SKBP 1023

BAHASA DAN TEKNOLOGI MAKLUMAT

TASK 1 : Information Management for Students/Researchers

PREPARED BY:

A168458 NUR FATEHAH BINTI OTHMAN

A168603 NORHIDAYAH BINTI SABIR

PREPARED FOR:

PROF. MADYA DR. AFENDI BIN HAMAT

PART 1
Is information overload and its causes real or just hype? Find supporting evidence and
properly quote / cite them.

Information overload and its causes are real. Information overload is known as an
overflowing exposure of an information or data received by individuals psychologically. This
phenomenon existed when information becomes an important data. According to Gross B.
(1970), information overload occurs when the amount of input to a system exceeds its processing
capacity. Every human have a brain to think as scientifically called as cognitive process. But,
there is a limit for a human cognitive processing capability. It becomes a problem when the
individual could not control or to be exact, overwhelmed by the information or situation. Due to
the overflowing information or data, human will lose their quality in decision making.
Commonly, information overload happens due to the constant information created in a huge
volume and the pressures in distributing disregard the quality of an information. Allen (2003) in
her study revealed that the definition of an information overload is a perception on the part of the
individual that the flows of information associated with work tasks is greater than can be
managed effectively, and a perception that overload in this sense create a degree of stress for
which his or her coping strategies are ineffective. All reasoning comes back to how sufficiently
people managed their time, tasks and information during a period of time. The innovation of
information technology these days have improved a lot than during back in the old days. It is
believed that streaming modernization is causing some people having a hard time to keeping up
with it. The overflowing information received will consummate confusion. Confusion symptoms
consist of the loss of boundaries or task, loss of priorities and goal direction, and last but not least
an increase emotionality and irrationality. Loss of boundaries or task is a state of an individual
where he or she is having some uncertainty on their tasks given. What possibly the task is
focusing on or the job scope of the person to work on. Meanwhile, the loss of priorities and goal
direction is a condition where an individual have lost the sighting the important part of the work
and the work might astray from the field they are studying. Lastly, our emotions also play an
important part in causing information overload phenomenon. Instability of emotion will affect
our irrationality in making decisions. This is due to our priorities in the moment were blinded
with our emotions.
PART 2
1. How a student should manage information in order to avoid information overload and
generally make a better use of internet resources. (3 sources)

