Over the past ten years, content curation tools have evolved from social bookmarking sites such as Delicious and Diigo, to the more sophisticated and visually oriented sites available today. Most are web based applications that can be used on a computer and many also provide apps so that they can be used on mobile devices.
Teacher librarians have been finding, analysing, selecting, organising and sharing print resources for many years and are well placed to take on the role of content curator. As Valenza says teacher librarians know their community and understand the curriculum “we are used to taming information flow to facilitate discovery and knowledge building” (2012, para 5). Rhondda Powling (2013) also emphasizes the skills of the teacher librarian in selecting the best and most relevant content and adding value to it with annotations. Content curation tools can increase the visibility of online resources and extend the library beyond its physical boundaries. Valenza also points out a content curation tool “can also promote and lead users back to valuable print materials” (2012, para 12).
With businesses in mind, De Rossi and Good (2010) identified the attributes of good curation tools. Flintoff, Mellow & Clark (2014) adapted these attributes for education. Most tools I have experimented with are capable of the first five points but I am yet to find a tool that covers points six and seven also.
A good curation tool allows you to:
- Aggregate and gather web pages specific to the topic
- Filter content to allow the curator to select the best material
- Publish to your collection with ease
- Share, syndicate and distribute to your audience and the wider community
- Allow the curator to edit and add comments as well as providing a comment stream for the audience to nurture discussion around the article
- Analytics so you can track the usage of the site
- An export facility or a way to backup the curated work
(Flintoff, Mellow & Clark, 2014, para 7)
My content curation “sandbox” currently consists of: Scoop.it, Pinterest, Educlipper, Pearltrees, Diigo and Flipboard. I have personal accounts for recreational and professional learning. So far, the school library accounts have been experiments in raising the profile of digital resources to support curriculum. Now I want to consolidate my content curation skills and determine which tools are most suited to my school library.
De Rossi, L. C. D., & Good, R. (2010). Real-time news curation: The complete guide. from http://www.masternewmedia.org/real-time-news-curation-the-complete-guide-part-6-the-tools-universe/#ixzz2Voik0DTw
Flintoff, K., Mellow, P., & Clark, K. P. (2014, January 30-31). Digital curation: Opportunities for learning, teaching, research and professional development. Paper presented at the Teaching and Learning Forum, Perth: The University of Western Australia. Retrieved from http://ctl.curtin.edu.au/events/conferences/tlf/tlf2014/refereed/flintoff.html
Powling, R. (2013, June 7). Talking about content curation [Web log message]. Retrieved from http://slav.global2.vic.edu.au/2013/06/07/talking-about-content-curation/#.VTtfjWSqpBc
Valenza, J. K. (2012). Curation. School Library Monthly, 29(1). Retrieved from http://www.schoollibrarymonthly.com/articles/valenza2012-v29n1p20.html