Welcome to the sixth and penultimate step in our free professional learning series on building your PLN.

In this activity you will explore:

  1. What content curation is and the benefits of content curation.
  2. A simple framework for getting started with content curation.
  3. A range of different tools that you can choose from to make content curation easier.

What Is Content Curation?

We are living in an era of information overload. There is so much content shared online that we actively seek out people who have good content curation skills to help us “sort the wheat from the chaff”.

A person with good curation skills saves us time by sifting through the vast abundance of content on the internet to select the best, most relevant resources on a specific topic or theme. The curator organizes, manages, and collates for their own use and shares with us.

If you look closely at most educators with a high following on social networks like Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, or Instagram you’ll notice that most are great content curators and share excellent resources.

Their sharing and content curation skills helped them build their PLN.

information hydrant
Creative Commons License Photo Credit: Will Lion via Compfight

Video: What Is Content Creation?

This 90 second video provides a useful overview of content creation.

21st Century Content Curation

Of course, content curation is nothing new. It has been an important skill for hundreds of years — think of newspapers, art galleries, museums, or simple storytelling.

Teachers have always been curators too — bringing together the most worthwhile materials to help their students learn. In the past, this might have been limited to books, posters, concrete materials, guest speakers, etc. But of course, there are so many wonderful digital resources available now too.

Content curation has been happening since the beginning of time in some form or another; however, it’s becoming increasingly worthwhile and complex as the volume of information online continues to increase.

21st century content curation can involve finding, verifying, organizing, annotating, remixing, creating, collating, and sharing.

This might sound overwhelming but it doesn’t have to be. Luckily, there are some excellent free digital tools for content curation which we’ll explore in this post.

The Benefits Of Content Curation

The main reasons why educators curate content include:

  1. To find, organize, and manage information and resources on specific topics.
  2. To stay informed about the latest information on specific topics which leads to professional growth.
  3. To learn through the process. As you search for and curate the best resources, you reflect on their value and you may develop new ways of thinking.
  4. To help build their PLN. Networks actively seek and follow good content curators because they save us time.
  5. To learn how to curate themselves so they can teach students how to curate content for research, their interests, and passions. Curation is an important part of being digitally literate.

Learn more about students as content curators in this excellent short video by John Spencer.

The Curation Process

We made this diagram to simplify the process of content curation. Feel free to use it on your blog or share with others.

Read, Editorialize, Share -- The Basics Of Content Curation Edublogs PLN Teacher Challenge

1) Read — Visit your favorite blogs or social media accounts, use curation tools like Flipboard or Feedly, or perhaps subscribe to newsletters. This consumption might mostly include text-based materials but don’t forget podcasts and videos too.

FILTER — Before moving on to the next step, you need to filter. You do not just want to share anything and everything. Check out Are You a Curator or a Dumper? by Jennifer Gonzalez. You also need to verify and make sure you don’t share anything that might not be true.

2) Editorialize — Here is where you need to add your own touches to your findings to help others. This involves considering your audience and what they might be interested in. You might even put together a few similar resources that complement or contrast each other.

CREATE — Before sharing, you might consider if you could create something with the content. This could be putting your favorite quote on a graphic to make your findings more shareable. Or maybe you could make your own infographic to share based on your findings.

3) Share — As we’re discovering throughout this PLN series, you can share with your PLN in a wide range of ways. Commonly, teachers will share with their network via their blog or social media. Sometimes you might want to compile resources together into one location using a tool like Wakelet, Google Docs, or Padlet. Once you share, be willing to interact with your PLN. Invite them to comment by asking questions and don’t forget to reply to any comments. Needless to say, when you’re sharing other people’s work, you should make it clear where it’s from.

Note: we’ll be explaining the tools mentioned above further on in this post. 

Examples Of Shared Content On Twitter

Content curation is not just finding a link and putting it in a tweet. Your PLN is not going to get much value out of that.

As the curator, you can challenge yourself to do a little more from time to time.

Here are some examples of curated work from educators.

Tony Vincent is well known for his graphics he creates for social media. These are always shared extensively.

