Here's How I Hammered Out the Details
As an artist and writer who likes to create her own content, I was skeptical about curation. Rss feeds make me feel bombarded. There is the daily onslaught of my merged email inbox. The alarming rate of these notifications can not keep me from trying curation. Afterall, I love to explore magazines and museums so curation will be my online collection of content I put my own unique spin on. Creating content is not always necessary but adding your own insight is.
Here's a video on curation vs. creating content and when to do what.
Ok Content is King but should I create or curate? #iSocialTalks
Choosing My Toolbox
Well, curation is my new crack. (Please don't get the wrong idea. Crack was never my crack. Pinterest is. It is my Art Class Resource Go To. Long may it reign because I have over 25,000 pins to get to) Starting out, the list of curation tools is long and impressive but I know what I want and the list is narrowed down. I want one easy to use with a bookmarklet feature. I want to be able to move things around easily. I want to change my criteria or key words without setting up a new curated topic. I want separate pages for topics. I am not interested in an app only. I want visually appealing magazine pages. I want to choose my picture and words. I want a curation tool that works with my blog, Google+, and wait for it...Pinterest! I want it to look professional. I want I want I want...
They Nail It!
Scoop.it for now. Ah Pearltrees my lost mission was so visually appealing. I wanted to love it. It looks like Pinterest but navigating it feels like a maze. I have an account but I still feel lost.
Voila! Scoop.it Intro Video and It just works. Well It Just works for me anyway. "I just want it to work" is what I say about tools all the time. Yea!
The Scoop.It Guide that Helped Me Decide
At work with Scoop.it, I have to balance the page. That puts the "cra" in crazy because the page just keeps expanding. I have learned how to stop. I have balanced my resources with teachers, practitioners, and experts. What I need to add is my own content. I am looking forward to doing this because there are many awesome teachers, artists and designers unleashing their creativity on their young students. Unleashing your creativity:Try this at home and at work. Businesses (Microsoft), universities (University of San Francisco), and professionals (Michael Maloney, Global Account Director, Ogilvy) use Scoop.it. With 20 million web pages a day, it's quite a presence.
Holding it Together
When I ask about curation in my work area, I get blank stares and some mumbles about having "enough to do." Here are some other Scoopers I found interesting just choosing personal topics of interest to me and my star student, my four year old son. I like the techniques of eye-catching photos, great layouts and bios, unusual titles, and comments with the curator's personality showing through. I will challenge myself to follow leads on great curators and topics so I can make connections.
Here's a Brit that comes highly recommended. Her one curated topic: Bennedict Cumberbatch News. If you don't no who he is, shame on you and check her out. She has nuggets on Downton Abbey, too.
This George Brown College professor has topics of Innovations in E-Learning and A Cultural History of Advertising I find fascinating.
Ironically found this one when I was looking for Scooby Doo. They had high praise for the Great Dane and gang. The Digital Rocking Chair, Transmedia: Storytelling for the Digital Age has some interesting scoops about creative and technical aspects of the genre. I love the image of a digital rocking chair, the best of tradition and innovation together.
Resources:
Fanzo, B. (August, 25, 2014). Ok Content is King but should I create or curate? #iSocialTalks. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I1HnMslXf3Q.
Scoop It. (October 2 , 2013). Scoop It. It Just Works! Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p3wMwNxgcTU#t=15.
Search Engine Journal. (January 20th, 2012). Scoop This: A Comprehensive Guide Scoop.it for Content Curation by Gabriella Sannino. Retrieved from http://www.searchenginejournal.com/scoop-this-a-comprehensive-guide-to-scoop-it-for-content-curation/38963/.
Under renovation: Any advice to quickly organizing my Pinterest page is most welcome. http://www.pinterest.com/york
Thank you for sharing the video on curation vs. creating. I am not a person who blogs and I very rarely have the time to sit and create my own content through research. This video made me realize there is a much larger value in using curation and then adding my thoughts as opposed to solely my beliefs. I liked how the video mentioned how with curation it allows us to utilize other people and create more of a collaboration of material.
ReplyDeleteI feel that I am all over the place with choosing a curation tool, and each time I read someone’s blog I am influenced by the enthusiasm each person has. I really want to explore Scoop.it further, because all of the things you are looking for in a curation tool match what I am looking for. The guide you posted was wonderful! Of all the sites I have looked into I think maybe I will give this one another shot. When I first looked at it I had difficulty figuring out how to use it, but now I feel a bit more confident.
I have not fully decided what I will be using my curation tool for, but want it to somehow focus on higher education and the tools that are needed to be a successful recruiter. I have used journals and newspapers as my sources, but want to expand to other people within my career field to see what insight they have to offer. I hope that I am able to find an easy to use curation tool that I will be able to use even after this course ends.
Gina,
DeleteI agree with you, Selecting a curation tool is not easy. Dare I say, I may choose one for professional and one for personal topics. I may use a different one for a graduate course topic than my own interest. It may be selecting where your best audience or collaboration is and let's face it that might take a while to figure out. I like commenting on why I am selecting a source and having it displayed front and center. That is one upside of Scoop.it. I, too, am influenced by what others find appealing about other curation tools as there is always a different perspective I had not considered.
Valerie