Content Curation World

New interesting tools make it possible to create online courses and full online learning programs, by drastically simplifying the design process while providing simple tools to curate and bring together valuable existing content already published online.

The first I'd like to bring to your attention is Classmill, which makes it very easy to create online courses by providing a very simple and intuitive interface and allowing the author to add with ease his own texts, as well as images, links and video clips coming from elsewhere on the web. Anyone can publish an online course and make it visible to everyone. Only those who register and join in can see the full contents and can participate in the integrated discussion area for the course.

The second one is Learnyst, which goes one step beyond Classmill by facilitating the creation of a full online school with multiple courses and the ability to charge for selected ones. 

Both tools are extremely easy to use, and allow the assembly of existing materials, whether owned or produced by others. 

This is an interesting trend as in the past most tools to deliver educational content relied on the author creating and posting only his own materials. The fact that you now can easily include valuable content published by others opens up the gates both for the curation of lots of existing content into useful learning courses as well as for the issue of whether and how to compensate curated content from others. 

This economic issue though, does not preclude tons of free high-quality content to be re-used and showcased in many new free learning courses and it provides those who want to learn with even more non-commercial alternatives to master their favorite topics. 

Takeaway: You are going to see more of these tools and more subject-matter experts create valuable learning resources by bringing together key relevant content produced by others while adding tangible value, perspective and context.

If you have a strong passion or expertise it's time to start thinking about building your own online school. 

Check out these two tools:

- Learnyst

- Classmill

Other curation tools for learning moving in the same direction:

- Gibbon

- Learnist

- Educrate

More content curation tools organised in categories:

https://contentcuration.zeef.com/robin.good 

HackDesign is a great example of content curation at work. The team of design curators behind this site, targeted at people interested in digital/web design, has curated the very best articles into a series of lessons and the top tools into a well-categorized toolkit.

Each lesson is per se a collection of annotated pointers to existing quality articles on the topic, and the tools are individually reviewed and organized across different application areas.

The official intro: "We've asked some of the world's best designers to help us curate the best and most useful blogs, books, games, videos, and tutorials that helped them learn critical elements of design. We're organizing them all into a digestible and iterative lesson plan so you can apply this knowledge to your own projects."

A model for anyone interested in creating a learning hub on any topic by curating the best content already available online.

Must-see. 9/10

Free to use.

Check it out now: https://hackdesign.org/ 

The curators: https://hackdesign.org/curators 

Martin Smith, Chief Revenue Officer at Noodle, has written an interesting article highlighting how the future of universities is about to be completely transformed, and how, similarly to what is happening in the music industry, curators, or those organization acting in such role, will play a dramatically important role in the future of higher education.

Key factors that will make this a reality are:

• The price of content will freefall over the next seven years.
  
  
• The supply of learning content will swell.
  
  
• Education will increasingly be personalized.
   

"Universities will be masters of curation, working as talent agencies. They’ll draw royalties and license fees from the content professors create and curate.

In many ways, the role of the best universities will become even more focused on identifying, investing in, and harvesting the returns from great talent."

Insightful. Right-on-the-mark. Must-read. 9/10

Full article: http://qz.com/223771/universities-are-the-record-labels-of-education/ 

See also: http://www.masternewmedia.org/curation-for-education-and-learning/ 

An excellent showcase of best practices in curating content in education while using different tools and services.

Sue Waters pulls together a great number of very good examples, of how curated content can be effectively used in education.

The analysis includes relevant statistical data on the use of content curation tools, and several chapters providing examples of how different types of content curation tools have been effectively utilized within an educational context.

Tools covered: Storify, Slideshare, Scoop.it, Pinterest, Tweetdeck, Flipboard, Popplet, Mindmeister.

Content types covered: Blog posts, Visual notes, Infographics. 

Resourceful. 8/10

Full report: http://theedublogger.com/2014/06/12/curation/ 

Reading time: 6'

Here's a short first-hand report highlighting how an 8th grade social studies class teacher (Terri Inloes) has fully leveraged the content curation potential to let her students dive, discover and make sense of topics (in this case social reform movements) that they had not studied before. All by themselves.

