Design for Networked Knowledge Activities

In week seven, I was excited to be introduced to tools that can interweave certain online tools in a seemingly more controlled environment. When I imagine K12 life, I admittedly picture my own experience in the 00's where we had weekly computer lab adventures armed with the official Microsoft workbook and little else. Technology was there, but in a different capacity than student's have today.

As I am not someone working in a K12 environment (although, I may be warming up to that idea!), I had a hard time connecting a lot of the tools of last week to my previous work. On the other hand, it was great to read the opinions of teachers that have experience with tools found in G-Suite as well as watching the webinar from leaders in education that relied on Google's technologies in the midst of the pandemic.

The midway point is often where I find I lose steam, but I am just as excited by this class today as I was in week one! I cannot wait to dig into all that week 8 has to offer.

Refind

Anyone that has seen my Twitter feed knows that I enjoy reading (and sharing, sorry) a lot of articles. Print media may be dead and local newspapers may be dying, but they will have to rip my subscription to The Atlantic out of my cold, dead hands. Despite dedicating what feels like hours each days to reading various headlines, OpEds, and reviews, there are still articles of interest that fall through the cracks. While I pour over each month's edition of The Atlantic, I do not keep up with their online stories as diligently.

That was, however, until I was introduced to the tool Refind in week five. This automated content curator has been a blessing and a curse for me. But first, lets dig into the tool itself.

Refind allows for users to pick topics, authors, publications, et cetera of interest and then scours the depths of the internet to provide various sources that command attention. All of the content curated by the site is put together in a clean fashion that resembles an online magazine. As I have used the tool and provided feedback, the articles presented become more relevant to my interests.

Refind is partially to blame for the copious articles I have shared on Twitter. It has become so much easier to find content. No longer am I mindlessly scrolling social media for interesting stories. The best of the best shows up for me with minimal effort. This has allowed for less time hunting and more time reading and engaging with content.

Refind has become so in-tune with the content I crave that it sent me a delightful little email with the title of a story from The Atlantic this week: "Are Universities Facing a Similar Fate to CDs and Cable TV?, by The Atlantic."  How could I not click on that? This story wasn't covered in this month's print edition. I probably would not have found it without Refind. I found the opinion of Michael D. Smith's article to be compelling and upon reading the article, I was left with a sense of optimism unlike other stories of late discussing the same topic. 

So what is the curse, you ask? You're reading more and spending less time searching, what is the downside I hear you ponder? Well, dear reader, unfortunately, more relevant content for me means you have to see more Tweets from me. Who am I to be the keeper of good journalism?

If you didn't get a chance to play in that sandbox a couple of weeks ago, I highly encourage you give it a go! Share some of your favorites on Twitter and you know I will read it :)