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Content curation: tools, tips, and benefits.

Content creation is a common term in many digital marketing spheres, but it is one your business cannot just do without. When implemented correctly, curated content can become a great component of a digital marketing campaign and provide your potential audience with valuable and relevant information.

To get the best results from curated content, digital marketers and business owners follow different well-thought-out plans. In this post, we will learn about digital content curation in education, how you can apply it, the tools to use, and the benefits you can expect.

What is digital content curation?

Digital content curation is the process of collecting, organizing, and sharing content from the internet about a specific topic. However, content curation means a lot more than just writing articles about something you think your audience will find interesting.

It involves selecting relevant content from various sources and sharing them with your target audience via mediums used by your business. For instance, if your business focuses on electronics, you might want to write an article or a blog about the best laptops for digital marketing and any relevant topic that resonates with your brand.

Curated contents are available in various forms, such as social media content, website blogs and articles, email newsletters, and even podcasts.

Besides simply sharing any content, it is vital to consider the needs and interests of your target audience. Throwing in irrelevant and mixed information doesn’t add value to your customers and can even make you lose leads and potential customers.

See yourself as a museum curator and bring a valuable item to the public. If you carefully select and pick only the best, your audience will appreciate your brand and even come back for more.

Content curation is not as simple as searching for information about a topic in Google and including everything you get from the search results. A great content curator is a person who can:

 

• Find the most relevant information and resources about a topic.
• Identify trends and patterns.
• Identify contexts and categories for a topic.
• Find ways around complex information about a given topic.

 

Remember, these apply to both teachers and student curators. The following are things you need to keep in mind if you need to curate content for academic needs.

 

• Focus on quality instead of quantity. A few carefully selected content will be more helpful than mediocre and roughly curated content.
• Be a consistent curator, i.e., curate content regularly.
• Know your target audience and tailor the content according to their needs and interest.
• Curate content that helps bridge the gaps and contextualize information.
• Content can be available in the form of blog posts, web pages, videos, social media posts, newsletters, PDF files, research papers, and audio, so do not neglect any of these platforms when you want to curate content.

 

Benefits of digital content curation in education.

In simple terms, digital content curation in education is the process of gathering content and organizing it in a concise and presentable manner around a specific topic, category, or theme. The following are some of the common benefits of content curation for learning.

1.  Instantly useful and practical.

Instead of spending many hours in the library researching for information on a single topic or theme, curated content provides deep and direct access to insights tailored specifically for a given course.

When you curate highly useful content, you allow students to understand a given topic, develop critical thinking, and make better decisions.

2. Encourage collaborative learning and continuous conversations.

This benefit is self-explanatory; when you got a centralized system where you can get the best insights about a particular topic, learners can contribute with their ideas, thoughts, and recommendations to the benefit of everyone in the class.

Similar to social media forums where people can leave comments, a robust content curation platform makes it easy for everyone in the classroom to participate actively in discussions and allow collaborative consultations.

3. Curated content enables remote learning.

Many books and important academic reports are now available in digital formats more than ever. However, you still need to know what you are searching for or visit a library, which can be a toll order.

Digital content curation in education enables access to the most relevant information remotely at all times. As long as you have a stable internet connection and a robust computer device, you can get whatever information you need conveniently.

4. It helps teachers keep relevant and current examples.

One of the practical ways to make students learn is to let them see what they have learned in real life. Content curation empowers educators to develop and maintain custom learning systems. These learning hubs contain current and relevant examples to help students improve their understanding of a given course.

For instance, say you are teaching a unit in marketing strategy. Although your textbooks and curriculum is the pillar of your studies, you can sharpen your students’ knowledge base by creating a learning hub filled with;

 

• Presentation and speeches from leading marketers around the world.
• Articles that discuss marketing strategies of the leading companies.
• Examples of best product positioning, grouped by industry.
• Marketing strategies examples from some of the fastest rising startups.

 

While the basics of what you teach remain the same at the core, its practical applications and examples will keep evolving. Content curation ensures you are up to date with relevant supporting resources for students.

5. Curated content opens up trends you would otherwise not know.

Another great benefit of curated content is that it allows you to track trending information in your profession in real time. This can be difficult if you depend on curriculums and textbooks that have been around for a long time.