In this globalization days, internet is one of the medium that students use the most where
they are classified as an active user in the IT world. In brief, the students need to use internet due
to wanting to cope up with the updated information therefore the students are now being
dependent on accessing all the information through the internet. As a result, there will be
information overload from the activity of accessing too much information without knowing and
realizing the validity of the contents found and the risk of having the wrong information. The
students are drowning in information where they are being bombarded with thousands of
information while they had less time to process all that information given. Consequently, it will
affect the student‟s health and limit their ability in finishing the entire task given. According to
Andrew McDermott (2017), stated that 33% felt they were suffering from poor health due to
information overload. Information overload is a common and dangerous infection hence it is not
due to the reason that it cannot be cured but truly because we as a student were powerless to stop
this kind of infection. Information overloads also known as an increasing problem in student life.
It is a phenomenon where the amount of available information is so overwhelming, and it causes
the students to be incapable in an effective process and in utilizing all the information. One of the
ways in managing information to avoid information overload are identify the sources, filter the
information, make time to review, act on it or delete the information, and turn the information
off.
The first method is to identify the sources. Every student needs to work out where all the
data that they had gain coming from. For instance, like the most popular sources of course from
the emails, magazines, websites, instant messaging such as WhatsApp, social communication
tools, and other reading materials. The moment when students manage to identify where the data
is coming from, they should start with restricting and managing the channels systematically.
Next, students require to filter all the information that they had received from any
sources. In other words, a processing set up need to be construct in order to help the students in
categorize and takes action on the data that had been received. Specifically, like creating a
certain email rules to sort out incoming emails into separate folders so that it can be review later
on and create filling structures for storing certain documents so that it can be referred when in
need. Most students would use search engines as a way to filter information as it is already
designed to filter out irrelevant information, but still there is a higher amount of it that slips
through the cracks and must be filtered using another way. Saga Briggs (2014) mentioned that
we should filter some of the information by hand, if we will because it is not only waste of time
and energy, but it is also a waste of brain space. Filtering information is highly recommended
due to the fact that our human brain cannot replicate too much of relevant information. The brain
will become saturated and full with too much of the same things when there is too much relevant
information.
The third method in managing information is the students need to make time to review it
appropriately without being distracted. As eloquently stated by Saga Briggs (2014), through a
recent PEW study affirmed that a majority of teachers (87%) agree with the assertion that
today‟s digital technologies are creating an easily distracted generation with short attention spans
to the students. For instance, like when a student has assignments to do and instead of doing it,
the student is checking to see whether if anyone responded to their Tweet about a certain topic
that had been uploaded in social media known as Twitter. Regarding this matter, we can easily
question where we should draw a line between harmless digression and limited productivity. In
order to prevent it from happening is by spending a little bit of time in a day to go through all the
data that are collating such as going through all of the email folders and reviewing document that
had been stored before. Students are advices to have their own planner so that they have
structured time each week to deal with all the information accordingly. It is a great benefit for the
students where there will be more time saving since having time set aside to sort out incoming
information will prevent the students from getting side tracked during “work time”. In addition,
the students also oblige to keep in mind that they should settle all the work and all the deal that
are mostly urgent at a quick pace. Besides, the type of information that need to be settle first
indeed will not finish when students keep on putting it aside to review it later on and cause it
piling up.
Last but not least, another method that the students reassure in countering information
overload is by taking an action such as deal with it at that moment or later on but only if it takes
lesser time to settle or handle it. Additionally, the students also ought to pass it to another person
who known as an expert in managing and conducting that kind of information very well or file
the information in an important folder thus it can easily be review when needed without having
to go through all the documents. The last option after taking action about the information is to
delete everything that are possible to distinguish and considered as not important. Spellman
(2011), mentioned that sources of information is everywhere and due to that reasons, all the
things are believe to be external where most people often feel like they are trapped by a problem
and it is beyond their control. More specifically, the core problem is that information actually
very unlimited but our own ability to organize it is differ.

2. How to know if information is reliable/credible etc.?

Reliable brings the meaning of being consistently good in quality or performance and
able to be trusted. Information can be gained from a lot of sources both online or offline.
Information that we gained through online can be questionable of its reliableness. According to
Metzger (2003), several scholars have addressed the question of what is new about digital media
that makes the need for effective critical evaluation more pressing today. The credibility or
reliability of an information sources can be hard to evaluate as nowadays have a lot of
information can be found on the internet. Fensel (2005) also agreed that because of its
exponential growth, finding quality information on the web is similar to a nightmare.
Sources are divided into two sections, which are the primary and secondary. Primary
sources are normally the original or raw research with its analyzed work. Analyzation means the
experiment conducted by the scientist, the data surveys, questionnaires, interviews or
observations and original ideas expressed in sources such as government reports and speeches.
While secondary sources are from someone who writes or explains other author ideas. For an
example the articles or experiments in scientific journals that report the results of other
researches, magazine or newspaper accounts of interviews, surveys or questionnaires conducted
by other researchers, and articles or reviews in books or journals about novels, speeches or
government documents.
In choosing good sources, we have to pay attention to who wrote and published the
information. To evaluate print sources, we have to know the reputation of the author, a
comprehensive reference lists or bibliography, relevancy context from the author, presentation of
the methodology research and the validity of the information presented. Next, information gained
by the web. The criteria of reliable sources on the web are divided into five, which are authority,
accuracy, objectivity, currency and coverage or scope. Information that we gained through the
internet usually has URL, can be defined as the address of a World Wide Web page. The URL
provides the information regarding the origin of the resources. There are several types of
organization that sponsors the content of the website. The sites that ends in “.edu” are usually
from an educational institutions and the information are generally are good and trusted.
Meanwhile, sites that ends with “.gov” are websites that sponsored by government. The
information obtained is usually good for a statistical data. Next, “.org” is websites that are
sponsored by non-profit organizations set up as a public service. This kind of sources should be
on a look out, because of the political agendas or biases. An organization responsible site should
also have a clear identification such as an official logo and contact details. The most basic clues
are whether the website uses correct grammar and spelling.
PART 3
What apps / tools / services are available to help students /researchers deal with
information (especially digital information from the web)?

