Curation - is it the new search tool (Valenza 2011), the new search (Good 2012), the future of Web 2.0 (Boyd 2010), or the new black (O'Connell 2012)? What is curation anyway, and how can it be used as a tool for student and teacher learning? This essay will investigate what curation is and the different contexts it is used in. Why is it important; who are the curators, what motivates them and what makes a great curator? What processes and tools are used for curation and what digital literacies are required for successful curation? It will conclude with an investigation into ways teachers can use curation both with and for their students and as a tool for their own professional learning and a brief look at some curation tools.
“Making sense of the information flow”
“A curator is an expert learner. Instead of dispensing knowledge, he creates spaces in which knowledge can be created, explored, and connected.” (Siemens, 2007).
According to Boyd (2010) curators help people to focus their attention on the most relevant and important information streams. Valenza (2011) tells us to take advantage of the work of others passionate about a topic and use their curated work as a search tool. Fiorelli (2011) describes content curators as “critical knowledge brokers”.
Librarians, journalists, and teachers have always curated: they evaluate, select, collect, present, and promote material for their users, readers and students; but these days curation is becoming an important activity for a broad range of people and for a variety of reasons and purposes.
So what is curation? Put simply, curation is locating, evaluating and selecting (usually) online content on a topic, adding value by contextualising and possibly through tagging or commenting or both; and using digital tools to provide access to the curated material.
Some say simple aggregation, bringing together information on a single topic into one location, is not curation “Aggregation is algorithmic. Curation is handpicked.” (Lee, 2014) but it is one of Bhargava’s five models of curation, the others being distillation, elevation, mashups and chronology (Bhargava 2011). The five models are explored in depth here: Influential Marketing Blog: The 5 Models Of Content Curation
A curator might be an individual or an organisation. Curators use their skills to create new meaning by combining content and context and their work is valued by those who they assist in making sense of information. (Cobb, 2010; Minocha and Petre, 2012).
Pope (2011) describes how curating tweets is now an essential part of journalism. Connelly (2011) interviews a journalist who explains that journalism has always been “about being in the middle, between the story and the public”. Curating using digital tools enhances and extends this traditional role by capturing the essential elements of a story and using professional input and the tool to add context. Petrie (2011) notes that new digital curation tools force journalists to be more ethical by linking back to the original source. This facility should be equally welcomed in education settings to promote proper acknowledgement of sources and overcome plagiarism.
Curating the Revolution: Building a Real-Time News Feed About Egypt - Phoebe Connelly - Technology - The Atlantic Andy Carvin is a senior strategist at NPR working on digital media. He's known for putting together comprehensive and innovative packages around breaking news stories, and for the past three weeks, his Twitter stream has been a non-stop curation of the Egypt protests. Carvin has turned himself into "a personal news wire for Egypt." We talked with him about how he gained 4,000 followers, why he hasn't mapped his sources, and if curation is the new journalism.
Boyd (2010) discusses the shift from broadcast to networked information and considers the role of the curator in this shift. She states “the power is no longer in the hands of those who control the channels of distribution; the power is now in the hands of those who control the limited resource of attention” and notes that curators use their skills to attract attention while consumers go to curators to help them focus their attention at the right moment. She has concerns about the shift to networked information including the potentially misplaced assumption that it is more democratic, and the dangers of homophily. This is echoed by Cobb (2010) who urges individuals to fight homophily by mixing up the curators they follow, not just choosing those with same world-view.
Curation fits well as part of "participatory culture" as described by Jenkins, Purushotma, Weigel, Clinton, and Robinson (2009), as technology-enabled individuals can "archive, annotate, appropriate, and recirculate media content in powerful new ways." Being able to critically evaluate content and share information in participatory environments is a key aspect of metaliteracy (Mackey and Jacobson 2011). Witek and Gretano, researching metaliteracy through a project where students utilise Facebook newsfeeds for study, found their students shifted from recalling and making sense of information based on what the information says, to doing the same through the lens of who shared it. This highlights the importance of knowing and understanding who a curator is and what they represent in judging the credibility of information received.
“Seek, sense, share”
Kelly (2013) has taken Beth Kanter’s mantra of Seek, Sense, Share (in reference to using social media for professional learning; itself an adaptation of Jarche's Network Learning Model (Jarche 2010)) (Kanter, 2011) and applied it to curation as:
Seek - aggregate and filter relevant content
Sense - the human component - make sense of and add value to the information by placing it in the appropriate context; justify the inclusion of the information.
Share - use social media and/or a curation platform to deliver the messages to others.