With curated content, you are able to identify new techniques, emerging trends, approaches to various challenges, and new strategies.

Ways to get started with digital content curation in education.

The following are the approved ways to get started with content curation for students.

a. Model content curation.

Usually, few students start learning with zero curation skills. We are living in a world where customers value speed and convenience over deliberate and slower thought process that is needed in content curation.

Therefore, it is evident that educators need to model the curation steps. Some can use shared documents or spreadsheets, while others can have their students arrange key ideas in sketches and expound on them in journals.

It is advisable to start with students' private journals to allow them to discover their interests and come up with new ideas. However, as they delve deeper into the journaling process, they can start sharing their ideas with a larger audience.

The curation can be in the form of a visual process that is similar to what you get on Pinterest or a series of podcast episodes of what they do.

Remember to include librarians in the digital content curation in the education process. They can guide students in finding, organizing, and sharing ideas through the proper channels. Librarians are the actual school community curator and professionals in developing information literacy.

a. Let learners geek out.

Content curators are natural geniuses. They get excited with topics and ideas within their specialization and like engaging in research in a manner that makes it feel adventurous to them. If you need students to engage in the curation process, you need to let them geek out.

Tap into their creative potential and let them run the show. An excellent point, to begin with, is to engage them in projects and forums that allow them to explore their geeky thoughts, interests, and ideas and share their finding with the relevant audience.

The best idea for these geek platforms is that they give permission to students to experiment with their creative ideas on whatever topics they like. It is majorly based on the student's choice. If they like social media content, fashion, or online trading, let them explore it.

In the long run, this personal interactions can lead to improved engagement and more buy-ins. As an educator, you should encourage learners to delve deeper into their topic by challenging them with critical thinking questions and letting them determine how their ideas relate to various ideas, systems, and communities.

b. Spend more time on it.

Digital content curation in education needs time and resources. Take a look at seasoned curators, and you'll understand the level of commitment they put into the work. There is no shortcut to it. If you want your students to become master curators, then you have to spare enough time for the craft.

Although we can have a way around the issue by integrating curation in the daily information curation process, it can face challenges in specific courses which require a lot of time to cover good content.

However, the process is entirely about how you organize your students and select information. Students can engage in content curation as they read primary or secondary sources in various social studies or informational blogs about ideas and concepts in science.

They can also curate mathematical concepts and strategies and then share them for comparison with peers.

c. Start earlier.

Conventionally, educators wait until the end year for the student to do their research on their line of study. It is often part of a multi-week project. However, if you start earlier at the beginning of the year, students will learn about curation concept and master it as the year progresses.

So, revisiting this idea of the time factor, you are technically eliminating the major research project and instead including curation, research, and communication in smaller units you have designed.

d. Allow students to own the process.

Allow students to choose their topics, questions, and platforms they find resonating with them. This can allow them to connect to silent reading, research, or blogging. It is also essential to let students choose their own methods of curation. This can happen in a notebook or journal if they prefer privacy doing the work.

Also, digital content curation in education can happen in a podcast, blog, or video series. For those who would like to organize their work in a spatial manner, you can allow them to refer to visual curation platforms like Pinterest.

Use-cases of content curation tools in the classroom.

With the rising relationship between education and technology continuing to rise, content curation is increasingly becoming a more essential and valuable skill daily. The following are ways educators and learners can leverage content curation tools in the classroom.

1. For hosting the course and lesson resources.

When you are working on research as the primary lesson objective, content curation platforms can help you with a platform to host resources for easy accessibility.

With content more engaging than a simple textbook page or printed worksheet, each lesson collection can have links to reference materials like images, podcasts, or videos with notes to help guide you in the delivery of the lessons and ask thoughtful questions of your students.

2. Hosting student projects.

The ability to properly research and gather information is an essential skill for all students, regardless of their age. A robust and easy-to-use curation platform allows learners to explore and gather their online search findings in a visually appealing manner.

They can rearrange ideas and thoughts in a manner that tells a story, illustrate points with images, videos, and podcasts, and explain their points using their own notes. Once they finish, completed projects can be shared with the whole class with a simple click of a button or details added in a conventional way, such as through written essays by adding a QR code or a single link.

3. Creating visual and engaging lesson plans.

Lesson planning is by far much the most time-consuming teachers' responsibility, but using a strong content curation platform can make the lesson planning time fly!

