Something New

The challenge - try something new!

I wasn't thinking about the challenge Kimberly issued to try something new when I went to Jeff's ScoopIt! site. Although it is certainly not the first time I have seen ScoopIt, I decided to start my own collection at XPLRPLN. Voila, emergent response to "try something new".

I worked with Howard Rheingold and a global cohort this summer looking at "think-know tools". One of my take aways was the recommendation to immediately comment on all things collected. This has proven to be valuable advice thus far. So  . . . I Scooped several sites today and made sure that I wrote a comment in the highlight segment on what I had found to be valuable about the site that I had just scooped. This commitment to comment did several things for me.

1. I read the material (instead of just skimming and thinking, this is great but there is more, more, MORE and I will come back later).
2. I read with a critical eye (what do I find valuable or of interest here?) - I even ended up deleting some of the things that I had scooped because I really did not have anything that I wanted to comment on.
3. I took a couple of little side trips down rabbit holes but for the most part my summarizing/comment-seeking kept me focused
4. I learned lots by REALLY reading and thinking about the material

I don't know yet but I certainly imagine that I will be more likely to effectively use the information I gathered at some future date because I can quickly see what I deemed interesting by glancing at my comments.