This week, we learned about the importance of effective content curation on the Internet. Rouse (2012) defines content curation on her post (http://whatis.techtarget.com/definition/content-curation) as the gathering, organizing and online presentation of content related to a particular theme or topic. As young people, we do this all the time through our social media - if we see an article on CNN or any other source, we share it on our Facebook pages after giving our own commentary on it, and then put together information relating to the topic, and finally, we share that. We also do it in social situations (doing research, sharing it with our friends and family) and in classrooms (in seminar presentations). Content curation is a key part of our lives as social, intelligent creatures, and being able to take advantage of the multiple tools available to us on the Internet to do so more effectively is a key skill. The following image describes content curation in a social context:
Fiorelli (2011) (http://www.iloveseo.net/content-curation-definition-and-generation/) states that there are 3 steps to effective content curation. The first step, he states, is to find the most reliable content, and use only the highest quality content. It is also important to know who your target audience is when you are curating information - you want to have information that is relevant to where you are posting your information and to the readers. For example, in this step, using a source such as CNN would be a good way to find reliable content. Next, Fiorelli believes that we need to add our value to the information that we have found, by adding comments and perspectives, and providing a context in which the information is important. In continuation of my past example, that would be adding your own feedback when sharing the CNN article of your choice. Finally, Fiorelli states that curators needs to provide clear links to additional resources, and to provide credit for where the information is from. That would simply mean providing proper citation or even a sources used section.
We were presented with multiple online tools that we can use for online curating this week, including Paper.li, Storify, Google Alerts, LiveBinders, and Jog the Web. The one tool that stood out to me most was Scoop.it. Through that website, we are able to create an online magazine that caters to our specific interests - we can combine all of the information that comes our way (as indicated by articles we have 'scooped' before) and put it together in a way that reflects all of the information that we have found interesting. The website is easy to use, colourful, and interesting - all of the information that is presented to us on the website is interesting and reader-friendly (i.e. no expert journal articles). Scoop.it is a great tool for me to curate information that is interesting to me, and I will absolutely be using it excessively in the future as a productive online citizen.
As I explored bookmarking tools this week, I noticed the incredible amount of information we have online that we would like to read in the future - there is actually so much information on the Internet that event the world's largest library could never physically contain it! Therefore, it is very important that we are able to go back to the sources that we initially found interesting in the future, because we don't always have time to read it when we first get a hold of the website. Recent bookmarking tools also have incredible features that allow us to annotate, highlight, and sort our bookmarks. The most helpful tool that I've found after exploring multiple bookmarking tools this week was Diigo.com. This incredible feature allows us to not only bookmark, but screenshot, highlight, search, share, and more. Most importantly, we can access all of these bookmarks simply through the Internet on any device. In the past, I have had many bookmark randomly scattered on my Google Chrome browser, but when I wanted to read it on another computer, I was never able to access it. With Diigo.com, I can access my bookmarks anywhere. I am truly amazed at how incredible this tool is, and am so grateful to be able to use it for free!
As I looked through my Feedly reader this week, one of my feeds showed an article, from a Scoop.it page (interesting how Scoop.it results show up on my Feedly reader, by the way), that talks about a tool called rather (http://getrather.com/) that allows one to "easily filter out info you don't want to see from your main incoming news streams...in an age of information overabundance. (Good, 2014) (http://curation.masternewmedia.org/p/4014210198/2014/01/15/filter-out-anything-you-don-t-want-to-see-again-with-rather)" Similarly, a fellow student, Mark, puts the concept in a humorous way, saying, "There's a lot of information on the internet. Some great. Some troll attempts. Looking up what the best exercise for your posterior deltoids can be like opening a closet full of skittles. (Chong, 2014) (http://marksaded.blogspot.ca/2014/02/week-4-reportreflection.html)" The importance of content curation this week was to find the most useful information in a world where there is an overabundance of information, as Good put it, so a tool like rather is absolutely crucial for us to filter out information we have absolutely no interest in.
All of these helpful tools contribute significantly to the organizing content section of my PLE, which was truly lacking before (when I just had Google Chrome bookmarks on it). I am very glad I get to continue to expand my PLE.
Again, I am very glad I now have access to all these fantastic web tools that will help me increase my learning productivity!
Thanks for reading!
- Lewis
I have been exploring your blog for the very first time, and let's just say it is amazing! You are very insightful about what you have learned thus far in the course.
ReplyDeleteAre you able to help me understand the RSS reader?
Hi Lewis,
ReplyDeleteI am surprised by the results of how important Ontarians saw universities. I am surprise that they viewed university is more important than high schools. I agree that it is hard to get a job without a university degree because an educated individual makes for a better candidate. However, in order to get into university you need a high school diploma first. I am just surprised that they saw university more important than high school. I guess I was just surprised because I view high school a little more important than university. I follow the Brock press as well but I never saw that article. I was glad to read about it in your posting as it is quite interesting.
I love using Diigo as well! It truly is an incredible tool. I always found it hard when I came across an amazing resource and booked marked it on my personal computer but could not remember what the website was when I was working on the library computers. I always remembered how I used to email myself with the websites that I found useful so I could access them from any computer. I am really glad that we were introduced to Diigo as we are able to access it from any computer as well as highlight and sort our bookmarks. I agree with your thoughts about how the internet has so much information and that it is important that we have a way to access it again. I also thought the picture of the curation diagram is extremely useful and makes it easier to understand what curation is and how it is used in a digital context.