Making lesson plans visually appealing and entertaining can make the process enjoyable and encourage you to add your creativity to the process. Also, it will allow you to add relevant teaching resources to your scheme of work so that you can have the required materials with you in one place if you want to teach your class.

1. Used for personal development.

As a teacher, you will constantly be developing skills and techniques in your students. Whether it is picking valuable topics in a forum, listening to an inspiring podcast, or reading a thought-striking tweet or article, it can be challenging to keep track of every valuable developmental resource.

However, with content curation tools, you can quickly and easily add links to these resources to your collection with a single click of a button and revisit them whenever you want to.

2. To encourage personal learning.

Having content curation as an extra resource for your teaching allows students to interact with the lesson independently and fully explore different areas of interest to them.

Time allocation for lessons only allows learners to engage with the topic briefly. Still, having a platform, they can refer to later after class encourages them to delve deeper into a lesson or concept.

Whether it is an alternative argument, links to more comprehensive reading, podcasts, or videos, these extra resources are an excellent starting point to for independent learning after attending classroom lessons.

3. Used to build digital portfolios.

In the modern world, students are expected to be digitally oriented so they can curate content from across the web. Internet research is currently an essential workplace skill. However, it is a difficult skill set to showcase.

But with content curation tools, you can create a digital portfolio that can be used to these abilities in a real-world perspective. Students can record their analytical skills and thought processes in a manner that they choose to include links and add notes and arguments the links chosen convey.

Every documentation is linked to their profile, and the URL can be included in their resume to be shared with prospective employers.

4.  Can be used for digital storytelling.

Digital storytelling has many uses in the education sector that can be imagined. For example, history students can be required to create a detailed story about an important moment in history, such as a political summit or a critical battle, while literature students can be tasked to write a fictional story using multimedia channels to display the 21^st-century type of an epistolary novel.

Digital content curation in education platforms makes digital storytelling a breeze. Notes can be curated in short or long-form texts, while social media posts, images, videos, or songs with inspirations can be added easily.

5. To help with differentiated learning.

One of the challenges teachers face is working with different abilities in students to ensure they get the most out of the classroom. Curating content can help teachers engage various sectors of the classroom while giving attention to learners who want specialized attention.

You can apply universal resources while allocating tasks to students based on their abilities or stage of learning. For example, students can be asked to just read the information or pushed to analyze materials or design their collections in the responses.

6.To communicate with parents for collective guidance.

Keeping parents informed about the children's activities in school and engaging with the school community is an integral part of ensuring the holistic development of students and an important responsibility of educators.

Content curation platform like Wakelet provides an interactive and easy way to bring parents on board in school matters, especially if they are used to create school newsletters.

You can include links to school projects, using audio, visual, or PDF files containing homework requirements, or a collection of the best comments and reviews from the school community to keep parents informed on a weekly or monthly basis.

Through parent-teacher interaction, educators can provide insights to help parents teach their kids at home efficiently.

Overview of the difference between content creation and content curation.

In designing a course, you are probably already engaged in content curation and content creation mix. Content creation is the process of creating your own materials from the ground, from presentations to syllabi, from assessments to evaluations. In a nutshell, you are a one-stop shop for academic materials.

Regardless of all these, the process of content creation can be a tiresome undertaking. You most likely don't create your new course-specific material every education year. Instead, you make use of the existing content that suits you from the internet, or you skip some lessons and borrow materials from the past semesters.

If you are doing the above and not fully on content creation, you are doing curation. Though it might sound overwhelming, balancing the two can make your course designing process more effective.

Content curation is an act where educators thoughtfully examine resources that are already created by industry players and use them as academic materials. This is just one of the important tools to help in designing an effective teaching plan for your students, but you shouldn't overlook it because you need to do things your own way.

Conclusion.

Thanks to digital content curation in the education sector, teachers can stand out in their careers while students can also get the most out of their educational journey.

With the widespread of technology, you can furnish any topic, curriculum, and lesson with the help of valuable, extensive, and rich resources already designed by industry players. It would definitely be a waste of possibilities if you can’t leverage online course creation by curating content.

Take any of the use cases discussed in this post to start your journey in content curation of your favorite topics and expertise to become an undisputed resource in your profession.