When it comes to the Internet, there are endless possibilities. You can pretty much find every single thing you can ever think of, whether it'd be a traditional article, a video of your favorite celebrity, or even ideas for your next interior design project. The point is, no matter how simple or complex, there is bound to be something on the Internet about it. The content is quite grand, to say the very least. But what happens when you, as an author of some sort, run out of your own ideas? What happens when you feel like you've exhausted all possible ideas within a particular topic? The answer to that lies within content curators. Content curation is the exact process of finding related articles to the field of interest. It is such a helpful tool when trying to search for and organize material. There are several tools available that help with content curation, but one in particular that we discussed about in class is Paper.li. This particular type of content curation essentially compiles all related articles into one online newspaper. It pulls articles from various sources and updates itself on a daily basis. The best part about this is it requires little to no effort on your end. This article explains how it can be done by configuring the settings and exactly how to pull sources from a particular website. The best part about Paper.li is that is linked through your Twitter account. Linking your Paper.li to your Twitter account allows the newspaper to be "published" directly onto your timeline so that your followers, if interested in the particular field, can follow with updated articles as well. One of the most unique aspects of Paper.li and arguably its best feature out of all similar content curators is how it posts via Twitter. When it updates, it automatically mentions the authors and related figures to the article that is being promoted. The importance of this is the fact that it helps you network and expand your PLN.
Another website that is helpful with content curation is Flipboard. Flipboard essentially curates content based on your likes and it helps you in finding articles related to what you are looking for. It is extremely similar to the layout of Paper.li, but it's not in the exact form of a newspaper.
If Twitter is your personal means of networking, then Diigo is a must for you. If linked with your Twitter account, Diigo allows you to view all of favorited content all in one step. This is ideal if you have a long history of likes and you just want to view them all in one place.
Digressing from content curation, I wanted to introduce the power of MS OneNote. MS OneNote is a fairly new creation of MS, and its existence to the world today has been expanding ever since. MS OneNote can be used for SO many different things. One of the ways its usefulness comes into play is in the classroom. It can benefit both student and teacher, but I want to take a look at it from a student perspective (being one myself). MS OneNote essentially acts like an online binder, if you will. It has "bookshelves" which are further divided into sections, which are then further divided into pages. This division makes it extremely easy to organize and differentiate between personal and work/school related content. Another important way that MS OneNote is used is for its incredible ability for notetaking. If you are using a stylus, you can use it to create handwritten notes. If you consider yourself to have atrocious handwriting, don't worry! There is an option for it to convert your handwritten notes to text notes, as if you typed it in yourself. That way it doesn't take away from the learning experience of taking handwritten notes yourself. One cool feature it has is that it has the ability to solve math equations for you. The feature is called "ink math assistant". It's almost like a virtual helper! In class, we spoke with guest speakers who explained to us how they personally use MS OneNote. One said that they utilize it for its ability to separate and organize everything into one convenient place. Another explained its helpful feature in recording lecture via audio while taking notes. Essentially, MS OneNote is a great tool to utilize in both work, academia, and personal life.
In Chapter 3 of LOL...OMG by Matt Ivester, the importance of our digital world is brought to light. With it, Ivester explains how in the digital world, everything is connected. He brought up the fact that a lot of the popular platforms are actually driven by the content that users like us put out. For example, this website Blogger is just that. While we are encouraged to post and publish anything we desire, the fact of permanence is emphasized. Ivester really emphasizes this point because a delete button is not always available. Even so, there is no guarantee that whatever was posted is even thoroughly deleted in the first place. It goes back to the fact that you have to watch what you post because in truth, it is out of your hands. You cannot control who sees it, even with privacy settings enabled.
In Chapter 5 of LOL...OMG, Ivester further delves into the digital content that we put online for the world to see. All of the material that is posted both by you personally and on your behalf by others creates your online persona. He gets into detail with the psychological reasons behind why people fail to think twice before posting what could be considered controversial content. The five types of reasons include Superiority Bias, Ambiguity Effect, Attribute Substitution, First Impression Bias, and Negative Information Bias. All of these relate to both the perceiver and the poster. One statistic that he mentioned in this chapter is that about 70% of employers admitted to rejecting prospective employee candidates solely based off of what they saw online about the individual. People forget that their future also plays into what is being posted, and that they have to view their postings as "This is something that will be posted and known for anyone to see forever" and ask themselves "Does this represent me in a positive light? Will it hinder my ability to land jobs in the future?"If there is even the slightest uncertainty, then it is best not to post it.
The takeaway behind these two chapters is the importance of content. The Internet today thrives on the content that individuals post. Sure, some content is posted purely for the entertainment of others but some is posted unknowingly and may shatter future opportunities that may arise.
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