Shannon McClintock Miller put together this Padlet with ideas of books to celebrate International Dot Day.

Jake Miller regularly makes GIFs to enhance his tweets which are well received by his followers.

Quotes are always popular additions to tweets. Check out our post on quotes if you want to learn how to make your own.

Sketchnoting has taken the edtech world by storm over the last few years. Julie Woodard is well known for her excellent sketchnotes which are a great way to visualize and summarize content. Here’s an example:

BookSnaps are a popular choice for sharing snippets of professional reading. Tara Martin coined the term BookSnaps and you can read more about them on her website.

Here is an example of a simple BookSnap from Jennifer Tod.

Emojis can catch a reader’s eye and make a nice addition to a summary for the time poor.

Digital Curation Tools

There are a plethora of free digital tools you can use to help with content curation.

Tools generally fall into one of these three categories.

  • News discovery tools — Use your preferred news discovery tool to select and aggregate the content. News discovery tools save time by feeding you the most relevant content. Examples of news discovery tools include Feedly, Flipboard, Nuzzle, and following a hashtag on Twitter.
  • Curation tools — Use your preferred curation tools to display your content with context, organization, annotation, and presentation. Examples of curation tools include Scoop.IT, Flipboard, Diigo, Wakelet, LiveBinder, or a blog.
  • Sharing tools — Select which networks you share your curated content on. For example, you might share the content on Twitter and Facebook. Some people will choose to follow your curated content via your curation tools (such as follow you on Scoop.IT, Pinterest, Flipboard Magazine, or Diigo).

Overview Of Popular Curation Tools

Which tools you use, and how you curate, is very personal.

You might have a set workflow that you follow regularly, or you might dip in and out of using different tools depending on your mood and needs.

We’ll now provide a snapshot of how some of the more popular curation tools work. These include:

  • Blogs
  • Wakelet
  • Nuzzel
  • Pocket
  • Diigo
  • Evernote
  • Flipboard
  • LiveBinders
  • Pinterest
  • Scoop.it

Blogs

Blogs posts are a popular way of curating content because:

  • You can dive deeper and write a detailed elaboration. You may find that the act of writing helps to transform your vague ideas into well structured thoughts.
  • You can customize and organize vast amounts of information in meaningful ways.
  • You might write a post about a single article you’ve read, or create a round-up post. This is where you share links to great content from multiple sources about a specific topic. Ideally, you’d add your own short annotations too.

Refer to Silvia Tolisano’s post on blogging as a curation platform for more information.

Check out these examples of educators who curate content using blogs:

For those who are new to blogging, we recommend you work through our personal blogging series. This series takes you step-by-step through the process of setting up your own personal educator blog.

Wakelet

Wakelet allows you to save, organize and tell stories with content from around the web.

This is a relatively new tool that is becoming very popular with teachers.

You can sign up for free or create a quick collection without signing up. There’s also a browser extension to save links from the web.

Your collections can be public or private. You can also embed collections on any blog or website.

Here’s a simple example:

Find out more about Wakelet including how to get set up and how to use it in the classroom in this post. 

4 steps to getting started with Wakelet by Kathleen Morris

Nuzzel

Nuzzel logoNuzzel is a ‘news monitoring and research tool’.

If you’re on Twitter or Facebook you might have found that it can be serendipitous in nature. You sometimes just ‘see what you see’ and there are no guarantees that you won’t miss the most interesting or important stories.

When you sign up for a free Nuzzel account you can get a curated email sent to you daily with the top stories from the people you follow.

This is really handy to stay abreast of important stories. You can then explore those links and decide whether they’re worth sharing with your PLN.

With Nuzzel, you can curate your own newsletter for your followers too. You can include stories you find interesting and add a personal touch with a headline and comments.

Your PLN can subscribe to your newsletter and you can share it on social media like Troy Hicks has done here.

Pocket

Sometimes you’re browsing the web or social media and you come across an interesting article, video, or link. You’d like to read it but you might be short on time.

