Choosing a Collection Assistant

 

My students (pre-service teachers) and I are using social media and our PLNs (personal learning networks) in our professional development. We are examining the create-communicate-curate cycle of working with content. An implied step in that cycle is collection.

Today I am looking at the collection step. I already use Twitter and blogs (and Feedly) to help me collect ideas, data, and information. I am checking out Scoop.it! as an assistant for collecting and for sharing.

Scoop.it! has several features that I find helpful:

• It collects content related to my topic that I can easily keep or not. 
• It allows me to add content I have found on the web. A Scoop.it! bookmarklet for my browser makes it easy to add that content. 
• Comments can be added to each article. Multiple paragraphs can be used in the comments, but the text cannot be formatted.
• I can star one of the articles in the newsletter. 
• I can adjust the location of articles in the newsletter. 
• Individual scoops can be shared with Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, WordPress, App.net, Viadeo, Tumblr, Buffer, Yammer. 
• The whole collection can also be shared on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, WordPress, Tumblr, App.net, Buffer, Yammer, and Viadeo.
• I can provide the RSS feed so others can subscribe to the collection (http://www.scoop.it/t/mobile-learning-by-schiffbauer/rss.xml). 
• I can provide a link to the collection (http://www.scoop.it/t/mobile-learning-by-schiffbauer). And best yet... I can embed the collection in my blog.

I evaluated the free version of Scoop.it! Paid versions are also available, including one designed for education. I can scoop up to five topics. I could scoop more with a paid version.

I see good uses for Scoop.it! It helps me collect. It facilitates sharing newly-available content after my students have already begun working on a concept I have prepared. It helps me to share information with others.

Curating in the Cloud... Revisited

In the previous post I shared some of the research and analysis I have done as I consider changes to my curation style. My research has continued this past week... and I am changing one of my choices.

The more I use Evernote the more I am convinced it will be a good replacement for (some of) my use of desktop folders to organize materials. However, my experiments this past week with FlipBoard as a tool to share content with my students had some snags.

I love the appearance of a FlipBoard magazine. It looks professional and modern and works well on desktop and mobile platforms. The links are clickable. The embedded videos show the visual of the video (that's good) and then take you to YouTube (I'd rather stay in the magazine) to view the video when you click on the visual. I can "add a caption" but that caption is a single paragraph with little formatting. In order to post an article that I have created I must link to its website (a wiki, in most cases). If I must link to another site--and if I like that site--then why am I using FlipBoard? So... I see good reasons to use FlipBoard, but I do not see it as the best way to share my content (web articles and my own content) with my students.

FlipBoard: Mobile Learning by (and used with permission of) Jo Schiffbauer

I tried Bag The Web. I'm not wild about the name of the site, but I know that's a minor complaint. If I send my students to the BTW site they can use clickable links. The embedded videos work and keep you in the bag. I can post my own article without linking it to a website. And my own articles can be formatted. My bag looks good when embedded in my blog. But I do not like the look if I embed it in my wiki.

BagTheWeb: Mobile Learning by (and used with permission of) Jo Schiffbauer

BagTheWeb: Mobile Learning by (and used with permission of) Jo Schiffbauer

BagTheWeb: Mobile Learning by (and used with permission of) Jo Schiffbauer embedded in Blogger

BagTheWeb: Mobile Learning by (and used with permission of) Jo Schiffbauer embedded in Google Sites

Today I tried Evernote for sharing content with the students. I captured my website with a web clipping. Links are clickable. Videos are not embedded. And because I'm simply clipping my website why am I using Evernote for this process?

Evernote: Mobile Learning notebook by (and used with permission of) Jo Schiffbauer

I also tried LiveBinders this past week. LiveBinders allows clickable links, embedded videos, and formatting your own content. I think LiveBinders looks cluttered when there are lots of tabs. But, it will be a while before I'm at that point.

LiveBinders: Mobile Learning by (and used with permission of) Jo Schiffbauer

Here's how my lesson looks in Google Sites (my wiki)... clickable links, embedded videos, and formatted content.

