On-the-Go sourcing: rethinking education and technology

Abstract

This article creates a data-driven framework for the previously unframed concept of “on-the-go sourcing” (spontaneous actions anywhere, anytime or anyhow, whereby one instantly retrieves materials using the most accessible tools to obtain information about encountered matters). This framework was extracted from a pool of approximately 600 individuals. Of the 600, 40 were selected and divided into eight focus groups of five respondents each. Twenty-three elementary sub-concepts were identified from the focus group content. Those clusters were sorted into nine concepts and categorised into three principal elements. The first element (strengths) shows on-the-go sourcers as cognitively connected, empowered, curious, efficient, motivated, into actions or non-conformist, turning them into instant retrievers, knowers and appliers. The second element (weaknesses) shows on-the-go sourcing as a syndrome; its symptoms include being cognitively biased, shallow, unfit, overloaded, baseless, unfocused, in a rush or abdicative, cognitively at risk, messy and distracted. The third element (factors) shows on-the-go sourcing as hindered by logistical, personal, technical, temporal, spatial, monetary, preventative and pathological factors, forming socio-cultural, econo-political and medical hindrances. This academic exercise contributes to efforts to theorise human information behaviour, developing an explanatory taxonomy of defining elements and critical features for on-the-go sourcing.