Tangential Learning

No, this is not a memory from the past post.  However, the “But the operator says forty cents more for the next three minutes” is really a blast from the past.  That, and the image of the telephone booth.  When was the last time you saw/heard either of those?

What started all this was just a reflection on just how tangental learning or, at the least, reading can be when you’re connected and you let it happen.

You probably don’t care but one of my curations is of my own blog.  I tuck away blog posts here on Flipboard.  It started as just a challenge to myself to see if I could make it work but it’s turned out to be a real time saver.  Often, I’ll want to revisit a post where I’m aware of the concept but not necessarily the crucial keywords that would let me search for it with the WordPress search feature.  It’s the old concept of “I’ll know it when I see it”.  So, there are times where just flipping through the past posts can be one of the most efficient ways of finding something.

It was simple enough to do; I just added “Stories matching “dougpete.wordpress.com” to the topics that I’m following.  I open it to see the latest entries and then flip them into the above mentioned Flipboard document.  It’s about a two second effort.

This morning, I was doing this and noticed this page.

In true Flipboard fashion, it had captured a bit of the post and any related image.

You’ll see Jaimie’s beautiful image as well as a recent Sketchnote from Sylvia Duckworth.

None of this is particularly news.  But look closely at the Sketchnote.

One of the powers of working in the Flipboard environment is that somehow it’s analysing the content of the article and creating a category for it.  In this case, it’s notified me that there’s a category (or at least a search for “Sylvia”).  Just tap on it to follow.  All of a sudden, I was off in a different direction reading things about Sylvias.

Sometimes, the best learning comes just from a random thought or interest.  I guess it’s kind of nice if it’s related to a topic.

Now, I’m not ready for an AMA session about Sylvias but I do know a bit more than I did when I woke up.

I blame it all on Sue Waters who challenged me to find new and different ways to use Flipboard.  Thanks, Sue.