Revising my Infodiet

Never stop learning, because life never stops teaching., a photo by deeplifequotes on Flickr.

Although the internet offers a tremendous amount of information, it can be a challenge to sift through the junk to get to the good stuff. It matters what we put into our bodies for food and for information because we know these things affect us physically and mentally. We have to remember “that humans are not oriented toward truth but to meaning” (Gee, 2013, p. 133). We gravitate toward people, ideas, and concepts that we connect with or are similar to our own. While this may be comfortable, it does not provide an accurate view of a world that is vastly diverse.

Unfortunately, my current infodiet is minimal and not very diverse. It consists of a local news channel website, Facebook, and occasionally Twitter. This would be equivalent to eating only apples, bacon, and chocolate for every meal each day. While these are my favorite foods, I am missing some important vitamins and of course, variety and balance in my meals. To add a little color to my infodiet I decided to look for an assortment of people and organizations on Twitter that will expose me to new viewpoints and ideas, ones that I would not normally encounter.

The first group of new information sources I found all have to do with Google in some way. Recently our corporation purchased Android tablets for all the teachers and I am trying to learn as much as I can about them so I can share what I learn with my colleagues. I am now following @GooglePlay and @GoogleEduTeam to stay up to date with any new developments. Google Play is poised to come out with more education apps this summer. Here is an article with more information.

My next group of new resources is focused on general education and technology. They include @WeAreTeachers and @TheConsultantsE. These are two great resources for tech and teaching tips. I am most excited to start following Nicholas Provenzano @thenerdyteacher. He is the 2013 MACUL Technology Using Teacher of the Year and the 2013 ISTE Outstanding Teacher of the Year. I love the banner on his blog! It includes cartoon robots and the words teacher, leader, learner, and nerd. That pretty much sums up my career in education! Plus his most recent post is about Star Wars. What’s not to love?

The last group of new resources deal with language. Language is what I do in the classroom all day long and a new perspective would be helpful. I found @onestopenglish which provides frequent links to resources and professional development opportunities for English teachers. Finally, my goal for next school year is to get more parents and families involved at our school. Language can still be a barrier but I think @ColorinColorado will be able to help with that. Their updates provide resources tailored for language learners, but even cooler is their website: http://www.ColorinColorado.org/. This is a bilingual site for families and educators of English language learners and I am very excited to share this incredible resource with parents!

Revising my infodiet is something that I needed to do and something that needs to be done on a regular basis. In my ever searching journey to find truth AND meaning, I know that broadening my viewpoint and considering alternate possibilities is always going to be a positive part of my life. Knowing more about the world I live in, helps me to understand myself and my place in this world. I hope that I too can help to encourage and expand a community of thinking where learning is always valued.

Works Cited
Gee, J. P. (2013). The anti-education era: Creating smarter students through digital learning. New York, NY: Palgrave Macmillan.

Martin, R. P. (2013, February 21). [Never stop learning, because life never stops teaching.] [Photograph]. Retrieved from Flickr database.