Google Sites: Mobile Learning by (and used with permission of) Jo Schiffbauer

Conclusion? My favorite is Google Sites. I'm sure that part of the reason is because I have used it for so long that I'm comfortable with its features. But, I do like its features, including many that I have not listed in this post.

However, I am looking for an alternate method for sharing content that is separate from the organization structure I use for my classes. I could have my class wiki link to a content wiki... or I could use LiveBinders for the content. I think I will try LiveBinders to help me decide if I really do want the content separate from the organization structure.

So... my curation tools will now be Evernote (so I can curate in the cloud rather than just on my desktop computer at home), Delicious (to keep track of and to share websites), and LiveBinders (to share content).

I'll see how this works... or if there will be a need for a re-revisit.  : )

Curating in the Cloud

CURATION IS AN IMPORTANT COMPONENT OF LIFELONG LEARNING

Lifelong Learner / NazarethCollege / CC BY 2.0

Many of us use social media to help us live as lifelong learners. We create, communicate, and curate with blogs, Twitter, and our PLNs (Personal Learning Networks). The lessons I create for my students are far different from those I developed before social media was as available as it is today. In my early days as an educator I stated more than once that I was going to write my own textbook. And my mathematics students seconded that idea. Now I do that. Every time I create a unit or a lesson. I love the freedom to develop lessons that meet my students’ needs while I meet current standards in my discipline. Technology--hardware, software, the web--allow me to do that so much more easily than I could have done the first time I thought about writing a textbook.

I’ve been thinking a lot about curation this month as my students (pre-service teachers) are using blogs and Twitter as they begin to develop their own PLNs. For many years my curation process consisted of (1) bookmarking sites and (2) organizing documents in folders on my desktop computer at home. I began using social bookmarking as soon as I discovered it. I love the fact that I can access my bookmarks from any browser on any computer! The application I used for that began to have difficulties so I moved to Delicious. I have investigated Diigo from time to time, but for my purposes Delicious serves my needs. When I was the technology director for my school district I encouraged the teachers to access my bookmarks to help them find relevant sites for their teaching. Now my students have access to my bookmarks if they wish.

I did not need that anywhere/anytime flexibility for my documents and other files. I am at my most creative working at my computer at home. At school I am more likely to be involved with colleagues and students than with creating units on the computer. Until I began using a smartphone. Mobile technology is beginning to change my habits. I find myself at school or elsewhere wishing I could access documents or files that I have organized in my folders on my home computer. I store some content in the cloud. But not all. It’s time to think about curating in the cloud.

CURATION PLAYS MANY ROLES
 

Larry Bird, curator, Political History / Karon Flage / CC BY 2.0

I began to investigate the concept of curation. We have a curator of the museum for our local historical society. What does a museum curator do? Kim Kenney (http://www.bellaonline.com/about/Museums) in What is a Curator (http://www.bellaonline.com/articles/art31080.asp) lists some of the duties of a museum curator: acquisitions, collections management, exhibitions, research and writing, and community connections.

That sure sounds like what I do as an educator. I acquire content and ideas for teaching it. I manage my acquisitions in my social bookmarking site and in the folders on my desktop computer. I create exhibitions (curriculum, lessons) that are organized collections structured in a way that I and others can learn from them. I research and write so that I can develop new content that is useful for myself and others. And I share with the various communities of which I am a part: colleagues, students, PLN.

CURATION IS WIDELY USED TODAY
 
Curation has taken on a new role in today’s Web 2.0 world. (See Beth Kanter’s (http://www.bethkanter.org/about-beth/) comments about content curation at her blog (http://www.bethkanter.org/content-curation-101/). So much information is created nowadays that we can no longer stay up-to-date by reading or writing about all the news stories. Some folks have developed full-time jobs using tools to help them watch what’s happening all over the world, spotting trends, and sharing that information. I found this 2011 interview (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WMn-cJHzF8A) of Robert Scoble (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Scoble) by Howard Rheingold (http://rheingold.com/about/) about online curation to be very interesting.

