Blogs, Twitter, Facebook, Pintrest, Diigo, RSS feeds... they all help me keep up on what is happening with technology in education. I read voraciously online, over 100 blogs posts a day, 300+ twitter feeds, and numerous articles that are linked from social media friends.
I realized this morning, it is all like my PhD work. I have built a large online community of resources so I can do a daily literature review. When I read and read and read until I end up coming back to the same ideas and articles, I know I'm onto something. In my PhD work, I would call this a literature review. In real life, I call it survival. I have to know the current trends, tools, and practices. The only way I can do that is by independent verification of my thousands of online friends who do much of the work for me. I just have to be bright enough to piece it all together and apply it to my situation.