Aggregate, Filter and Connect

I was reading Networks and the Information Glut and this quote really hit me.

"The fundamentals of innovative thought haven’t changed since the 18th Century – it’s always been aggregate, filter and connect."

I thought back to how I learned in school. I aggregated information by listening to my teachers, reading the textbook and taking notes in my notebook. I filtered information by making or answering review sheets from my notes or by re-reading my textbook. I then connected with my friends to study at somebody's house or asking my teacher questions if I had them while I was in class. I would then answer the questions on tests or projects that I would never look at again.

Research was very similar. I would go to the library and find some books. Write the information down on some notecards and then maybe talk to my friends or teacher about what to write. Finally I would write or type a paper that only my teacher would ever see.

That was late 80s early 90s (I graduated high school in 1991). How much has the world changed since then? How do I aggregate, filter and connect now? Yet as I look in the classroom, many of the same ways I did things are still being done.

It's still aggregate, filter and connect. We just need to update what it means to do those things.