almost any data from any corner of the world. The rate of production of different kinds of data such as news, text, multimedia and graphs is breathtaking. For example: YouTube where 24 hours of video is being uploaded in every minute and the rate is increasing everyday. There are millions of sites are there and even the IP address is going to be exhausted. One could imagine the amount of electronic data that is available to digest. Organizations accumulate a huge amount of information about its internal operations and resources. Fifteen years ago only phone, fax and post mails were used for communication. There is a general increase in business communication by voice mail, e-mail, internet and online conferencing in addition to the above mentioned traditional methods which results information overload. Disadvantages of information overload for an organization Too little or too much information is not good for an individual and an organization. Too much reduces their ability to concentrate effectively on the most important messages. People facing information overload sometimes try to cope by ignoring some of the messages, by delaying responses to messages they deem unimportant, by answering only parts of some messages, by responding inaccurately to certain messages, by taking less time with each message, or by reacting only superficially to all messages. Persons exposed to excessive amounts of information are less productive, prone to make poor decisions, and risk suffering serious stress-related diseases. He becomes highly selective and ignore a large amount of information or give up and dont go beyond the first results in many cases, need more time to reach a decision, make mistakes, have difficulties in identifying the relationship between the details and the overall perspective and waste time. Information overload affects-and afflicts-both individual knowledge workers, struggling to perform their jobs while drowning in data, and entire office organizations, whose productivity and customer care suffer as a consequence. The abundance of information we enjoy today comes at a price. Less apparent is the tremendous hidden cost it imposes on the organization as a whole. In one study, for example, people took an average of nearly 25 minutes to return to a work task after an email interruption. Another study found that time lost to handling unnecessary e-mail and recovering from information interruptions cost Intel nearly $1 billion a year. An article in the October issue of HBR, found that forcing knowledge workers to take weekly breaks from email and other work distractions improved performance. Information Overload on an organization is to understand all the lost opportunities it causes and inefficiencies produced. The amount of information has increased for a number of reasons: there is a general increase in business communication, in-company and with customers and suppliers; trends such as globalisation and deregulation increase competition; companies are downsizing and fewer secretaries are employed to protect people from information; more outsourcing means a wider range of other companies with which it is necessary to communicate. There are also more ways to communicate: by fax, voice mail, e-mail, internet and online conferencing, in addition to the more traditional methods, telephone, meetings, post and telex. The cost to business Time is wasted. People spend too much time looking for information. 38% of managers surveyed waste substantial amounts of time just looking for information. Factors such as the holding of files in different software formats and the speed of the internet at critical times of day contribute to this. Decisions are often delayed: 43% of respondents though that decisions were delayed and otherwise adversely affected by analysis paralysis or the existence of too much information. 47% of respondents said that information collection distracts them from their main responsibilities. They find it difficult to develop strategies for dealing with the information they retrieve. It is interesting to imagine the potential increase in productivity if all distractions were removed. The human costs The study identified for the first time that information overload contributes to stress. Two out of three respondents associated information overload with tension with colleagues and loss of job satisfaction. 42% attributed ill-health to this stress. 61% said that they have to cancel social activities as a result of information overload and 60% that they are frequently too tired for leisure activities. National differences In general these were not considered to be of great significance. Managers in the USA and the United Kingdom get the most unsolicited information. Asian managers appear to need less information to make decisions: only 9% claimed to need enormous amounts of information compared with 31% in the United States. Their major decisions may be made through intuition to a greater extent. More United States managers (39%) agree that they suffer stress than those in the UK and Hong Kong. People can no longer develop effective personal strategies for managing information. Faced with an onslaught of information and information channels, they have become unable to develop simple routines for managing information. Technologies for managing information are often the problem, not the solution. They can create the M25 effect: more lanes just means more traffic. People create and distribute because they can, not because its useful. Intranets can become like the internet full of home-made home pages and dead links. Intelligent agents frequently do not live up to their name. Current research suggests that the surging volume of available information-and its interruption of peoples work-can adversely affect not only personal well-being but also decision making, innovation, and productivity. In one study, for example, people took an average of nearly 25 minutes to return to a work task after an e-mail interruption. Thats bad news for both individuals and their organizations. Theres hope, though. Innovative tools and techniques promise relief for those of us struggling with information inundation. Some are technological solutions-software