This is where Pocket comes in. You put that item ‘in your Pocket’ for later.

You can save directly from your browser or from apps like Twitter, Feedly, or Flipboard. You can view it again when you’re ready — from your computer, phone, or tablet. You can even view the item when you’re offline.

When you’ve reviewed the items you’ve saved, you can then decided if there are any you’d like to share with your PLN.

The ad-supported version of Pocket is totally free.

Watch how this user reads his saved articles on the Pocket app.

Diigo

Diigo is a free social bookmarking tool that allows users to share online resources like websites, articles, and online tools in a private or public group format.

The benefit of using a social bookmarking tool is it allows you to organize and store your bookmarks online rather than in the browser of your computer.

This means you can log into your account, on any device, at any time, and easily find your bookmarks.

Watch the following video by Ms. Lamm to learn more about Diigo.

Check out these examples of how these educators use Diigo:

  1. Vicki Davis
  2. Vicky Sedgwick
  3. Anne Mirtschin

Evernote

Evernote enables you to collect information, curate resources, find your resources, and share with others all from the one workspace.

With Evernote, your notes, web clips, files, images, and voice memos can be sorted into folders, tagged, annotated, edited, given comments, searched, and accessed whenever you need them on any of your devices.

Evernote also enables you to view, input, and edit data even when offline.

Watch this short overview by Lindsey Maczynski about curation using Evernote.

Note: While there are still many teachers who enjoy using Evernote, changes to the free plan in 2016 resulted in some educators switching to other options. 

Flipboard

Flipboard was originally designed as a social network aggregation, magazine-format app for iPad in 2010. It’s now the most popular of the magazine-like content aggregation apps.

Flipboard’s strength is you are able to bring your social networks such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn into one location alongside your favorite news sources and anything else you like to read, or watch (like YouTube). On top of this, it’s easy to share your favorite content with your social networks and easy to curate your favorite content into Flipboard magazine(s).

Watch this video to learn more about Flipboard.

Flipboard is a powerful tool for curating your favorite content into magazine(s).

The benefits of using a Flipboard magazine include:

  1. Quickly curating and sharing articles you like directly to your own magazine from within Flipboard (or using the Flip It bookmarklet in your web browser), while also sharing the articles with your social networks at the same time!
  2. Other Flipboard users can subscribe to your Flipboard magazine(s) allowing them to easily read the articles you like to share.
  3. Anyone who clicks on a link can read your magazine using their web browser regardless of whether or not they have a Flipboard account.

Here are links to some example Flipboard Magazines:

Watch this video to see how Sue Waters uses Flipboard.

You’ll find detailed step-by-step instructions on how to set up and use Flipboard here.

LiveBinders

LiveBinders is your digital binder for all of your online content and learning.

With your LiveBinder, you can create a central hub full of resources on a topic that you choose. Almost everything that you can think of can be added to your LiveBinder – links to websites, YouTube videos, Flickr images, PDF/Microsoft Word documents, and QR codes are just some examples of rich content for your LiveBinder.

Check out Joy Kirr’s Genius Hour LiveBinder to see how Livebinder can be used for curating resources.

Click here to open this binder in a new window.

Refer to the Educator’s Guide to LiveBinders to get started.

Pinterest

Pinterest is a virtual bulletin board or pinboard that allows you to find and curate images, videos, or websites.

The visual aspect of Pinterest is a key reason why it’s captured the interest of so many.

You add items to your Pinterest accounts using pins. A pin is a visual bookmark which could be an image, video, slideshare, or a web clip of a site.

When you click on a pin it takes you to the site where the pin was sourced from so you can learn more.

Some people think of Pinterest as a social media platform but it’s really more like a search engine. Pinterest calls itself a visual discovery engine.

Watch this video tutorial to learn more about Pinterest.

You can check out how we use Pinterest here.

Examples of educators using Pinterest to curate and share:

  1. Eric Sheninger
  2. Larry Ferlazzo
  3. Vicky Davis
  4. Cult of Pedagogy

Scoop.it

Scoop.it allows you to create a web page to share what you find interesting with the world.