Here the steps taken to make this happen:

a) By using the Question Formulation Technique, the teacher prepared pairs of photographs representing each of the reform movements, one picture dating back to the late 19th century, and another representing where that social reform movement stands in today’s society. 

b) After checking out all of the photos, students settled on the pair of pictures that most caught their interest.

c) They brainstormed and refined a set of specific questions, and then shared their thinking with the class.

d) With the feedback received they selected the topic which they would curate.

e) At this point students planned their research strategies. By using 5 different graphic organizers from the book Q Tasks, by Carol Koechlin and Sandi Zwaan, students were allowed to choose the one that they thought would help them the most in planning their keyword search strategies. 

f) Students were assigned WordPress blogs and provided basic instructions on how to use them to curate and publish their research work.

g) Discovery and real learning kicked in as students proceeded in collaborative groups to research and document their chosen topic. 

You can see some of the outcomes that this assignment produced right here:

General Conclusions

http://tmsredvotingrights.d20blogs.org/2014/02/24/conclusion-3/

Voting Rights Inequality

http://tmsredvotingrights.d20blogs.org/

Mental Health Treatment
http://tmsorangementalhealthcaretreatments.d20blogs.org/

Prohibition Acts

http://tmsorangeprohibitionacts.d20blogs.org/ 

A very inspiring example of content curation can be effectively applied in the classroom with impressive results. 

Highly recommended. 9/10

Thanks to Nancy White of Innovations in Education for participating, writing and reporting about it.

Original post: http://www.techlearning.com/Default.aspx?tabid=67&entryid=7296  

Here's a valuable resource on content curation, "distilled" by the students of the DCurate MOOC lead Martin Couzins and Sam Burrough which organizes over 60 different articles, guides and tools on the topic.

This resources collection is presented in the form of a Pearltrees interactive map, organized into eight sections:

1. Why Do We Need Curators

2. What Is Digital Curation

3. Aggregation vs. Curation

4. It's All About Audience

5. How Do We Find Valuable Content

6. How Do You Decide What To Curate

7. Curation Tools

8. Contributions from participants

If you are new to content curation this is a good resource to bookmark and keep as a reference.

DCurate MOOC sign-up: http://www.curatr3.com/portfolio-item/how-to-be-an-effective-digital-curator/  

See also: http://sco.lt/99a09Z 

Free to use.

Explore the guidemap: http://bit.ly/digitalcuratorguidemap 

See also: https://gibbon.co/RobinGood/content-curation-guide  

Ben Betts provides a useful framework for understanding how to leverage the potential of content curation both at the organizational and at the individual level.

In his vision, content curation takes up four broad roles that help us learn.

These are:

1) Inspiration - curation done by others outside of a formal learning framework

2) Aggregation - same as inspiration but done within a formal learning context

3) Integration - what is referenced as PKM (personal knowledge management) (see Harold Jarche for more info).

4) Application - how to apply insights derived from curation process into daily work or activities. 

For each one of these, the author provides a good description, examples and insight into its usefulness and value and into how organizations can use it.

Some delightful insights include:
 

• inspiration - curating community feedback and insights
   
• aggregation - curated resources are better than courses
   
• integration - curation & critical thought core to teaching and learning processes
   
• application - curation as a personal "learning locker" 

Valuable reading for anyone interested in understanding more about the value of content curation for learning.

Insightful. Useful. 8/10 

Full article: http://www.ht2.co.uk/ben/?p=527 

Kirsten Wilson analyzes three different levels of content curation presently in use and describes accurately the differences between these. 

"In regards to levels of curation it is much like Blooms. There is knowledge level curation- it is done for remembering and understanding (the “Learner Level”).

Another level is applying and analyzing- it is curated for use or been used and is a proven tool for using whether it be your tool or a tool you have discovered from your global connections via Social Media, blogs or simple internet searches (the “Facilitator Level”). 

Finally, there are curations that go to the level of evaluation and creation… these are the curations that become invaluable tools to others. It takes the most work, but the result is most thorough and the resource it provides to others can be invaluable (the “Designer Level”)."