that automatically sorts and prioritizes incoming e-mail, for instance-designed to regulate or divert the deluge. Others prevent people from drowning by getting them to change the way they behave and think. Who knows: Maybe someday even I will enjoy swimming in the powerful currents of information that now threaten to pull me under. Before we can take action / set the procedure to minimize the negative effect of information overload, we should do the analysis of information flows both individual and organisation. Not only for electronic information source such email, but also for spoken words, reading books and talking to friends and family. The analysis is started with identification what information we need based on our key information areas, when we need the information, to whom we should exchange the information with (information sharing), and why we need the information and how we turn the information into results. After understand the information flow, we will be able to set/construct the procedure of information handling which consists of filtering, information pruning, time management, to-do list and optimization the use of current technology as information organizing and distributing tool. There are two types of filtering information i.e. technical filter and daily communication filter. The technical filter is easier to manage as once we set our preference it will work accordingly. An example of technical filter is filter function that is available in e-mails. Filtering daily communication is more difficult because it depends much on the situation and current conversation at that time. Every reaction to another person is an indication of what you want to hear or not hear during the rest of the conversation. We often think that the information is important/useful for the recipient which actually not from recipient point of view. Filter prime our thinking and test whether the new information is important. However, the filter should not be too rigid, as it may exclude coincidences. We will no longer accidentally stumble across information, as is often part of searches on the internet. As regards of second information flow, we can decide more quickly to simply stop receiving it if the information is just nice to know instead of need to know. We will not miss anything as we dont use this information for making decision. Besides that, this less important information will leave us less time for really important information. There is a tool for technical pruning such as setting up the expiry date and which action should we take e.g. file, cancel, delete, etc. Time management is important as time is always in exceedingly short supply. We never enough with the time that we have. Therefore, attention and concentration are important aspect in time management. With full attention and concentration the time spent for managing information is more efficient. Because we need to remember increasingly more, we need an aid i.e. to do list of actions so that we can keep tracking what things we still need to do/settle. This practice alone will give us a lot of added value. Besides the to-do list, it is also good if we also make not-to-list so that when the time come, we are ready. Nowadays with high technology we can optimize the IT to help us to organize and distribute the information.

My Personal Philosophy of Education :: Education Teaching Teachers Essays

My Personal Philosophy of Education For as long as I can remember I have wanted to be a teacher. As a child I taught countless spelling lessons and math problems to classes of stuffed animals and Barbie dolls. Now I am all grown up and I want some real children in those seats not teddy bears and dolls. I can’t wait to begin teaching and working with the students. Until then I am working on honing my skills, developing a suitable philosophy, and planning how I will become the best teacher that I can be. I think all students yearn to learn. Students gobble up knowledge if it is presented to them in an appetizing manner. Students need to be ready to learn something before they will. They can’t really be force-fed knowledge. They have to be willing to take it in and digest it. Only then can something be truly learned. Many time students are taught something just so they can spit it back out on a test. Students need to be able to use what they have learned in a practical way. Lots of times something is learned, tested on, and then the student forgets it. If you can’t remember or use what you have learned then what is the point in learning it at all? Real knowledge comes with applying subject matter to real life and using what you have learned. The overall purpose of education is teaching a student how to think. I want my students to learn how to think critically. To think is to comprehend what has been learned and be able to use it in a real situation. Thinking isn’t promoted when children are trained to be like parrots and repeat what they know without ever using that knowledge. Thinking also includes making thoughtful decisions. I want my students to realize how their actions and decisions affect themselves and others. This would be thinking about the moral value of their thoughts and actions.

Evolution of Human Affairs Essay

Leo Darroch experiences â€Å"The Past is our Present to your Future† whenever she reads this inscription in front of the monument of the former Prime Minister Earl Grey in the center of the Newcastle upon Tyne, a city in UK. (Darroch, Online) These words, according to the author, were most probably inscribed to delve upon the people the value of maintaining traditions of the Catholic Church. This was love for traditions; quite unique and true but it is also true that from our past is born our present and from our present our future. The way we have adopted our lives and the way we are living today and caught in the vicious circle of our lives has been the result of more than 400 years of evolution of several human affairs in the form of several mile stones crossed in all social, economic, political, military as well as all in the spheres that human life can even think of. From the reign of the France’s King Louis XIV to the death of Napoleon Bonaparte in 