Curation of information for me has always depended on the type of information I am sourcing. If I am looking for news on changes to budgets and how they affect the health care sector, scholarly information to support or inform on new practices of care, or even just day-to-day fun facts or interesting stories related to sports, pop culture or a humorous spin on any variety of topics I take my information from a variety of sources.
When I look at curating general day-to-day knowledge I find myself using two sources the most; word of mouth or a simple search engine like google for semi-reputable websites. I have always been a firm believer in the collective knowledge, and, in these cases general information (off the cuff facts, interesting information, sports stats etc) often can be easily checked as well as the group of people I associate myself with are interested in the same areas so I feel like I can trust their information. I also don't see a huge risk in receiving this information with a small margin for error as I am rarely used as an expert in this area and, therefore, do not spread this error with any magnitude. My reference to "semi-reputable" sources is mainly for the ease of finding the information. Information hubs like Facebook and other social networking sites (ie wikipedia, and various popular magazine or websites) are often the easiest to receive information tailored to your interests, however have the risk of error due to the fact they are rarely fact checked or vetted by any professional source.
When I am looking for professional resources or those used in a scholarly context (writing a paper, creating a presentation or training course, preparing for a meeting etc.) sourcing information needs to vetted and verified. This process is almost always longer as it involved two steps; finding the information (similar as above although the sources used may be different) as well as confirming the information. The easiest way to do this is to source information from a reputable source. Things like textbooks, research articles in scientific journals, refined search engines like google scholar, use of reputable websites that specialize in the information you are searching for (examples include CTV for news, CNET for technology, sports illustrated/the score for sports) or professionals in the area (Police, Judges, Addiction counsellors, AHS, Trustees, Guardians etc.). Because the magnitude of spreading error is much greater I must ensure the information is true.
Curation of information becomes even more important if you are leader. When you are a leader your information and knowledge not only affects you but the people you lead on a daily basis. Therefore, if you are spreading information it is important you know the information to be true before you do. As referenced above I focus mainly on the efficiency of the information as well as the magnitude of error. When we look at the internet as a whole I think the trade off becomes how fast and easy we want our information vs. how reliable that information may or may not be. It is very easy to get information from social media sites. For most of us, we visit places like Facebook multiple times a day. Facebook is flooded with any type of information you could possibly want, however, anyone can write on it so, unless you do the research into every single thing you read (to which I admit I do not), you often can take a lot of information as fact when it is not. Everything is not necessarily false either, but rather a subjective assessment from whoever is writing it. That is why I always consider the magnitude of error. Am I going to be spreading this knowledge to others? Is it going to be used at all in a professional way? Will this change the way we [team] do things? If these questions are yes then I often search to verify the information before presenting. If they are no, I make the choice to accept that information as true or not based on what it is I am receiving. We live in such a social age that often, the information we receive is constantly being updated. Should I accept that information as true, I will most likely receive an "update" on it in the next 24 hours to correct or change that information anyways. It is for this reason I often don't bother checking into every piece of information I read.
For me, it is always a delicate balance between ease of obtaining information and the validity of information. This is an area I am working on to improve however feel like I have the groundwork in place. How about you; do you verify every piece of information you get? Do you agree with certain things told to you without checking them? Is it worth verifying everything if the information is just for you?
Collecting the information received in the next step. This is an area to which I hope to learn to be better at throughout this course. Usually, information I receive is stored in a couple different areas depending on what it is. I very rarely tend to store general information as this changes all the time. If it is something that I may use in the future or fun facts I would like to remember I usually store it in the notes on my phone or take pictures to which I file in folders denoted with similar topic areas. If the information is scholarly I often save it on my computer in folders denoted to the topic area. Websites get saved to my bookmarks, emails to folders in my inbox, and paper information stored in the filing cabinet in my office. At work we utilize various tools however the most common include our server system for client files (filemaker) as well as google docs, google sheets and individual files on each of our computers that are uploaded to a server agency wide. The development of an E-portfolio intrigues me as it will provide me an area to collect all the information I receive in one place. This will make it easier for me to retrieve should I need it at a later date. It will also provide me with the opportunity to get some experience using other tools like google keep notes and google collection
Brayden Sharp-Chrunik, BSc.
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