It does this combining clever curation tools that make it easy to gather content in one place with a wide range of sharing functionalities to let people know about your Scoop.it page.

Watch this video to learn more about Scoop.it.

Check out these examples of how Scoop.it can be used:

For more information on Scoop.it refer to how to keep your content fresh with Scoop.it.

Curation Pitfalls

Kay Oddone created this diagram based on a presentation by Joyce Seitzinger.

It summarizes some of the pitfalls you want to avoid as a content curator.

Content Curation Pitfalls
Image by Kay Oddone

The Hoarder: a curator who collects everything indiscriminately, who doesn’t organise their content, and doesn’t share – this is really closer to simple aggregation than curation.

The Scrooge: one who, similarly hoards their information – although they may organise their collection, they don’t share either; one of the key purposes of educational content curation!

The Tabloid (or National Enquirer): a collector who indiscriminately collates everything together, and generously shares this aggregation, whether others want/need it or not!

The Robot: a curator who uses tools to shares automatically, with no context related additions or value adding; in this case, the curation is really no better than providing a list of Google search results.

Avoiding these pitfalls is what differentiates the effective content curator from those simply ‘collecting’ content.

Visit Kay’s post to learn more about content curation.

Create Your Own Workflow

Remember, while there are tools that can help with the aggregation and organization of all the great resources you’re coming across, technology can’t do the curation. This is the job for a human who knows their audience (their PLN).

We encourage you to try out the following process if you’re ready to give content curation a go:

  1. Find the tool(s) that you prefer to use for news discovery, for curation, and for sharing.
  2. Curate the content that helps you, and is helpful for others.
  3. Make it part of your routine to curate and share content.

As you get going and try different tools, your wants and needs might evolve. You’ll figure out the pros and cons of different tools as you use them.

Stick with it and you’ll begin to develop your own workflow that works for you!

Want to see an example of a workflow?

Richard Byrne is a master curator, keeping hundreds of thousands of teachers in the loop on a daily basis. Watch how he uses Feedly and Google Keep together.

Watch David McGavock’s video to see how he use Netvibes, Scoop.IT, and Diigo as his curation and learning tools.

Your Task

It’s now time to take action!

We’d like you to add your voice and ideas to our ongoing conversation about PLNs by undertaking one or more of these challenges:

  1. Review our list of popular curation tools. Leave a comment on this post to share what tools you currently use (and why) for news discovery, curation, and sharing. Tell us which of the curation tools you plan to try and why. Do you have any other tools to add that you’ve tried or heard about?
  2. Set up an account. Choose one of the popular curation tools such as Flipboard, Nuzzel, Scoop.it, or Pinterest. Sign up and leave a link to your account so others can take a look and follow you.
  3. Interesting tweet. Find an example of a tweet where someone has curated and shared some information in an interesting way. Maybe they included a summary, visual, sketchnote, GIF, or quote. Share the link to the tweet so we can take a look!
  4. Write a post on your blog. Share your own thoughts about curation. Please include @edublogs if you tweet your post so we can share your post with our network. Leave a comment with a link to your post so we can read it! In your blog post, you might like to cover topics like:
    • What do you see as the advantages of curating content?
    • What tips do you have for newbies?
    • What did you learn about content curation that you didn’t know?
    • What are your future goals for content curation?
    • How could you teach your students something about content curation?

Also feel free to leave a comment to ask any questions or share your tips.

How to leave a comment: Scroll down to find the comment box. Write your comment, then enter your name and email address (email addresses are not published). Enter the anti-spam word. Press submit and we will moderate your comment ASAP.

629 thoughts on “Step 6: Using Curation Tools As A Connected Educator

  1. One thing from this section that I already use is Pinterest. I use the app to look for ideas for the classroom, activities, anchor charts, quotes, book ideas, and other helpful things to make my class a fun learning environment. I also love that educators can follow other educators on the app and share ideas through pictures and blogs.