1821, many changes took place, which had an everlasting impact not only in France and Britain but also whole of Europe and even many parts of the world, which were colonies. These changes were predominantly on account of the reforms constituted by the rulers in their respective periods. Many reforms took revolutionary turns changing complete life styles and whole traditional values and concepts on which their life was based. Many adventurous propositions of King Louis IV led to many wars in the Europe between the years 1650-1715. Several changes were witnessed in wars, and many theories, new techniques of warfare and new practices emerged with many culminating in what is known as modern way of warfare. He introduced special rewards for the most courageous and virtuous soldiers, and established new order to raise the power and prestige of the soldiers. King also announced for the soldiers revenue and pensions, which would increase according to the capability of the soldier. This was the established in the name of Saint Louis and only officers who had been serving in the troops and on the basis of merit and distinguished services were considered as eligible for the same and would get special honors and rewards. Today also we can see same military orders in several nations. Army officers are bestowed with various honors and rewards on virtue of their bravery and valor. According to historians, the reign of Louis XIV was beginning of the modern state. Many of the things we see today like centralized government, a centralized civil bureaucracy, national legislation, a national judiciary was initiated under the reign of Louis XIV. (Page, Online) Louis XIV was considered as the greatest ruler of his age and time and the impact of the reforms he laid we can still feel today. Years 1769 to 1821 saw rise of Napoleon Bonaparte in France, who is still known as the Emperor of swords unleashing his power over all Europe as well as Russia and threatened British Monarchy but according to historians, he was not only a monarch but also a great administrator. He left for his subjects and for their coming generations an incessant impact of his intelligence and heart; 20,000 miles of imperial roads, 12,000 miles of regional roads, thousands miles of canals were the efforts of Napoleon’s long sightedness. (Weider, Online) He also built the Great Cornice road along the Mediterranean coast, and the mountain roads, which were laid along the Alps through Simplon Pass and Mont Cenis, and many harbors were also expanded. (Weider, Online) It was his innovative and thought process that has made our travel smooth and easy and till today these roads are the lifelines of our economy and our whole life. There is also no doubt that the period of industrial and scientific revolution only made possible for us to zoom with a speed across these roads. Reaching destinations now takes very less time in contrast to the past. Napoleon also started various think tanks and research centers in France to begin their work on projects deemed very important for the national economy. He also set up an Industrial Board to facilitate the provision of data and information for the French Industry; now also there are many industrial boards helping the industries in all its spheres of activities. It was also the period of enlightenment and Napoleon took advantage of the same by establishing modern system of education. He transferred the administrative control of the public schools from the dominion of Catholic Church to the State, making schools as institutions of moral values, patriot feeling and the intelligence. Now nuns and priests were forbidden to teach in the public schools and under the reign of Napoleon, France might had been the first ever nation to set up high schools comprising different levels often called as â€Å"lycees centrales† (Haas, 1) for students scoring high average marks and also schools imparting knowledge on trade, mining, astronomy and varied related subjects, and now when we look at our schools today, we find the same system. In all the public schools, we are taught different subjects and even children of today are graded and put on the role in the schools depending on the interest of their subjects and also on their grade level. Napoleon also developed a civil code, which is still in force in France, known as the Code of Napoleon. (Haas, 1) Between the years seventeenth and eighteenth centuries were the years of many changes; the Age of Absolutism, the Scientific Revolution, the Enlightenment, the American & French Revolutions entered the lives of people of Britain, France, Europe and slowly yet steadfastly creped into the world with new thoughts, enlightenment, scientific discoveries and industrial revolution. Scientific revolution, which was thought to begin around 15th century, changed the scientific ideas which were popular in physics, astronomy and biology. Thoughtful and intelligent minds, scientists and scholars were questioning on the various beliefs and practices. People started believing sun as the center of the Universe, which was not so few decades back, secondly, the Aristotelian theory on the matter as continuous and made of Earth, Water, Air, Fire got changed to the notion that matter of atomic. Scientific revolution also questioned the predominant religious thoughts on the God and the existence of the Earth to the extent that we still believe such things today. We still believe Sun is the center of the whole Universe and now we question every thing, which is religious and natural. We often find ourselves asking what is God and what is nature? Is there any thing like God because no science has discovered this so for; we believe what is scientific? French revolution brought social changes; nobility and Feudal lordship was abolished and women, poor and the middle class got all the economic, social and political rights which were withheld by them before the revolution whereas after the American revolution, there was new hope of light for the colonists. The new nation that was created formulated new laws and new ideas with own governance providing common defense and general welfare. The effect of the changes brought about by the revolution we can see till