Social media has become so prevalent that it seems like our lives are bombarded with bursts of tweets, pins, check-ins, quick links, hashtags, and Instagrams. What too often gets lost is the substance behind all of those short posts...and there is substance. No really. There is.

The cliché knock on social media is that it is just self-absorded nothingness post after post about where someone is eating their ham sandwich. So many of the people that tell me they don't "get" Twitter often give some rendition about it being about nothing.

My strategy for convincing them that there is indeed useful information lying within many of those 140 character bursts is to show them the Flipboard app. 

Flipboard allows users to transform Twitter streams, Facebook feeds, RSS feeds, and content from many other social media sites into dynamic magazine-like layouts that display pictures, videos, and text snippets from links posted. Above is a sample page showing tweets from other Sony Education Ambassadors in a much more engaging and in depth arrangement than the typical Twitter application.

Some of the best, just-in-time professional development I receive comes from a Twitter list I have assembled of 500 educators, commentators, tech companies, or other users somehow related to educational technology. By adding @mrlosik/geeks-and-nerds to my Flipboard, I page through countless innovative ideas, teaching strategies, inspiring video clips, humorous tales of classroom happenings every day. Sure, there is the occasional ham sandwich post...but sometimes it is a really great picture of a ham sandwich enhanced with a near tear-jerking filter on Instagram.

Another must-have list for me is one that contains all of the Sony Education Ambassador team. It is great to see what ideas they are continuing to find for the Xperia S Tablet but also to see the other inventive ways they are connecting with students and other educators. Add @mrlosik/Sony-Edu-Ambassador in the side search box and you will be able to see what we are all up to as well. 

Flipboard can also turn the chaotic world of social media into a very focused student-centered learning tool. More and more classrooms are embracing the way social media delivers real time news and information from a wide perspective. With Flipboard installed on a class set of tablets or in a 1:1 environment, students can create their own instant textbook with a few simple search words. Let's say an event like a presidential inauguration is happening. All of the news coverage could be infront of students within seconds. The same teacher could then turn the tables and ask her students to post on Twitter their thoughts about the topic with a hashtag unique to the class. By plunking that hashtag into Flipboard, all students' responses suddenly take on the appearance of a publication laid out by some Manhattan design firm. Shannon Smith (@brachsmith) who teaches and consults on educational technology in Illinois also finds Flipboard to be a great student accountability tool when kids post to Twitter in a similar assignment. 

"There is nothing like showing their inappropriate posts in full size magazine layouts to kids who post stuff they shouldn't," Shannon says.

The possibilities you can find to explore with Flipboard in and out of the classroom are endless. Here are a few other items to search #edchat, #PBL, #GAFE, and #SonyEDU. See what else you can find.