He concludes by reminding all would-be curators the importance of attribution and the amount of effort that the "designer level" of curation requires: "In this world of immediate access and available content make every effort to honor the source of your curation, inspiration and/or springboard for design. 

Those that do curate at a “Designer” level and in many cases are the first in their field of expertise to find a new “method” put hours into the development and design."

Rightful. Instructional. 7/10

Full original article: http://teachkiwi.wordpress.com/2013/08/31/content-collaboration-and-curation-part-2/ 

(Image credit: Three trophies by Shutterstock)

Ashley Hutchinson has an excellent article on the NWP site, illustrating how content curation can be effectively used to move students from passively memorizing information that they have no interest into, to become active investigators of a topic to uncover its different facets and critical evaluators of the same in light of their own values. 

Her key goal was to find a way to make "research" something fun to do for her students. 

"I wanted students to be able to funnel their interests into a more authentic academic experience so that they could learn about what they want to learn about and become empowered as researchers, both casually and formally. 

To do that, I needed to remix their idea of what research is, transform it from something boring and arbitrary into something rich and useful.

When I don't know something, I look it up...  So I called this an "argument curation" project, and not just to sound fancy; they were actually identifying arguments and curating resources that helped inform those arguments." 

The beauty of this approach is that students need to check and research the different aspects of a story, to see it through and to develop their own viewpoint relative to it.  And here is the a good example of how this can be achieved: 

"...They had to find the resources and think carefully about what the resources were actually saying, so that their collections contained diverse opinions and ways of expressing them. 

...On their websites, they described the general topic, created page for five different arguments and gave a breakdown of why people are debating those topics. 

Then they had to set out to find resources, but not just any resources, resources that had different perspectives. Even those that were in contention with their own. 

After gathering at least three resources on five different argument topics within their area of interest, the students summarized the perspectives they saw in the diverse resources that they found. 

After being exposed to all of these resources and having some time to think, they themselves entered into the conversation by giving their opinion and referencing the sources that helped inform their opinion. 

By having a conversation with their resources, students found themselves **thinking** instead of repeating, synthesizing instead of summarizing."

I don't want to spoil any further your reading of the original which includes some inspiring info about the effects that such an approach can have on students and on their ability to look at the information that they are exposed to.  

Excellent resource for educators considering curation in their program.   

Insightful. Useful. 9/10 

Full article: http://digitalis.nwp.org/resource/5227

Thanks to Steve Wheeler and Oliver Quinlan for a very inspirational post about the relevance of curation for students and learning.

I think they really nail down the key issue that needs to be addressed when presenting curation as a key alternative to the present learning approach.

"The thrust of our thinking is that students arrive at University conditioned to chase the answer that they think the lecturer is looking for.  

That we can use a range of online tools to bring to the surface skills in engaging with the body of knowledge rather than collecting quotes for an essay.  

We argued that we need to take students through a paradigm shift, to enable them to understand how to read and curate that reading, having taken a critical, forensic approach to the reading they undertake."

Content Curation is a vital skill and reasonably closely aligned with the role defined as a maven and made famous in Gladwell’s book Tipping Point.

We are seeking to turn our students into the nation’s leading mavens of their discipline.

To fall in love with their body of knowledge and then write their answer, rather than seeking our answer."

And that is exactly the point. Moving from a passive, rote memorization of notions to the opportunity to investigate, research, dive in and explore a body of knowledge to create something meaningful for others to tap into.

"...how many novice learners, and in particular undergraduate students, attempt to build into their work what they believe their lecturers require from them. this is often exepmlifed with over complex, “plucked from a thesaurus”  language... 

"Just as the Melanesian islanders failed to understand the inner   workings of technology, but attempted to recreate it from its surface appearance, so undergraduate students who ‘don’t get it’ attempt to write critical essays by stringing together references into some form of meaningful narrative."

"Once students get the idea that they can write critically by being forensic and striving to understand the concepts and theories rather than simply creating replicas of texts they have only half read, they will begin to assimilate these ideas successfully in to their own thinking and ideology.  