  2. I think that using Pinterest is a great idea because I already use it to organize my pins. I can click on a pin and it leads me straight to the source so I can find more information on the topic. I think another content curation tool I would use is Pocket, because I can save articles or anything that I found that was interesting and put it in the “pocket” to read about later. I feel like both curation tools are great, because I can save things to go back and look at later.

  3. I already have a large binder at home full of useful lessons and tips. I would love to keep adding to that with physical resources that I want to keep.
    On twitter there is a feature to bookmark tweets. I would love to use this feature to keep any motivational tweets, or to have a plcae to find any articles or resources I have on there so that I can easily find them. I believe this would essentially work the same as a portfolio or folder.

  4. One tool that I already use some for content curation is Pinterest, although mostly I use it for personal content and not professional growth content. I do like the way that Pinterest works, and now I know some better ways that I can use it, specifically in relation to teaching and growing in my work. One of the tools that stood out to me that I would be interested to use and explore is Pocket. It seems like a great way to gather information to save for later use, which is something I already find myself wishing I could do sometimes. I think it would be a wonderful tool to use for professional growth in my teaching career.

  5. A curation tool I am interested in using is blogs. I feel like it’s a organized, user-friendly way to showcase resources from a wealth of different sources that will be a benefit for both students and colleagues!

  6. I have a Pinterest and use it so much for education related content. This is a great way to organize ideas and inspiration while also collaborating with others. I have seen multiple tools and strategies on Pinterest that educators that implemented and that I have put in my “teacher toolbox” for later. Ultimately, this platform is a creative place for others to share their ideas and save information for later.

  7. As I stated previously in the course, I am not a huge social media person. With this being said, I haven’t really utilized ay of these curation tools for education purposes. I am familiar with pinterest and love it for DIY, recipes, etc. So I plan to try and use this curation tool to discover and share ideas that help better my classroom.

  8. I currently use Pinterest but not necessarily for educational purposes. However, I am considering creating a Pinterest for professional purposes to discover different educational activities others have shared.

  9. I do have a Pinterest account that I use for personal fun. I have found everything on this site and have referred to it for almost everything, including cooking and household tips. They offer wonderful lesson ideas and activities for educational purposes. I highly recommend a Pinterest account.

  10. Curation Tool Critique: I have used Pinterest to select how my new Spring raised garden is going to look ( along with other ideas for home and classroom setup).

    The curation tools I am interested in using are Pocket ( I love to read and as I already do with my magazines, I tear out the articles I want to read and recycle the remainder magazine), Wakelet ( this is a great way to share your day’s success stories), Evernote ( again the sharing of resources is a necessity for real time teaching) and Scoop.it ( although I do feel someone else already has an “expert corner” on information, again what is no big deal to you may mean the world / classroom solution for someone else).

  11. I already use Pinterest to curate images and websites that relate to various aspects of my personal life. I chose to sign up for Flipboard to read articles specifically linked to #education, #motivation, and #women’s health.

  12. I really like Pocket. I currently use Pinterest and Pocket is similar to me, but I like that I can save articles to read at a later date. It’s really helpful as well on the days that I am limiting my time spent on the Internet. With the Pocket app, I can save articles and read them offline without getting sidetracked and clicking on other stuff. It’s like a digital notebook you can carry with you anywhere.

  13. Review: For curation tools, I currently use Pinterest and Twitter. Pinterest is good for finding things you’re looking for; recently it’s been used a lot by me for finding dinner recipes, but there is so much more I haven’t dove in on. Twitter can also be utilized well if you are following the right people and hashtags.

  14. I would say Pinterest is definitely my go-to for creative material. I typically find myself wandering into the app on my mobile phone often to get classroom inspirations as well as lessons that I could see myself implementing. There are other boards created by other users that work as a collage of other users’ work which really helps me because it allows me to find relative materials all in the same location.

  15. Review: I never considered Pinterest (or used it) as a curation device because I did not fully consider the role of curation in social media. However, now that I have a better understanding of it, I realize that the site is perfect for this purpose. English teachers can use Pinterest to find book recommendations, strategies, and more. Going forward, I plan on paying more attention to the role of curation for creating a PLN.