Similar to Siemens (2007) Connectivist approach, Kanter writes from a networked learning perspective. Her exposition of the mantra owes much to Jarche’s definition of networked learning “an individual, disciplined process by which we make sense of information, observations and ideas.” Jarche (2010). Jarche also talks about the growing importance of informal learning in the connected workplace as well as the importance of sense-making skills, both individually and in networks, as new digital literacy skills. Skilled content curation employs most of the digital literacy skills, attributes and behaviours Hague and Peyton (2010) have illustrated, demonstrating the value of curation for informal and formal learning
Whether in formal or informal circumstances, curation fits with Connected Learning Principles (n.d.) being interest-powered, peer-supported, openly networked and socially connected.
Cobb (2010) sees in curation two opportunities for individual lifelong learning - find great curators to follow and become a great curator. He says finding curators with similar interests (but not necessarily opinion) and established credibility allows an individual to attend to the most relevant information pre-filtered and contextualised. Becoming a curator allows development of expertise in a field and potentially open up channels of engagement with other experts. To not be a lifelong learner is no longer an option in today’s information society with its instant, free flowing and infinite information (Wesch, 2009). Teachers owe it to themselves and their students to explore the opportunities curation creates. Swanson (2013) encourages all teachers to curate their resources, using meaningful tags, as a means of taking control of information overload.
Tolisano (2013) describes how she uses Twitter as a curation tool for personal and shared professional learning. She says effective curation requires higher order thinking skills and assumes “responsibility towards your network who rely on you to filter information on a specific topic”. (Tolisano, 2011). Valenza (2011) says “the best [curators] model for our learners a new type of citizenship--a desire on the part of experts, specialists, and individuals who feel passionate about a topic, to share their knowledge and updates by forming knowledge-sharing communities.”
From read, write, and react, to create, curate, and contemplate
The digital literacy skills required for successful curation form part of what Wesch (2009) wants learners to become: knowledge-able. Participating in curation activities can facilitate students in developing and demonstrating search strategies, evaluation skills, critical thinking, problem solving, participating in networked conversation, and using information ethically. (O’Connell, 2011). True curation, as opposed to simple collection, develops in students the ability to comprehend, critique, think critically and use digital media strategically. (Fisher, 2012)
Fisher’s continuum is shown here:
It describes how Scoop.it’s functionality, allowing visitor comments and ‘re-scoops’, leads to participatory and collaborative learning where the construction of knowledge leverages input from within and beyond a cohort. They detail the use of Scoop.it for professional development by university staff who have collaborated in the collection of professional reading material. This has become a productive team activity reducing the amount of reading required by individuals. Flintoff, Mellow and Clark also give examples of Scoop.it being used as an activity for tertiary level students where their teachers have favourably noted the critical thinking and analysis skills demonstrated. Hamilton (2012) has had similar positive experience using Scoop.it with secondary students where, by following each individual’s Scoop.it topic she was able to provide timely feedback and suggest further content as they researched a topic.(p. 25) She explores the model of "embedded librarian" and shows how free and low-cost technologies can be used to support and enhance participatory learning experiences and foster students' information literacy skills.
The place of Web 2.0 tools in literacy education is discussed by Pilgrim and Bledsoe (2013), exploring what it means to be literate in the online environment. Web 2.0 tools such as curation platforms allow a student-centred approach where children can collaborate to construct meaning. White (2014) describes a school project where student curated research items for a specific topic onto a blog. Through the project she discovered that students were highly motivated by curating and found it enabled personalised learning.
Mills’ (2013) study in progress is examining the role of curation habits in flipped professional development for teachers. In this approach teachers identify, contextualise and share resources prior to workshops or meetings freeing up face-to-face time for discussion and development of action plans. The study references Sfard’s (1998) participation metaphor placing responsibility for learning in the hands of the individual and embedding it in daily practice.
Another way curation is being explored in education is through the creation of online curated interactive textbooks which allow teachers to bypass expensive digital textbooks which too often are merely digitised forms of the print version without interactive elements. The increasing accessibility of Open Educational Resources, the functionality of curation tools, and the push for personalised learning make this option increasingly viable and valuable for teachers and students.
Curation tools
Due to word limit restrictions this section has had to be curtailed. Here are just a few resources to use as a starting point.
List.ly includes over 80 different digital tools for content curation, which can be viewed alphabetically or as ranked as voted by List.ly members (Williams, n.d.).
Trap.it pulls in relevant third-party content from all over the web, including industry research, insights and trends, which can be organized into topic-specific libraries for instant reference.
Feedly helps you to curate blog content that can be used as resources for future posts or give you great ideas for upcoming content. Feedly is also great for following authorities and influencers in your industry, so you can stay on top of the hottest conversations and create content based on the latest trending topics. It doesn’t pull images, but the lack of visuals doesn’t diminish the importance of this tool.
Like Feedly, Pinterest is great for keeping up with celebrities, pop culture icons and leaders in your industry. Depending on your niche, Pinterest is also fantastic for collecting useful “hacks”, tricks and tips you can build your content around. Save these ideas to boards on your account, and work with them to curate excellent content for you and your clients.
