Social Discovery

My greatest insight regarding digital literacy is that our most efficient and interesting use of electronic tools for teaching, learning, and research happens through what I call "social discovery." What I mean by this is that instead of pursuing a given subject, it is better to search for the people who are invested in or discussing those subjects, connect with them, and take it from there. I think this is the big game-changer.

But social discovery requires changing how we think about searching and researching. It requires integrating social efforts into intellectual work. I really think what it means is that technical-social skills are integral to emerging literacy. If you don't know how to find, contact, engage, respond to, and collaborate with people in real time or near-synchronous time -- well, you just aren't digitally literate. Not in a world that is networked both technologically and socially. I'd like to compare conventional intellectual work in a college class with intellectual work that is enhanced by social discovery, using the example of one of my recent students who had great success in using "social discovery."

Ten Ways Out of the Google or Wikipedia Rut

Do you default to using Google or Wikipedia for just about every online search? Those are great resources, but not the only gateways to research and learning online. In fact, there may be more efficient or interesting ways into your subjects.

This post includes 10 great starting places for researching topics online without resorting either to Google or Wikipedia.

I'm going to walk you through each of these as I research the history of science and the scientific method. Watch how much fun I have in diversifying my online discovery methods. Hope you'll try some of these!