At the present time, finding applications, tools, or services that available to support the
students deal with information help to streamline all the workload much better. Most people are
struggling in getting all the workload done in time especially when they have an ever-growing
to-do list and around-the-clock workload to be settle. Being a student of course there will be a
constant stream of tasks and assignments that demand attention and before they realize about it,
the days given to settle it have reached it limit and only half of the workload that need to be
completed had accomplish. Luckily, there are a range of helpers that can help the students to
streamline or manage all the information.

TOOLS DESCRIPTION

Get Things Done

Wunderlist · An easy to use task management tool in helping students to manage

their plans, projects, and other tasks or assignments.
· Can create to-do-list and use folders to compile related lists
· Allow to set due dates and add on reminders so that students do not
have to worry about remembering all the important tasks.
· Notes and reminders can be added
· Contain smart lists where it automatically generates lists based on the
day or week depend on the due date that the students have allocates.
· Students also can share all the lists that they have in the apps with their
friends.
MyLifeOrganized · Incredibly flexible to-do list tool that will truly help the students to deal
with information until it is done.
· Act as a task management application and personal organizer for the
students.
· Enables the students to create hierarchical task lists where it can break
down the tasks into smaller part and structure all the information given in
terms of which is more important than the others.
· The students capable to track all their projects and information that they
gain through this tool.

Keep Project on Track

Basecamp · Act as a space where everyone can use it to do work together as a whole
team.
· Use it to create projects, organize tasks, allocate assignments, and set
deadlines for all the task received.
· This apps sort out users into different organizations and groups so that it
a lot easier to check on who is working on what task.
· Easy to collaborates in managing works and gain information as it also
enables the users to comment and start discussion thread with the other
users.

Asana · A project management tool that offer many features in order to make it
easier to track all the works and information.
· The type of tool that allow student to create tasks and make it more
convenience for them to assign which group members need to handle
which information or tasks.
· This tool also gives privilege to the users especially for the students in
 this case to set reminders on which information to deal first, monitor all
of the information receive, and keep track on the work given.
The tool that beneficial for users that involve lots of group members in
managing and settling tasks or certain information.

Communicate like a Pro

SaneBox · The type of tool that focuses more on filtering proficiencies where this
tool specifically sorts out which emails are significantly inevitable and
which ones that are purposely waste our time to review it.
· The tool that can save most of the student‟s time in terms of sorting out
between random emails from unknown senders and emails that contain
information regarding college which is important.

TeamViewer · This tool gives benefit to the users or students who want to
communicate with their group members that are currently in a different
locations and time zones.
· Permit the users to set up online group meeting easily and even allow
files to be transfer through the platform quickly.

Share and Manage Documents

Evernote · The type of tool that can put important notes in one place instead of
wasting time to go through all the files or notes to find all the information
needed.
· All the notes can be put together in a variety of different formats
including text, photos, audio, and video.
· This tool also helps to sync content across all devices and makes
everything become handier for the users.
The users can share and discuss about all the information with the others
in real-time.
 Google Docs · An operative tool to streamline all of the information and workload
where it provides online word processing software that has the same
function as Microsoft Word.
· All of the information uploaded in this tool can be share among other
people even though they do not have the same account in this tool too.
· This tool also provides access to spreadsheet, database and presentation.

Students mostly are advices and encourage to connect through technology online
specifically when they need to encounter lots of information. Nevertheless, merely getting all the
information sort out systematically can be a challenge to the students. Hence, the technology that
the world has provided offers many solutions to the issue of having information overload but
only if the students use the right tools. As for the “Get Things Done” category, the best tool is
the Wunderlist while under the category of “Keep Project on Track”, the tool that is mostly
counselled to the students is the Basecamp. In “Communicate like a Pro” category, the most
advisable tool that believe can be beneficial for the students is the TeamViewer while under the
category of “Share and Manage Documents”, the most suitable tool that focuses on students‟
needs is the Google Docs.
PART 4
Write a short guide on using two of the tools / apps / services mentioned.