  16. I currently use Pinterest to find interesting ideas for everything. When I get my own classroom, I would definitely use it to get ideas. Other than Pinterest I would use twitter sometimes. I feel like Pinterest has more ideas for different type of things which is why I think its better in my opinion.

  17. Review our list of popular curation tools. Leave a comment on this post to share what tools you currently use (and why) for news discovery, curation, and sharing. Tell us which of the curation tools you plan to try and why. Do you have any other tools to add that you’ve tried or heard about?
    I don’t currently use any of these tools but in the future I will be sure to use Wakelet. I liked the way the information was presented, and it acted as a meeting hub for resources.

  18. A curation tool that I currently use all the time is Pinterest. I love using Pinterest for so many reasons; craft ideas, behavior management, classroom management, organization, etc. There are so many helpful ideas and tips that are shown as pictures where you are then able to click on those that catch your eye and it takes you to various blogs and posts explaining the different ideas and how it has worked in their creators classrooms and with their students. I love that it offers the pictures first because that is a quick way for me to identify whether or not that idea has the information I’m looking for or not. I’m also able to save the different ideas and come back to them at another time if it isn’t applicable at the moment. I love getting to pin all of the different ideas as I slowly integrate them into my knowledge and lessons while figuring out what works and what doesn’t. A curation tool that I’m excited to explore and try out is LiveBinder. Having a central location where I can store all sorts of tips and information in a digital binder sounds amazing and sounds like it’s going to make my life infinitely easier!

  19. I currently use the platform Pinterest. This site allows you to create different boards, categorizing topics or ideas you have into sections. I love to find inspiration from the creative ideas, lesson plans, and classroom themes on this site all of the time. It is also a good community tool to communicate and share ideas with your peers. One platform that I would like to explore more is LiveBinders. I aim to stay organized, especially within the classroom, and this tool seems like a great way to do just that. I would set the binders uup by subject, which would allow for students to stay more organized and on task with their assignments. 

  20. I do not use any curation tools, but out of all of these, Pinterest looks to be the one that I would use. I already have a passing familiarity with it, using it to help plan summer camp activities, but never went any more in depth than just quick searches. I have not hear about any other sorts of curation tools, but am interested to learn more.

  21. The main tool that’s on the list that I use is Pinterest; it’s fantastic for organizing things into categories to quickly reference. I would be hard pressed to think of another social media platform which does the same task just as well. One that I would like to try, however, is Evernote. The reason for this is that it seems to do exactly what I want Pinterest to do, only it’s even easier as it’s purpose built for that task. Unfortunately, I haven’t heard of anything that isn’t on this list already.

  22. 1. Review: As stated before, I use Pinterest. I like that I can organize my ideas into specific boards. I like that I can click on an image and go to it’s source. I like that I can find articles about the most random of crap that I would not have thought to look for, but popped up in my home feed anyway. I wouldn’t mind using blogs more often though. I hadn’t given them much thought as a tool for gaining knowledge and peers, and now that I have, I think I like them.

  23. Content curation is the process of gathering, categorizing, and sharing useful content on a specific topic. Similarly, you curate your own collection across social media platforms, much like a museum curator. Content curation advantages is to gain knowledge by way of trial and error. You may also develop new ways of thinking as you search for and curate the best resources. Another way is to assist in the development of their personal learning network (PLN).

  24. I have created a podcast to explain different interesting facts but I may remake it to where it is for students more so than rather than posting random facts

  25. 1. Curation tools

    I have used Canva for a long time to curate just about everything that I use in the classroom. It is great for graphics, slideshows, rubrics, infographics, handouts, and so much more. Canva is also incredibly easy to use and access. NewsELA is a great resource for news sharing and reading. It also allows instructors to guage their classes reading levels, as well as allowing for students to read at their levels.

  26. I think pinterest is a great website for finding content and not having to search through a lot of “fluff.” We can search for what we need and plenty of projects, ideas, and links to articles we can find to be helpful when we are in a creative rut.