today: women, poor and middle class people enjoy more rights today. Women can enter into any occupation of her choice and the poor and the middle class can exert all their social and political powers. All around us, we can see equality, fraternity, secularism and continuous progress. Though we are now wearing different style of clothes, live in the architecturally different houses having power of electricity enabling us to enjoy everything world is providing yet these are the fruits of those periods of 400 years old. The age of enlightenment during the same era made us perpetuate to think rationally on every aspect of life, which previously bounded us to age-old superstitious beliefs. Now whatever we are taught, we have every right to think on rational grounds. Philosophers of the period of enlightenment like Pascal, Descartes, Bayle, Montesquieu, Voltaire, Diderot, and Rousseau told us to adopt and believe in our power of reasoning. (Rempel, Online) Today too we could see ourselves discovering new things and every time new waves of thought process. We are today no doubt as a consequence of the revolutions of our bygone days, with more rights to get education, follow our religious ideals and political endeavors and enter into nationalist’s thoughts. We have more freedom, more privileges and more objects of luxury. We can reach across the globe sitting at home with the help of new technologies but at the same time, we have also confided ourselves in selfishness. With the modern techniques of warfare and nuclear bombs, we are always at the threshold of risk and moreover our scientific endeavors are rendering us more vulnerable to the threat of environment degradation and economic hatred. But overall we are now imbibed and bestowed with the greatest powers which should be enjoyed by human beings like their natural rights, rational thoughts, equality, secularism, nationalism and above all continuous progress. Works Cited Darroch, Leo. â€Å"The Past is our Present to your Future†. Internet (2002) Available: http://www. latin-mass-society. org/leounavoce. htm, April 3, 2008. Haas, Werner. â€Å"The Reforms of Napoleon and Their Impact on Europe. † Internet (2007) Available: http://www. associatedcontent.com/article/257247/the_reforms_of_napoleon_and_their_impact. html? cat=37, April 3, 2008. Page, Thomas M. â€Å"Age of Absolutism†. Internet. Available: http://history2. professorpage. info/absolutism. htm, April 3, 2008. Rempel, Gerhard. â€Å"AGE OF THE ENLIGHTENMENT. † Internet. Available: http://mars. wnec. edu/~grempel/courses/wc2/lectures/enlightenment. html, April 3, 2008. Weider, Ben. â€Å"The Assassination of Napoleon. † Internet. Available: http://www. napoleon-series. org/ins/weider/c_assassination_w. html, April 3, 2008.

The German Lyrics for Edelweiss

If youre a fan of the The Sound of Music, then you probably have the words to Edelweiss memorized. But if you only know the song in English, its time to learn how to sing it in  German. Edelweiss is more than just a sweet song from a classic musical. Its also a good  example of how songs are translated into different languages. Though it was written in English for a 1959 American musical set in Austria  that was adapted as a movie in 1965, German lyrics werent written until later. It might surprise you to learn that the translation isnt exact; in fact, its not even close, except in the general sentiment. Before we get into the translation, heres some background on the song. Edelweiss Isnt German or Austrian The first thing you should know about Edelweiss is that its not an Austrian or German song. The only thing German about it is its title and the alpine flower itself. The song was written and composed by two Americans:  Richard Rodgers  (music) and  Oscar Hammerstein II  (lyrics). Hammerstein had a German heritage—his grandfather, Oscar Hammerstein I, was born in what is now Poland to a German-speaking Jewish family—but the song is strictly American. In the film, Captain von Trapp (played by  Christopher Plummer) sings an emotional version of Edelweiss, a resounding, memorable rendition that may have contributed to the false idea that its the Austrian national anthem. The second thing  to know about  Edelweiss is that it, like The Sound of Music, is virtually unknown in Austria. Although Salzburg, Austria, bills itself as The Sound of Music City, customers for The Sound of Music tours include very few Austrians or Germans. Edelweiß der Liedtext (Edelweiss Lyrics) Music by Richard RogersEnglish Lyrics by  Oscar HammersteinDeutsch: UnknownMusical: The Sound of Music Edelweiss is a very simple song no matter which language you choose to sing it in. Its a great way to practice your German with a tune that you probably already know. Both the German and English lyrics are below. Notice how each language uses the songs rhythm and has  the same or nearly the same number of syllables per line. Both sets of lyrics have a romantic feel, not only in the meaning of the words  but also in how they sound. German Lyrics English Lyrics Direct Translation Edelweiß, Edelweiß, Edelweiss, Edelweiss, Edelweiss, Edelweiss Du grà ¼ÃƒÅ¸t mich jeden Morgen, Every morning you greet me You greet me every morning, Sehe ich dich, Small and white, I see you, Freue ich mich, clean and bright I am looking, Und vergess' meine Sorgen. You look happy to meet me. And I forget my worries. Schmà ¼cke das Heimatland, Blossom of snow Decorate the home country, Schà ¶n und weiß, may you bloom and grow, Beautiful and white, Blà ¼hest wie die Sterne. Bloom and grow forever. Flourishing like the stars. Edelweiß, Edelweiß, Edelweiss, Edelweis, Edelweiss, Edelweiss, Ach, ich hab dich so gerne. Bless my homeland forever. Oh, I love you so much. An  Example of How Songs Are Translated In translating songs, how they sound and flow with the music is more important than an exact transliteration of the words. Thats why the German translation is significantly different from  Hammersteins English lyrics. We dont know who wrote the German lyrics for Edelweiss, yet he or she did a good job of retaining the meaning of Hammersteins song. Its interesting to compare all three versions side by side so we can see how musical translations work.