John Palfrey and Urs Gasser, who lead Harvard University's Youth and Media project, devote a chapter to the problem of information overload in their book Born Digital. The authors assert "the amount of information on the Web is staggering--and potentially debilitating." Dealing with the sheer amount of information available online is beyond anyone's cognitive abilities. Information overload hampers young people from making good decisions and may have harmful psychological--and even physiological--effects. And of course from a teaching and learning standpoint, students must learn how to evaluate information as they learn how to become better researchers, writers and thinkers.

When students bring their laptops and other web-enabled devices to class, the flow of information can became a distraction when students spend their time checking email or Facebook instead of focusing on what's going on in the classroom. Some professors respond by banning devices or even shutting off internet access. But as this article on Inside Higher Ed suggests, a better solution may be directing students' attention through the use of Twitter.  A study of Twitter use in classes for first year pre-health majors found that tweeting can help keep students focused and "maximize time on task." And in the process, students became more engaged with the course and "built strong relationships across diverse groups."