Digital curation is the selection[1], preservation, maintenance, collection and archiving of digitalassets[2][3]. (Wikipedia)
We are a tech-savvy and educated society that hungers for information at an unprecedented pace. We blog, tweet, update statuses, follow RSS feeds, post to forums, Skype, IM, text, chat, and on and on. But are we better, smarter, wiser, more self-aware, more diverse, more environmentally friendly, or anything else as a result?
Many of us have turned to content curation as a way to manage the overwhelming volume of incoming information. To wit, I have created a Glog with embedded links to many of the different tools currently available, and it is clear that even choosing the best tool for you can be challenging. Each has their pros and cons, some require more work than others, some will curate for you automatically once you have established parameters, while others require daily maintenance to keep your information appropriate.
In the past, I have used Scoop.it, Paper.li, and Tweeted Times, and for evaluation purposes I sampled Pearltrees and Storify. I have differing opinions of each:
This curation tool was very easy to establish and requires little to no maintenance. It did not even require me to create an account, I was able to log in using my existing Twitter account. I did not care for the left-to-right navigation, I found it difficult to follow. It is my belief that this navigational method was used when developing this tool to emulate the navigation done on a mobile device such as a smartphone or a tablet, and the developers determined that it would be a natural progression. Unfortunately, it is very confusing when using a laptop, desktop, or netbook. It was not my favorite choice.
I preferred this tool to the previous choice and found it so easy to set up that I created 2, one for my ed tech items and one for some of my favorite sports information. When I created the 2nd paper using only hashtags as my method of curation, I ended up with a paper that was laced with profanity and inappropriate links. I immediately deleted this paper and learned a valuable lesson about curation and the challenges that it would present when attempting to use it with students. Having said that, it is still my favorite tool for curation.
Initially I was impressed with Scoop.it, but after having more time to spend with this tool I have found that without daily maintenance it becomes a haven for spam. There are many posts that appear on my feed that I do not want to be there, but I do not always have time to edit and modify it.
Pearltrees is visually beautiful but I found it exceptionally confusing to develop and follow. I had to watch several videos both on the Pearltrees homepage and on YouTube to figure out how to set it up, and even then I still had some problems. It is simply too much work to set up and requires additional daily maintenance. I much prefer tools that are self-maintaining once you have set them up.
Storify is a fun little tool and creates a neat-looking page, however like some of the others, rather than a self-maintaining tool, you must create a new product on a regular basis.
Teachers often ask me to provide them with resources that they can use in their respective classrooms, and using these curation tools effectively would be an excellent way to gather resources and get them in the hands of eager teachers. At this time I will continue to stick with my good old standby, Google Reader, but I will continue to try new tools as they come along.
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