We live in an information age where we are constantly bombarded with content. Venturing on to the Web can lead us down many blind alleyways and cul-de-sacs, where we are unable to see the 'wood for the trees'. This should be no surprise, because everyone today it seems, is creating their own content. The rise in popularity of blogs and wikis, social networking services such as Facebook and Twitter, online encyclopedias such as Wikipedia, and media sharing tools (YouTube, Flickr, podcasting), all ensure that users have more content to navigate than ever before. This tsunami of content is at such a volume that using the Internet has been likened to taking a drink from a pressure hose. We have never before had access to so much knowledge, and never before have we been so overwhelmed. How can students make sense of this? How do they measure the reliability or accuracy of what they encounter? What will be the new teachers roles in this information rich environment? In a world of rapid change,such knowledge can be quickly outdated. How do we as educators prepare young people for a world we cannot clearly describe? In this presentation I will argue that exposure to vast amounts of content is not the answer, and that the current education model is falling short of its promise to learners. I will discuss some of the new 'digital' literacies that are emerging that students will need to acquire, to be prepared for the future, and to fully engage with the emerging cultures of the information age. I will examine some of the emerging tools we can expect to see in the coming years that may help us to contextualise new forms of learning. We will also explore a number of alternative possibilities where education might be transformed by being situated effectively to prepare learners for an uncertain future.
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