Curation and Social Bookmarking

I just finished watching the VoiceThread and loved how Dr. Dennen used the example of the museum to explain curation. She said, " The experience you have at a museum is a direct result of a careful curation. Somebody selected these items, placed them in a careful order with a specific visitor experience in mind, chose information about each item to be shared, and how the collection of items should be presented and interpreted after all." This made a lot of sense to me. Curation, I believe is a way of expression. While social bookmarking is something you do for yourself, curation, according to me, is done primarily to show. The latter is based on the principle of reciprocity, and a level of trust, that users involved in a PLN are actively seeking value-added information for the other. As an educator (along with being a student), I considered it my job to curate information for my students and colleagues on a variety of topics and subject areas.

So, what's the difference between social bookmarking and content curation? Well, honestly, I think I have been using the social bookmarking tools, Delicious and Diigo, for content curation as well as simple bookmarking. However, content curation, according to the VoiceThread, seems to be more deliberate and focused, where as social bookmarking is archiving content over time. Content curation is the process of finding content, assessing content, choosing content, explaining content, tailoring a collection, and sharing a collection (the FACETS process). I don't know, the lines seem to be blurred to me. Perhaps the difference is the manner in which content is shared. Shared. That is the key word. That reminds me of the quote, 'It's not about the tool--it's the community.'  And also, 'Date the tools, marry the abilities.' The important ability is that you can connect with a community of people who you trust, collaborate and laugh with, and learn with and from. It doesn't matter which space you choose as long as it has the ability to be easily accessed, explored, and shared.  The main objective of these two concepts, is to start putting together things into categories for the purpose of finding them later. It is the organizing of them that starts to move into the curation of that collection.

I agree with what David said on this topic in the class discussion page. Pinterest represents the hybrid of the two concepts: content curation and social bookmarking. I LOVE Pinterest! It is visual, fun and very easy to browse. I actually save all pins to Diigo, but I don't save all Diigo bookmarks to Pinterest.

As educators, I believe, and like I said above, it is important that we articulate this difference. It's the social side of curation that build's a teacher's PLN. And a strong PLN is good for both the teachers, and the students of that teacher. It is about giving students the ability to be able to easily access, explore and share the knowledge. It's about creating a "museum" experience for the students: selecting the items carefully, placing them in a meaningful order with a student experience in mind, choosing each item to be shared with the students carefully and deciding the effective presentation of the information to facilitate interpretation.

As always, I would love to hear your thoughts. Do comment below!