This forum paper contains the perspectives of three adult education researchers (Jerold W. Apps, Daniele D. Flannery, and T. Tappey Turner) concerning the role of adult educators in the information age and the attitudes of adult educators toward the recent information explosion. In perspective 1, on the roles of the adult educator in the "information ocean," it is suggested that adult educators must assume two roles: they must assist learners in making sense out of specialized information in light of the learner's life situation and they must help learners identify information that is needed and not available. After a discussion of Margaret Mead's assertion that the information explosion has made the transmission of knowledge from teacher to student a lateral rather than a vertical process, in perspective 2 it is concluded that adult educators must focus on providing a sense of connectedness and increase their efforts in the areas of collaborative research, interdisciplinary sharing, and development of an atmosphere of collaboration among adult educators rather than one of competition. Perspective 3 expands upon the metaphor comparing coping with information to swimming in the ocean, and suggests that adult educators must learn themselves and must help adult students learn to be selective in focusing their attention on and attempting to come to terms with specific subject areas and levels of complexity of information, thus selecting that information that is most useful to their own needs. (MN)