Used by more than 2.5 million marketers, Scoop.it just might be a content marketer’s dream come true. This powerful curation platform allows you to search for content according to keyword, share curated content directly to your social channels, and embed everything you find on your page. What’s more, the platform also offers predictive insights and an accurate ROI measuring tool that helps you get the most from your curated content. At Express Writers, we love the CEO of Scoop.it, Guillaume Decugis!
BuzzSumo is a smart marketer’s “pro tool” when it comes to content curation. BuzzSumo keeps you up to date with the latest trending topics in your industry by sending automated alerts every time new content in your industry is published. Use BuzzSumo to search for content by topic, and share it directly from a simple dashboard.
MyCurator is perfect for those who use WordPress for their website and blog. MyCurator allows you to quickly and easily curate content, fetching relevant articles, videos, and other content from all over the web, with an option for automated posting to your site. There are also bulk curation tools for collecting multiple pieces of content for large or serial projects.
Using Twitter Lists can help you monitor content from influencers, news websites, and other relevant companies which can be resources for real-time marketing. Set up lists for different categories so you can check the conversations under a topic in an instant.
Learnist lends an authoritative twist to content curation because it helps people learn from industry leaders and experts. You will be able to curate authority content, and even learn new information about your industry from the people who are driving it forward and making things happen. Learn how to manage your time from productivity experts, or how to make the perfect cappuccino from a top barista, all while collecting stellar content ideas!
This program gives you access to over 200,000 RSS feeds, which makes it easy to find and curate virtually any type of content you need. All you have to do is search your chosen keywords, and you can skim through several different resources, cherry-picking juicy content along the way.
Curata is another intelligent content curation tool because it makes sure to find articles and content that meets your interests. It goes throughout blogs around the Internet and tailor makes content lists for you to look through. Curata gives you the chance to look over the curated content, annotate the pieces, and curate the best content for your industry needs. This tool is especially handy if you happen to be very busy – like all good content marketers always are!
Conclusion
It is clear that curation offers many opportunities for teachers and students. Whether in flipped learning, developing digital literacy skills, creating custom textbooks or taming information overload the potential seems limited only by the amount of information available. Astute twenty-first century teachers will take Cobb's (2010) advice: find great curator's to follow, and become a great curator; and instill in their students the capacity to do the same so that they too are empowered as lifelong learners.
Fisher, M. (2012, June 11). Digigogy: Collection or Curation? Digigogy. Retrieved from http://digigogy.blogspot.com.au/2012/06/collection-or-curation.html
Flintoff, K., Mellow, P. & Clark, K. P. (2014). Digital curation: Opportunities for learning, teaching, research and professional development. In Transformative, innovative and engaging. Proceedings of the 23rd Annual Teaching Learning Forum, 30-31 January 2014. Perth: The University of Western Australia. http://ctl.curtin.edu.au/professional_development/conferences/tlf/tlf2014/refereed/flintoff.html
Hamilton, B. J. (2012). Embedded librarianship : tools and practices. Chicago, IL. : ALA TechSource.
Hottenstein, A. (2012). Empowering Instructors to Become Effective Content Curators Using the Building Blocks of Today to Manage Dynamic Curriculums for the Education Space. Journal of Systemics, Cybernetics and Informatics, 10(4), 94–99.
Mackey, T. P., & Jacobson, T. E. (2011). Reframing Information Literacy as a Metaliteracy. College & Research Libraries, 72(1), 62–78.
Mihailidis, P., & Cohen, J. N. (2013). Exploring Curation as a Core Competency in Digital and Media Literacy Education. Journal Of Interactive Media In Education, 1-19.
Mills, M. (2013). Engaging Teacher Professional Development Through Digital Curation. In R. McBride & M. Searson (Eds.), Proceedings of Society for Information Technology & Teacher Education International Conference 2013 (pp. 797–799). New Orleans, Louisiana, United States: AACE. Retrieved from http://www.editlib.org/p/48209
Pilgrim, J., & Bledsoe, C. (2013). The application of web 2.0 tools for literacy education. In Technological tools for the literacy classroom (27–45). Hershey, PA: IGI Global.
Williams, S. (n.d.). Content Discovery, Curation Tools and Sites | Listly List. Listly. Retrieved June 1, 2014, from http://list.ly/list/20J-content-discovery-curation-tools-and-sites
Witek, D., & Grettano, T. (2014). Teaching metaliteracy: a new paradigm in action. Reference Services Review, 42(2), 2–2.
Curating the Revolution: Building a Real-Time News Feed About Egypt - Phoebe Connelly - Technology - The Atlantic Andy Carvin is a senior strategist at NPR working on digital media. He's known for putting together comprehensive and innovative packages around breaking news stories, and for the past three weeks, his Twitter stream has been a non-stop curation of the Egypt protests. Carvin has turned himself into "a personal news wire for Egypt." We talked with him about how he gained 4,000 followers, why he hasn't mapped his sources, and if curation is the new journalism. 
