Feedingthehusbandwithsocialmedia

This week reinforced what I already knew about myself; when it comes to the digital community and learning, I am very much a just-in-time learner. I have a Facebook and Twitter account that I use primarily for social and media purposes, and when I need any other information- a recipe, help with a lesson plan- I use my trusty google. Along the way, I discover blogs and additional information, but I seek it, it doesn’t come to me. So this assignment forced me out of my box a bit.

My husband has dietary restrictions and I am constantly looking for new/alternative recipes and ways to feed him along with the regular eaters in our family. So, I decided to delve a bit deeper into gluten-free and vegetarian cooking. I joined annaB’s Gluten Free and The Gluten Intolerance Group of Richmond on Facebook and followed Udi’s Gluten Free on Twitter. In addition, I joined Google Reader. I googled several gluten-free and vegetarian recipe blogs, and subscribed.

What I found was the sheer volume of information was overwhelming. I liked the daily updates from annB on my Facebook; they deliver their products fresh daily and it is good to know where and when they will be available. The Gluten Intolerance Group was very informative, and I learned more about wether or not Domino's Gluten Free Crust is truly gluten free than I will ever need to know. Udi’s on Twitter provided facts and suggestions daily in easy and manageable bits. However, my Google Reader contained so much information I felt I was missing a lot of it, simply due to lack of time. In addition, perhaps it was the just the sites I chose to subscribe to, but sorting through information I don’t need, such as an article on edible flowers and that which I’m not interested in, such as the bloggers choice of drawer organization left me, well, bored. I did manage to create a folder in my favorites to save recipes and articles I did find useful. These I will return to. Overall, I discovered a greater scope of information and knowledge than had I simply googled exactly what I was looking for. This, I suppose, is the benefit of an online learning community.

Here's a sample of my Google Reader, full of articles:



This assignment was not the negative experience I am describing. The assignment did introduce several new avenues for finding information in online communities that I know I will use more in the future. I will definitely need more time to decipher how I can use it to its full potential, but plan to use Google Reader for organizing and following educational sites and blogs.