Curating Resources
So – we have covered a lot of ground in this content. We looked at the dynamic power of social media as a tool for professional learning, instruction, and student voice and identity. We also learned that social media and the internet are a double-edged sword. They are a space that requires care, critical thinking, and caution. Educators need to be informed on how to leverage these tools while simultaneously protecting their students. We need to empower students and their families to exercise similar care and apply a similar level of informed responsibility.
To help you make sense of this content, you are being asked to explore in more depth one theme or thread that piqued your interest in this week’s exploration. Your assignment is to pull on that thread and research, organize, and curate a collection of resources. This collection can be part of a lesson for your students or a suite of resources to share with parents or the beginning of a collection to help support your professional practice. You can choose the “just right” number of resources, but it must be at least 5 resources above and beyond the resources shared through this course.
Overview
Your final product will include the following:
The selection of a curation tool from the list below
A topic of your own choosing
Identification of a minimum of 5 resources
A brief description of the purpose of your collection
More on Curation
Here are two articles to provide you with a little more context about “What is curation?” “And why might it be a useful instructional strategy (for you and your students)?”
Gonzalez, J. (February 2018). Are you a Curator or a Dumper? Cult of Pedagogy https://www.cultofpedagogy.com/curator-or-dumper/
N.A. (2021). Step 6: Using Curation Tools As A Connected Educator https://teacherchallenge.edublogs.org/pln-curation/comment-page-4/The Teacher Challenge. [This article is lengthy – so feel free to skim, but much of its length is due to the way it profiles a suite of individual curation tools. You may want to see how they handle a few of the tools on our list — Wakelet, Twitter, and Pinterest.]
Curation Tools to Consider
Wakelet
[Video Tutorial] How to Create a Collection in Wakelet
Pinterest
[Article] Pinterest Help Center: https://help.pinterest.com/en/guide/all-about-pinterest
Twitter / X
[Article] N.A. (2020) How to create a Twitter List (and join others). The Verge
Symbaloo
[Video Tutorial] Creating a Webmix – Symbaloo Tutorial (2023) and Embedding a Symbaloo Webmix on your own Website or Blog (2022) **This cool tool is available for free — but as you will notice in the tutorial, nothing is ever 100% free. You will need to decide if the ads are a deal breaker or if you like it so much that you want to pay to remove them. I think the base cost is $59/a year.
