The tools I have previous experience with were Pinterest,
Feedly and Flipboard. When Pinterest
first came out and was really popular, I created an account to see what the
buzz was about. I know a lot of my
friends use Pinterest for crafty ideas but that does not interest me. I think I created two boards, “Yum – Food!”
and “Cool Stuff.” As you can see, I did
not stay interested in Pinterest for too long.
I have experience with Feedly from a previous class and this one, so I
knew I wanted to pick something different.
Last but not least, I had played around with Flipboard in the past but
did not ever really understand why people liked it so much. I suppose that is what is great about tools
like these; they appeal more to some people and not as much to others.
One thing that influenced my decision was that I was adamant
I wanted to try something new. Although
it would be easy to choose one of the aforementioned tools because I am
familiar with them, I decided I wanted to try something new. I love exploring new tools and applications,
so if there was something out there that I would find beneficial, I was
determined to do so. Another factor that
influenced my decision was that I wanted something easy to use. Reading through some of the descriptions on
the website provided, a few of the tools sounded a bit more difficult than
others.
When listening to the Update #1 video for this week, I heard
Dean mention Paper.li so that was one I was automatically willing to explore as
a potential tool. Since I didn’t know
much about any of the other tools listed, Paper.li was at the top of my
list. After reading the description
about how it uses Twitter, I was more intrigued than ever. I signed in using my Twitter account
(awesome!) and I was directed to start adding content to my paper. When it prompted me for keywords to search to
find content, the first thing that came to mind was ‘education’ and I’m glad it
did because a few resources that popped up were ones I was familiar with like
Edutopia. I then added a few ‘digital
literacy’ resources and then created my paper. IT IS SO COOL! I recommend using
Paper.li to anyone who might not have picked a tool yet because it really is
easy to use and attractive; I love it!
I think I have a good balance of sources. Like I mentioned before, Edutopia is a main
contributor of the content on my paper.
I have other sources like Discovery Education, Education Week and the
New York Times. However, I do have
sources from teachers who have written articles or shared links, videos or
pictures on the topics I chose. For
example, Amy Stella shared a wonderful poster about Digital Literacy with
quotes, topics and resources. In turn, I
shared it on Twitter. It can viewed here (the link is: http://pbs.twimg.com/media/B1C_7FECIAA66Sb.png; just in case the picture is hard to see):
When perusing through my classmates’ posts, I found that
Chris Lopez was also thinking about using Paper.li! The example she posted of Paper.li is very similar to me.
However, my content is very generic. Since I am so new to it, I have
only added content relevant to education and technology. Chris had posts from
edX, which is an online course site (I had to look it up). I thought that was really neat so I will have
to continue to add more topics that I’m interested in. There are so many different topics that I
teach in Computer, I am sure I could find a ton of resources that promote those
topics.
When adding resources, I think it is important to choose
topics that are relevant to you. Thankfully,
when I was initially adding resources, I haven’t come across any that I have
felt like are irrelevant. As I continue
to add resources to Paper.li, I will make sure to keep an eye out for anything
that doesn’t relate to me. I think a
site like this could be so beneficial but it has to be pulling resources that
interest the user. If not, there really
is no point to the entire tool. So far,
I am most excited about the addition of Edutopia. I have already found so many great articles,
photos and videos that I know I will be able to utilize in some way; whether it
is for this class or just to share with colleagues. In my opinion, the ability to share and
collaborate with others is one of the best things about education.
You can find the link to my Paper.li here: http://paper.li/AlyssaCarricato/1414586563
Your experience with paper li made me hopeful that it would find me some great sources, but not so much. I think I still need to find the right tags which will call things up. Thank you for sharing your curation!
ReplyDeleteAh ha! Trying a search on scoop it and getting much better results.
ReplyDeleteI loved your chocolate covered broccoli story. I am still not sure that including gaming is exactly what I I want to focus on, but it is definitely in the neighborhood. Regardless I loved the story and the comparison. The more that I am playing around, I think I will end up on Scoop It, but it is great that we can learn from each others trials.
ReplyDeleteHi Alyssa,
ReplyDeleteI am testing Flipboard and Soop.it this week. The first curation tool I tried was Paperli, but I did not stick with it because I did not get the hang of it immediately. I like the organization of your Paper.li project; I find the design easy to follow and very readable. The page turning action of Flipboard appeals to me but the layout of Paper.li is well designed. Like you, I tried tools that I never used before; it is fun to learn new tools and resources, if the learning curve isn’t too steep.
I flipped one of your resources immediately, the 30+ Websites to Download Free Photos article under the Technology heading. Lately, I have been spending too much time looking for images for the class blogs and having 30 alternatives sounds like fun. Edutopia is one of my favorite resources and I have used Edutopia resources for many projects in my EDIM classes. I find that every type of media on Edutopia is well written and researched.
Check out the ISTE site - http://www.iste.org/. In addition to standards for students and teachers, there are blogs and resources. Here’s a link to their computational resources http://www.iste.org/explore/articledetail?articleid=152, you might find some interesting resources.
thanks
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ReplyDeleteI feel that I went through the same beginning processing of choosing a curation tool as you did. I didn’t want to use something I was familiar with, because I want to learn new tools from this class so wanted the challenge. I had a difficult time of selecting a curation tool and felt very much like Goldilocks. I liked certain aspects of each tool, but couldn’t find the one I felt was “just right”. Maybe I will look into Paper.li since you speak highly of it.
ReplyDeleteYou seem to have a wide variety of sources, which clearly will make your magazine informative and valuable. When I was glancing through the tools and reviewing other magazines, I was always drawn to ones that looked visually appealing and had only relevant information. Sometimes it is easy to just include all sorts of information which ultimately would take away from the purpose of the magazine. I think it is smart that you are going to weed out information that is not relevant to you.
I love your closing sentence of the blog about the best part of education being collaboration. I feel that in every aspect of life, whether in a classroom or a business world, learning from each other is what makes it all worthwhile. I enjoy when I am challenged by people because that makes me a better person.
After reading your post I think that I am going to try Paper.li. It is not one that I looked at to try. I use Pinterest for many things including educational topics. I have found some very good lessons and support for educational topics using Pinterest but I am trying to use other types of curation tools to see if there are others that suit my educational needs more.
ReplyDeleteThanks for posting a good review of this and capturing my interest.
Alyssa,
ReplyDeleteI found Paper.li mesmerizing through your eyes. I just didn't not find it as focused as Scoop.it for a particular topic. I thought both you and Kevin did an excellent job in setting yours up. The layout is great, just overwhelming to me. You both seem to have great pools of resources to start which seems the secret of your success.
Like you, I wanted to use something new. Unlike you, I use Pinterest all the time and have over 100 boards. For curation, I wanted a professional look and way to share my thoughts on a topic. I like that I can set up a new page for a new topic on Scoop.it.
I realize depending on the purpose, the audience, or personality of the designer, different yet appropriate curation tools can be used for each to be their own. I appreciate your fresh approach to this topic and shared resources.
Valerie
I think it's fine to have a broad, general education portion. Do you have the ability to create a separate page or section that focuses on a specific topic?
ReplyDelete