We want to ensure that students become curators of their discipline, rather than magpies intent upon adorning their world with shiny disconnected baubles of information, with no care as to where the information came from, its author or its relationship to the rest of the body of knowledge."

The analogy with "cargo cults" presented in the article is a perfect match to illustrate easily to anyone the type of education we are providing to our students today.

Must read article. Highly recommended. 9/10

Full article: http://peteyeomans.wordpress.com/2013/06/29/students-as-curators-cargo-cults-and-chasing-the-answers/

Original: http://steve-wheeler.blogspot.co.uk/2013/06/cargo-cults-wooden-phones-and.html

(Image credit: www.science-store.com)

If you are interested in taking curation onboard in your learning or teaching program, here is a collection of the best web curation tools and services specifically designed for the education world.

Whether you need to pull together a collection of relevant books and reading resources for your next class, or want to push your students to collaborate on creating relevant information collections on specific topics, here are over the best tools that can be used for this task.

*Curation Tools for Education and Learning* Pinterest board: http://pinterest.com/robingood/curation-tools-for-education-and-learning/

P.S.: Please, feel free to suggest new and additional relevant tools that should be added to this collection in the comments here below.

This article points out in multiple ways and with some interesting supporting data how big is the problem for schools and educational institutions in trying to identify relevant tools to adopt in absence of expert trusted guides that they can rely on.

The Hechingerreport writes: "...school leaders on this new frontier face a daunting challenge: from the slew of highly touted new products, how do they pick the right ones?

“It’s hard for our people to know what all of the choices are,” said Penny Hodge, the assistant superintendent of budget and finance in Roanoke. “Maybe there were even better choices and we weren’t aware.”

Today’s school leaders must navigate a market with little trustworthy evidence to show what works. Billions of dollars are being spent while educators try to untangle a maze of sales pitches."

The problem of identifying the most appropriate tools, services or products is not a problem limited only to the education sector. Just about anyone who is not an tech-expert in his area would have a hard time today finding the most appropriate tools in the midst of so many offerings and so little trustworthy information about them.

"Part of the reason is that credible evidence often isn’t available. Only one-third of school technology directors surveyed said that education technology companies offer reliable data on their products, according to the survey."

The solution to this issue is already starting to emerge in the form of both non-profit and commercial companies who will devote their time and resources to scout, test, verify and review tools while providing the means to search, filter and compare them easily.

Graphite.org, Edshelf are just two among many emerging examples of "reputable curation websites, with professional reviews and a social media component" that provide a one-stop solution for those in need of an expert and trusted guide in the tools for education area.

Must read for anyone interested in better understanding where we are headed when it comes to choosing tools.. 9/10

Full article: http://hechingerreport.org/as-market-surges-schools-struggle-to-find-the-best-tech-products/ 

Check also this excellent head-to-head comparison between Graphite and EdShelf: http://www.psla.org/blog/edshelf-vs-graphite/ 

Image credit: Shutterstock

Ibrar Bhatt, shares some of the insights he has been been able to discover in his research work for his forthcoming PhD thesis ("A sociomaterial account of assignment writing in Further Education classrooms") for the University of Leeds.

In his short blog analysis he first comprehensively defines the new emerging content curation space, and then he highlights 

the relevance this may have, once it is validated and acknowledged, in allowing students to explore the creation of reports and the development of new work assignments in a new light.

Here a few brief excerpts:

"These processes are, ... about anthologising older content to produce new content and creating a new experience for readers, by giving a new life (or new ‘reality’) to an older text.

This is curation as a digital literacy practice."

"...prolific Web users have often made themselves effective digital curators by searching and locating information, then creating a new experience by re-contextualising it."

"...Digital curation therefore is not just about finding relevant material, although that is a significant part of it, but is also about creating a specific and unique experience by utilising the resulting materials which then become contextualised within a new space.

A curator, therefore, whether she is a journalist-by-proxy such as Popova or a student completing an assignment in a classroom, not only collects and interprets, but also creates a new experience with it. 

