A while back I wrote about my some of favorite iPad apps for lifelong learning. A new one (for me) has come along that is quickly moving to the top of my list: Zite. In a nutshell, Zite enables you to put together a “magazine” on the iPad that focuses on topics in which you are interested and then becomes “smarter” over time about finding and presenting new content to you. The video below offers a quick visual overview.
I’m using Zite to really zero in on a few topical areas that are of particular interest to me in my work and life – like, for example, how the human mind works. I set it up initially by choosing a few topical areas and also connecting Zite into my Google Reader and Mission to Learn Twitter accounts so that it could get a feel for what was already of interest to me. Now, every time I open Zite, it loads new articles in my topic areas. As I read them, I can give them a “thumbs up” or “thumbs down” to help the application better understand my interests. It keeps getting better and better.
Of course, a narrow, topical focus is only one of many potential learning strategies I use, but for that particular purpose, Zite is pretty amazing. I recommend giving it a try.
Jeff