What are you reading?

One of my guilty pleasures nowadays is sneaking a little professional reading on my iPad.  I always seem to have one or two books on the go, but I find difficulty in staying with them for the long haul.  Currently I am reading “Professional Capital,” by Michael Fullen and “Think Like a Freak, “ by Steven Levitt & Stephen Dubner. Both books are sitting on my night table, half read.

While I recognize the importance of these longer professional readings, and hope to finish them both, I have redirected my limited time to reading shorter articles and blog posts.  I know that blogs and short articles may not have the investment in academic rigor and research that the books have.  However, I value them because of how they get me thinking about current issues in education. 

I don’t waste a lot of time browsing the internet looking for articles and blogs.  I currently have two trusted sources for my shorter reading.  The first is Twitter.  I use this Social Networking tool and follow nearly 300 people and organizations in the education community.  I follow leaders in the use of social media in education, like George Couros (@gcouros), Cale Birk (@birklearns), and Chris Wejr (@ChrisWejr), organizations like the BCPVPA (@BCPVPA), and individual leaders, principals, teachers, and friends.

The second source of reading for me is an iPad app called Zite.  Interestingly, I was reading an article on Zite, which provided a wonderful description of the app:

If you are not familiar with Zite, it is a personal news reading application that launched on the iPad in 2011. Essentially, Zite was a big recommendation engine that gives you articles based on what you like to read—based on your social feeds like Facebook and Twitter, but also based on your reading history and preferences.

Want to read more mobile news? More ReadWrite? More from a specific author specifically? You could tune your Zite to offer you those articles but also many similar articles. The beauty of Zite was never its user experience—which, to be fair, was always good but never great—but the engine that powered it.

The article refers to Zite in the past tense, because it was bought out by another great app, Flip Board.  The two are supposed to be merged in the near future.

The CEO of Zite, Mark Johnson, made what I feel is a valid comment back in an interview in March.  He said:

To me, Zite is a product that helps peoples lives get better. It finds those articles for people that are potentially life changing.

I don’t want to sit here and tell you that what I’m reading through Twitter and Zite is life changing, but what I’m reading on a regular basis because of the access provide by these two sources is life and career affirming in a lot of ways.   I stay current and connected with issues of importance to me and to my career in education. 

So what are you reading?

Resources:

http://readwrite.com/2014/03/05/why-zite-flipboard-acquisition-cnn-perfect-news-reading-experience

Images:

www.yourpchero.com