  27. Set up an account. Choose one of the popular curation tools such as Flipboard, Nuzzel, Scoop.it, or Pinterest. Sign up and leave a link to your account so others can take a look and follow you.

    link: https://pin.it/2Cd4kP2

    I set up a pinterest account. I plan to use it for daily inspirational quotes, teaching ideas, and ideas on ways to integrate the arts. Pinterest has ideas for projects, assignments, and so much more.

  28. Review our list of popular curation tools. Leave a comment on this post to share what tools you currently use (and why) for news discovery, curation, and sharing. Tell us which of the curation tools you plan to try and why. Do you have any other tools to add that you’ve tried or heard about?
    I currently use Pinterest for everything! It’s great for lesson plans, cute activities, crafts, and other fun teaching things. Lots of DIY activities to create which is awesome when you’re on a budget. I would like to continue using Pinterest and even post some of my own content.

  29. Share a curation tool: I really enjoy using Pinterest as a curation tool as it allows me to find specific resources that I am looking for, or gives me other resources that are similar and in the same field that I am searching. Pinterest allows creators to curate all kinds of information whether it is a video, a picture, or text. As Pinterest is filled with great ideas for activities and lessons, I definitely plan on using it when I am a teacher when it comes to ideas for worksheets, activities, or fun ideas for the classroom that will keep the students engaged! I hope to try more tools so that I can expand my knowledge on resources for the young scholars!

  30. One educator that I follow on Twitter is Jennifer Gonzalez, who runs a blog called the Cult of Pedagogy. Her Twitter feed is mostly her sharing links to her most recent blog posts, but there are two things I think she does particularly well when she shares them. First, she creates an enticing thumbnail, which grabs my attention quickly. Then, along with the title of the post, she pulls a quote from the post that also makes me want to click on it and read more. For example, in this tweet, https://twitter.com/cultofpedagogy/status/1451944006603186176?s=20, she links to a blog post called “Letter to an Overachiever.” The tweet reads, “Please drop the ball on something. Just do it. You’ll realize that the world won’t end. #youmatter #mindfulness #passiondriven #teachertips #teacherfriends.” The text alone makes me want to read more, and the addition of an image further makes it a link I want to click on.

  31. As an internet novice, I have not heard off any of these options besides Pinterest, which is great for finding mini lessons to teach and learn about classroom decorating options. Although I use it mostly for wedding inspo at the moment. However, my favorite option from this list is definitely the Pocket app. I can think of so many great opportunities to gather articles that I never seem to have time to read in the moment, and be able to go back to without worry of them disappearing forever! (thanks Facebook refresh) the Pocket app is prefect for todays busy lifestyle and my insomnia!

  32. I utilize Pinterest as my main curation tool typically. I really enjoy the variety of ideas and blogs that I can find with a simple search through their page. I also have found that I can organize my findings as needed so that when I look for them later, I can easily review what is needed without the hassle of having to write things down or save a webpage to my booklist. By using Pinterest, I have been able to find creators that I often go back to for news, discovery and curation. I am interested in learning more about FlipBoard. I feel this would be an awesome organizational tool for all points of my future PLN’s. To have them in one accessible place to access material and other vital pieces of information, that I could easily utilize for my students to find and access online work would be helpful in making students not as overwhelmed with accessing content.

  33. Tools that I currently use are following hashtags on Twitter and Pinterest. I use these two tools because I am most commonly on Twitter and Pinterest, so I am more likely to use and stay updated with these two tools, rather than ones such as Flipboard. I also find these two tools easier to use and navigate than others. One of the curation tools that I plan to try out is Wakelet, because it has a browser extension, which is nice for saving links and also it seems really cool to be able to tell stories, using content from all over the web. There are no other tools that I can add that I have tried or have heard about, other than the two I have previously listed.