GOOD CURATION TOOLS MAKE THE PROCESS EASIER 

So what are the best tools for educators to use for curation? Many tools were suggested in articles* I researched about curation. I read about bags, binders, and online newspapers along with other ways to create, collect, consume, communicate, and curate data and information. Here are the tools that interest me the most at this point for my curation needs.

Evernote (http://evernote.com/)... collect your sites and documents... access from anywhere

Evernote Taiwan User Meetup / othree / CC BY 2.0

• I have played with Evernote but was never sold that it was an appropriate tool for me. After my research for this blog post and for the new unit that I added to my course I am convinced that Evernote will help my acquisition and management processes be more efficient. It will also provide that anytime/anywhere access that I need for my documents and other files. I think that Whitson Gordon’s (http://whitsongordon.kinja.com/) article I’ve Been Using Evernote All Wrong. Here’s Why It’s Actually Amazing (http://lifehacker.com/5989980/ive-been-using-evernote-all-wrong-heres-why-its-actually-amazing) was written for me!

Logo of Delicious / Bernard Goldbach / CC BY 2.0

Delicious (https://delicious.com/)... my old friend for social bookmarking... supports tags and comments... do I need Delicious AND Evernote?

• Apparently it’s a bit of a challenge to import Delicious bookmarks into Evernote. (I came to that conclusion after searching for a method to do so.) I do have a lot of Delicious bookmarks with tags. I don’t have time to play with that at the moment, so for now I will use Delicious along with Evernote. Delicious has been and continues to be a useful acquisition and management tool for me.

FlipBoard (https://flipboard.com/)... create magazine... your sites... uses social media feeds... magazine looks almost real and definitely interesting

Flipboard / Gustavo da Cunha Pimenta / CC BY-SA 2.0

• I have investigated FlipBoard previously and have seen other educators use it. It did not appeal to me as a tool to use with my students. When I create a class or workshop I usually use a wiki as the foundation. Wikis are convenient to use as I’m working with my students. I keep the wikis published and available for the students for several years so they can access them later as they need to do so. I try to make them attractive and inviting. And it’s easy to modify them as technology and my own knowledge change. But... rather than create wikis containing all the content I use in a particular class or workshop, perhaps I should use wikis as the organizational structure with FlipBoard magazines as the unit of structure for individual topics. FlipBoard looks like a good tool for communication and curation.

FYI
 
Would you like to review some of the *articles I read about curation and appropriate tools for curating? Here is a partial list of those that flavored my thinking and my decisions but that I did not quote or explicitly mention in this post.

http://mashable.com/2011/01/06/curation-tools/
4 Promising Curation Tools That Help Make Sense of the Web
by Steven Rosenbaum, author of Curation Nation
2011

http://mashable.com/2013/05/09/curator/
If You Use the Web, You are a "Curator"
2013

http://iteachu.uaf.edu/grow-skills/filelink-management/content-curation-tools/
Content Curation Tools
2013

http://learni.st/users/terry.heick/boards/31293-top-10-content-curation-tools
Top 10 Content Curation Tools
by Terry Heick
2013

http://webtools4u2use.wikispaces.com/Curation+Tools
Curation Tools
2013

http://www.labnol.org/internet/best-content-curation-tools/
The Best Tools for Content Curation
by Amit Agarwal
2011

Here’s the list of websites that I investigated as I searched for appropriate tools. Many of these websites are very useful for a variety of purposes. The tools I chose in this blog post are specifically for the purpose of curation.

addictomatic: inhale the web
aggregage
attrakt
bagtheweb
blogbridge
---
bundlr
contentgems
curata
curated.by
delicious
---
diigo
evernote
flipboard
google news
huffington post
---
inspiretothrive
list.ly
listorious.com (now called muckrack)
livebinders
paper.li
---
pearltrees
pinterest
scoop.it
storify
symbaloo
---
techmeme
the awl
tweetdeck
twitter
yahoo news