In this respect, curation is a process of problem solving, re-assembling, re-creating, and stewardship of other people’s writing."

Insightful. Resourceful. Informative. 8/10

Full article: http://ibrarspace.net/2014/05/21/curation-as-a-digital-literacy-practice/ 

Reading time: 11'

Blendspace is a web-based content curation tool, designed specifically for educators and teachers. Blendspace sits somewhere between Pinterest and Storify as its power and simplicity make it easy to search multiple sources, import content and visually display it and organize it into boards.

Its unique strength resides in:

1. Multiple layout pre-sets
2. Presentation-mode
3. Collections are embeddable
4. Easy drag/drop reorganization of boards
5. Team collaborators (upcoming feature)
6. Works across all computers and devices

Very easy and intuitive to use, makes the research and collection task intuitive, and organization, presentation and publishing very effective.

I really like how Blendspace works and the results it produces. If you are looking for visual tool to create collections of resources on a specific topic for your class or training program, I'd give Blendspace a try.

Try it out now: https://www.blendspace.com/ 

Added to Curation Tools for Education inside Content Curation Tools Supermap 

GEDB, the Global Education Database, is a great and extremely useful curated collection of the best apps, web tools, gadgets and moocs now available online for educational purposes.

Anyone can register to GEDB and submit any valuable resource or tool by filling out the dedicated form.

Submissions are reviewed for factual accuracy and integrity and approved and published within 24 hours. Readers and contributors can in turn rate the review and share it online.

This is a great educational resource, simple to consult and well organized. A treasure trove of qualified resources for anyone wanting to teach and learn with new technologies.

Free to use.

Try it out now: http://www.gedb.org/ 

Gibbon is a new web app which makes it extremely easy to create beautiful-to-look-at learning playlists by simply adding specific article or video links to your custom-made content compilation. 

Gibbon actually goes the extra mile by grabbing the full content from each original source you curate, by integrating it into your learning playlist, and by stripping out of any design distractions it may have been accompanied by. 

Learning playlists can be easily edited, arranged and shared with others. 

Gibbon offers a wonderful and elegant design, providing a clutter-free, elegant and very effective way to present and organize content lists.

Furthermore Gibbon adds a few specific touches that make this curation tool particularly fit for learning a topic, by providing reading time estimates for each link in a list, striking out titles of completed readings, highlighting with simple icons the type of content showcased (articles, video, etc.), and creating a focused and distraction-free reading environment.

My comment: Gibbon looks very promising to me, as it attempts not to be another generic curation tool but addresses a very specific need and application while providing a very well designed and usable tool.

Notwithstanding the beauty and simplicity of the UI I felt the need for an integrated search tool that would facilitate me in grabbing those content items I wanted to add into a learning playlist. 

I also had several problems in trying to add new content to my test playlist. New URLs would "time out" easily while being fetched and all of the content added via the bookmarklet or the Google extension didn't show up in my collection.

A very promising tool to effectively curate content learning playlists.

Free to use.

Try it out now: https://gibbon.co/ 

Added to the Curation for Learning Tools section of the Content Curation Tools Supermap.

From the original article by Justin Reich and Beth Holland on MindShift: "What would a math class look like where students learn to compute, prove, derive, and intuit, as well as to discern and appreciate mathematical beauty?

What about a history class where students maintained a portfolio of beautiful artifacts and ideas from multiple periods?

How might efforts to curate benefit from the portability and ubiquity of mobile devices?

What would a “relevance portfolio” look like, where students catalog their daily encounters with ideas or experiences? What other kinds of portfolios could students create over the course of their academic career?"

If you are curious to get a glimpse at how tablets and their apps can be utilized to leverage curation for your classroom learning objectives, then this is definitely a good read.

You get a good introduction with some interesting historical facts about curation and about what it could be done with it in the real of education, and then you are provided with a good number of examples and tools that you can start to use right away.

Informative. Resourceful. 8/10

Full article: http://blogs.kqed.org/mindshift/2013/06/to-get-the-best-out-of-tablets-for-education-classrooms-use-smart-curation/