  34. Share your own thoughts about curation.: I do not always agree with content curation, especially as students get older. Older and more mature students are completely capable of doing their own research on a topic, and they can make judgement calls on its accuracy in many cases. If we just spoon feed them the content they will always expect that. Yes you cannot ask a little kid to go find accurate information on something without strict guidance, but we should not tell our 16, 17, and 18 year old’s they can only use content from a teacher approved source. Yes they need to vet it for accuracy and check it against another source, but content curation stunts the development of their own research skills.

  35. 1. I like the curation feature that Flipboard and Pinterest provide to organize ideas. I feel like each of the two sites has a different ‘focus.’ Flipboard is great for news articles, research, etc. while Pinterest is great for ideas, resources, etc. I am interested to try any other sites that can give me opportunities to gain knowledge and ideas.

  36. There are a wide variety of curation tools I currently use, and others I just check out to expand my knowledge. Curation tools help build PLN, and also keep people informed on new information. As the article shares, being a curator requires a little more work to actually grab the attention of others. One tool I want to use was created by Tony Vincent. He creates different graphics on social media that are eye appealing, and rather easy to create. It is possible to turn a simple doodle into an actual illustration through Google AutoDraw. Not only can I use this to engage my students, but I can put them in the position to use the tool as well. One tool I use frequently is Pinterest. Pinterest allows me to organize new ideas and easily refer back to them when I am in need of inspiration.

  37. After reviewing some of the curation tools, I am interested in learning more about Nuzzel. I think it’s useful that they send you a curated email with top stories from people you follow. I’m one to follow a bunch of people and get lost in the wave of posts, so getting a notification with top stories would be helpful in keeping up to date with information you care about. I also really like Pocket. Sometimes I come across something that I don’t have the time for but would be interested in reading later and I’ll just keep it open in a tab for an extended period of time. It either gets forgotten or accidentally exited out of, but with Pocket, you can store and save directly from your browser and view it again whenever you’re ready. It seems a lot more organized than keeping multiple tabs open!

  38. I’ve used Pinterest for a while. It’s helped curate ideas for both educational and personal purposes. It was extremely useful in helping me curate ideas for setting up my classroom, and is continuously useful while looking for lesson ideas. My username is @ChloeGrant01. Give me a follow for curated content on English content and more 🙂

  39. Since I consider myself an artist, more so into character design, I like to use Pinterest because I find that there is a plethora of ideas from other artists that I can learn and utilize in my work. When I become a teacher in the future, I feel like I would utilize this curation tool a lot for DIYs and arts-and-crafts ideas for students of all ages. LiveBinders was another cool tool that I might want to use because I want to try and have a clutter-free classroom as possible so it would certainly be something I might be using.

  40. https://twitter.com/rexchapman/status/1454101289273643011?s=21
    An interesting tweet I found by chance was posted by @RexChapman and they link a short TikTok video of a teacher rapping the words of a Dr. Seuss book to her class as one of her students beatboxes. The tweet has gained some ground since it has about 6,300 likes and has sparked a small debate in the comments on the appropriateness of the lesson. Some question why high schoolers are “reading” a Dr. Seuss book whereas others jump in to defend the lesson by saying the messages are important for kids of all ages and that there are numerous literary devices to analyze from his books.

  41. One site that I use for content curation is Pinterest. Pinterest is a site that I’ve used since high school to find ideas for a variety of different events. They have lesson plans, classroom layout ideas, plus more. It can also link you to sites and blogs that feature even more in-depth content. I think it’s my favorite because it’s the easiest to use, plus, it has such a wide variety of material. I’ve never actually created a post on Pinterest, but I imagine it couldn’t be too difficult.

  42. One popular curation tool I use already is Pocket! This is a great tool that helps me come back to interesting things I want to look at but do not have time to examine at the time of discovery. It can also be used to help with paywalls. Of the tools listed, the one that stood out to me most was Scoop.it because of my aversion to social media. It seems I can bypass my personal feelings on social media and still build a great PLN with a tool like Scoop.it!

  43. One of the tools that I really only use is Pinterest. It is useful in so many ways, allowing you to grab ideas, lessons, and information making teaching so much easier. Not even just making teaching easier by allowing you to explore different ways to make learning fun.

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