Curating Learning Resources

Robin Good: I think Sam Gliksman has a vital point here. 

The point is this: there is no better way to learn something than to research, organize and build a personal framework of information, facts, resources, tools and stories around it. 

And yes, if I do think about it, I can only confirm that my in my experience this has certainly been the case. 

Rather than learn by memorizing and going through a predetermined path that someone else has arbitrarily set for me (and thousands of others), by curating my own learning path and curriculum, I am forced to dive into discovery and sense-making for the very start, two essential ingredients for effective learning. 

The change is evident: from passive memorization of predetermined info, to personal exploration, discovery and sense-making of what I am interested in pursuing. 

With such an approach, the replacement of classic teachers with curators who can act as guides, coaches and wise advisors to my exploratory wanderings may be vital to the success of many learners. 

Curation can therefore be a revolutionary concept applicable both to learners and their approach as well as to the new "teachers" who need to become trusted guides in specific areas of interest.

Here's the text excerpt from this article, that sparked in me these ideas:

"Reliance on any type of course textbook – digital, multimedia, interactive or otherwise – only fits as a more marginal element in student-centered learning models.

It’s not the nature of the textbook as much as its reverence in the classroom as “the” singular authority for learning.

Lifelong learners need to be skilled in finding, filtering, collating, evaluating, collaborating, editing, analyzing and utilizing information from a multitude of sources.

Instead we could prioritize “content construction”. Textbooks are an important gateway - a starting point from which students can learn and then begin their exploration of information on any topic (although even on that point I feel we should encourage the “critical reading” of textbooks).

However the days when students could responsibly rely on any textbook as a singular information source are gone.

Also, the process of accessing, synthesizing and utilizing information is often as important as the product.

The skills developed are an essential component of education and life today.

We have access to an exponentially growing amount of information to process and apply [and] there are many excellent tools we can all use to help in constructing and organizing that content."

Insightful. Informative. 8/10

Full original article: http://ipadeducators.ning.com/profiles/blogs/supplementing-textbooks  ;

"Do you suffer from information overload? Do you find it difficult to organise and process the things you find online so that you can apply them productively in your day-to-day working life?"

An interesting and personal account of curation for learning. According to the author, curation tools are used to facilitate the core practical tasks which anyone working on an information rich environment does: collecting, sorting, evaluating, and sharing information.

Robin Good: School librarians may be one of the new change-making roles in the educational revolution silently taking place. Their role as organizers, collectors and guides to relevant information is a skillset that is not only in growing demand by the marketplace, but which perfectly fits the learning needs of today students / tomorrow information workers.

Joyce Valenza and Shannon Miller, who recently presented at the Building Learning Communities conference, think that we are about to witness a "golden age" of librarianship and that there are five skills that information / school librarians need to cultivate.

The first of these is curation.

"Given the unprecedented quantity of information learners are exposed to, the librarian’s role is more important than ever.

Librarians help all students gain access to, evaluate, ethically use, create, share, and synthesize information.

...

Students have long documented their research in notebooks, bibliographies, and research papers, but the presenters described these containers as inadequate for the digital landscape.

In the 20th century, content was king, but in this millennium, curation has emerged as the new monarch.

Valenza and Miller highlighted emerging technologies that help students showcase their progress as they acquire, organize, contextualize, and archive both existing content and new learning.

...The presenters stressed the value of teaching learners to purposefully contribute to society’s collective intelligence.

...

School librarians, with their specialized training and background in collecting, organizing, preserving, and disseminating information, must now teach their patrons—students and educators alike—to perform these tasks."

Relevant. 7/10

Full article: http://www.eschoolnews.com/2012/08/02/five-key-roles-for-21st-century-school-librarians/

Sherry Stones is presenting the workshop: “A Flipped Classroom: Students as Curators with Storify”.

Storify will be used to demonstrate design multimodal/multimedia research-based assignments, due to its features such as Hashtag specific Tweets, Flicker and Instagram images, Soundcloud audios and Youtube videos.  

Most of the expected outcomes of the workshop can be associated to teaching and learning in general.

Important ideas:

a) Storify has a great educational potential;

b) You can organize Storify content based on theme or topic;

c) You can easily embed Hashtag specific Tweets, Flicker and Instagram images, Soundcloud audios and Youtube videos;

d) It helps students develop research, synthesis and presentation skills;

f) It helps students to evaluate the credibility and relevance of web sources;

g) It enables teachers to set assignments and rubric;

h) You can embed a Storify page into a Blog;

i) Other types of Open Access Content are great for embedding on Storify, such as: Xtranormal, Goanimate, Animoto animations; Infographics and Flicker images; Google Docs; Vimeo, Big Think, and Academic Earth videos; Webcomics; Prezi and Google Slideshows; Learning Objects.

Check the Wiki FrontPage for information about the COLTT 2012 Conference (http://coltt2012.pbworks.com/w/page/48067721/FrontPage)