New Technology Learning Process

I love learning.  I was a curious child and became an even more curious adult.  When it comes to all sorts of enterprise-related software development, I really wish to know what a new technology or technique might bring to the table.

One trick that I will use on myself is to sign up for a presentation as that will force me to learn the technology (or technique) well enough to at least get through a 60 to 90 minute presentation and demonstration...with a hard deadline.   The demonstration being the key thing for me - I tend to work backwards from the demos to the slides - so that the slides reflect what I can actually show off in the demos.

In the last few years, the set a presentation date trick was how I learned:
- Platform-as-a-Service and cloud computing in general
- HTML5
- Vert.x (minute 46)
- Apache Cordova (Phonegap)
and now I am doing it with Docker for TriJUG and DevNexus.

My basic learn something new technique is as follows:
1) 30 seconds: when I first hear about something check the term out on Wikipedia (e.g 6LoWPAN)
2) If the term is so new or esoteric that wikipedia does not have a entry, search Twitter
3) 5 minutes: try to find a sub-10 minute YouTube video on the subject.  
4) 30 minutes: find a decent tutorial/getting started guide - these are very critical to my learning path - therefore I try to craft my own tutorials when possible.
5) 1 hour: find some decent examples - I am definitely a learn by example kind of person.  Some folks call it a "copy & paste" programmer.  As part of my first hour or three of learning...finding some good examples and "playing" with the new technology is critical.  That early feeling of success is a huge motivational factor.  And if the examples fail, then you feel challenged.
6) Look for the deeper dive presentation on YouTube or if I am lucky, seeing it presented at a conference.  I find that the way someone presents the high points of a technology - the advantages and its warts is very helpful in my initial "wrapping my head around it".
7) Find the forums, the better technologies should have a community forum, perhaps a simple Google Group and/or tags out at StackOverflow.  I like scanning through the questions as that gives you a feel for how the technology is being used in the real world.  You can then compare the use cases to your own needs.   I use this same basic technique when reading reviews - does the reviewer (question asker) think as I would?

What is your learning process? How do you prioritize the list of things to be learned and then what steps do you follow to gain some (or great) insight into the new technology?