“I’ve got to go home; I really need to get some work done.”

Overloaded, Overconnected, and Disconnected  #VWWT2000 
Many work harder and fall farther behind.   Also see:  New Faculty Responsibilities, Increasing Workload for All (Prediction #12 from Y2K)  tlt.gs/obsover

Information overload is dramatically increasing.  So is work overload.  Having almost constant access to new varieties of communication tools means being almost constantly accessible to a growing flood of messages and information – personal, impersonal, and semi-personal.  Many people are finding they can’t get their work done in the office.  (“I’ve got to go home;  I really need to get some work done.”)  The overload has many people both “overconnected and disconnected”.  They are recipients of more information than ever before.  They don’t know how to manage and digest it.  They don’t have much time or energy left for meaningful personal relations.  [See the “human moment” in Connect by Edward Hallowell.]

Most faculty seem to have adjusted to the acceleration in knowledge growth in their fields, and so have most of the related support professionals.  However, neither the faculty nor those who are responsible for supporting their teaching can keep up with the new acceleration in growth of instructional options.  Many feel increasingly obliged to identify and understand their pedagogical and technological options and to make thoughtful choices among them.  Many work harder and fall farther behind.  Expectations outstrip resources.  The signs of stress are abundant.

- from Observations Section of "A New Vision Worth Working Toward: Connected Education and Collaborative Change," Steven W. Gilbert, 2000-2006, First version published via AAHESGIT listserv January, 2000; PDF of full article


Image:  Photo of young elephant "lost its footing and slipped down a steep enbankment. The long climb back up took an eternity but eventually trunk traction won the day!" (Image taken on the edge of the Ewaso Nyiro river at Samburu, Kenya) Date 9 July 2010, 14:21 "Uphill struggle!" Author Steve Garvie from Dunfermline, Fife, Scotland;  
Permission: "This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic License"
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/93/Flickr_-_Rainbirder_-_Uphill_struggle.jpg