One skill that a digital learner needs is the ability to curate resources.  There internet is full of so many different tools and resources that if you are not good at discerning the good ones above the bad and then being able to keep track of them, it can feel like taking a drink from a fire hydrant.  This is why you need to curate and not just collect, the difference being that when you curate you are using cognitive skills to discern between the really useful sites and resources and the ones that are not as effective.

Up till now the main way that I have been curating sites for other teachers to use involves the use of Scoop.it.  This worked well as I was able to use a Chrome extension to quickly curate the resource and have them all appear on my Scoop.it site.  Scoop.it is now limiting the free accounts to only 10 scoops a day (sites curated) and I have not enjoyed the format as much.  I also am not able to easily embed it into my Google site that I created for the teachers that I work with and I find that many people like to click as few times as possible to get to something.  To make things more efficient and effective I will need to look at other tools, including Flipboard.

Flipboard creates a digital magazine using the resources that you curate.  It can be viewed on a computer or a tablet and according to an article or two that I have found, possibly can be embedded into a Google site.  Having something that has a very nice aesthetics can increase how many people are willing to view over and keep looking at it.  Also making it so others can view it on their tablet can also increase the view-ability of the resource.  Now I will need to find time to try it out and see what I can do.  This is another case of how we need to be aware of new tools and resources so that we can constantly be improving how we operate as digital learners.  We can not be afraid to try new things or to move on after old tools have either stopped working or are no longer meeting our needs.  If you become too attached to any one tool, you will find yourself lost when that tool is gone, always be willing to try something new.

Update! – Tried embedding my Flipboard onto my Google site and it worked.  Now to play more with Flipboard and see how useful it is as a curation and sharing tool.  site = https://sites.google.com/a/ames.k12.ia.us/ahs-technology-integration/home/flipboard-resources