This part will be consist of guides on how to use the tools that I have mentioned in part
three in order to help students and researchers deal with information. First, we will explain the
steps required to download Wunderlist. You can refer to the actual guide video on YouTube
using this link https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UChTq_9uShY .These are the steps required:

1. Wunderlist can be accessed by typing https://www.wunderlist.com/ into the address bar of

your web browser. You will need to download the tool into your mobile phone or laptop by
clicking the download button provided in the screen.

2. After you have downloaded Wunderlist and set up a new account by clicking the sign up
button, your screen will appear like the image down below.
3. Click on notifications to set whether you want the tool to notify you via which type of
notifications such as email notifications or push notifications.

4. This is the example of what your screen will show when you want to set up a reminder such
us “Buy Milk”.
5. This tool allows to set time and due date for all the reminder as shown in the image
below.

6. You also can star the important tasks or noted that need your full supervision by clicking
the starred button.
 Other than Wunderlist tool, most people would choose Google Docs to use in their daily
life when it comes to dealing with information or tasks. Here is the basic guide on how to use
Google Docs.

1. To create new account, naming, and saving docs

To create a Google document, simply click on the + on your Google Docs homepage. When you
create a document, it will be named as Untitled Document by default, to rename, simply:
• Click the name at the top of the file
• Type a new name
• Press Enter
Since Google Docs have an AutoSaved feature, avoid the stress and effort of manually saving
your work.

2. Formatting Text
Using Google Docs toolbar, you can change the text, the font style and even assign specific font
style for particular sections of the text. Along with this, Google Docs provides editing options
like paragraph spacing and alignment.

3. Creating table of contents

On your Google Docs click where you want the table of contents to be placed. Click Insert on the
menu bar and select Table of contents. You can choose With page numbers or With blue links. In
case you want to delete the table, right-click and select Delete.
4. Inserting images and tables
Choose Image from the Insert tab and select the following option - Upload, Take a snapshot, By
URL, Your albums, Google Drive and Search. Make sure that the image you select must be less
than 50 MB and should be one of the following file formats - .gif, .jpg or .png.

5. Translating docs

Select Tools from the menu bar and choose translate document. Enter a name for the new
translated documented and select a language of your choice, a translated copy of your document
will open in a new window.

6. Publishing docs on the web

On your Google Doc‟s menu bar, click File and select Publish to the web. The entire document
will be published on the internet, however, files containing spreadsheet or presentation formats
might have more publishing requirements. Share the file by sending in the URL or embed it in
your website.
After selecting the option, publish to the web, a window will open, click Embed. Select Publish
and copy the code in the text box and paste it into your site or blog.
REFERENCES

Briggs, S. (2014). Information overload? Here are 10 ways you - And your students - Can deal
with it. InformED. Retrieved from
https://www.opencolleges.edu.au/informed/features/information-overload/

Harrin, E. (2015). 5 steps for dealing with information overload. iMindq. Retrieved from
https://www.imindq.com/blog/5-steps-for-dealing-with-information-overload

McDermott, A. (2017). Information overload is crushing you. Here are 11 secrets that will help.
Workzone. Retrieved from https://www.workzone.com/blog/information-overload/

Menon, A. (2018). The ultimate guide to Google Docs. Hiver. Retrieved from
https://hiverhq.com/blog/ultimate-guide-google-docs/

Miriam J. M., Andrew J. F. (2012), Credibility and trust of information in online environments:
The use of cognitive heuristics. Journal of Pragmatics, 59 (2013), 210-220.

Spellman, R. (2011). Management advice: Coping with „information overload‟. The Telegraph.
Retrieved from https://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/jobs/8448946/Management-advice-
Coping-with-information-overload.html

The University of Adelaide (2014), Writing Centre Learning Guide: Source Credibility.
Retrieved from https://www.adelaide.edu.au/english-for-
uni/docs/learningGuide_sourceCredibility.pdf