The face of the Internet now

We stumbled across this great, innovative infographic created by Online Schools.

"The Internet is a strange, huge beast. It is getting bigger, faster and more mobile each day. Ferocious social networks fight each other to be on top and gain more of our attention and personal information. An entire economy is generated from our browsing habits. This is the face of the Internet now."

We'd also like to add that this beast is the basis of today's learning. This is The Learning Explosion.

What's coming next?

The Learning Explosion at the Washington Monument

We were recently invited to Washington DC to meet with a some very forward-looking people at a very forward-learning organization. The ongoing theme of our meetings were: "What's coming next."

Is it going to be an iPad on every desk?

How about non-stop social media?

Faster and faster internet searches?

More and more search results?

Do you think you've exceeded your information saturation point? We have devices to access information everywhere--on your desk, in your pocket and even in your household appliances like your refrigerator. Just how much more can we all absorb? (Side note: Here is a fun infographic to explain how much information is on the Internet.)

We believe that we're now at a place where we need help to digest all of this information. We need methods to divide it, organize it and deliver it in the right place at the right time.

We're ready... Are you?

21 Ways To Create a Personal Learning Lab Today!

In May we suggested that you create your own controlled learning environment, or Learning Explosion Laboratory™in order to take advantage of all the great relevant information online without being completely swamped.

In this post we share 21 Learning Lab tools and apps that are currently in existence (there are many more). However, we expect technology in this area to improve substantially in the near future. So, watch for the day when you can search, save, bookmark, archive, and share all of the relevant information you are seeking in a single tool and/or app. There isn't one that does it all today. But who knows? Maybe tomorrow...

1. Your Browser Bookmarks -- Use this great tool wisely to organize and archive information in your learning lab.
2. My6Sense -- Read and share most your most relevant content from your RSS and social streams.
3. Pinterest -- Catalogue and share things you love.
4. Genieo -- Newspaper styled homepage.
5. iGoogle -- Your Personalized homepage. 
6. Feedly -- Read and share the content of your favorites sites in one place. 
7. Newsmap -- Colorful and creative way to view all your news feeds. 
8. Netvibes -- Everything that matters to you all in one dashboard.
9. Retaggr -- A central location for your personal info, and a gateway to all your online profiles and networks. 
10. Chi.mp -- All your professional profiles in one place. Invite people to learn about you. 
11. Thoora --Discover, monitor, and share the best content on the web.
12. Xmarks -- Sync and search your browser bookmarks.
13. Delicious -- Search the biggest collection of bookmarks on the web.
14. Spinscape -- Find, organize, and share information on any topic.
15. StumbleUpon -- Discover, rate, and share great websites.
16. SurfSaver -- Download and organize your web pages.
17. Clipmarks -- See clips of text, images or video about all sorts of topics that people find while surfing the web.
18. Google Reader -- Sync all of your RSS feeds in one place.
19. NewsFire -- Filter and organize the constant flow of information on the web.
20. Bloomfire -- Your very own mashup of YouTube, Yahoo® Answers, and Facebook – with your people in it, and your logo on it.
21. Flipboard -- Search, discover, browse, and share content right form your iPad.