What is content curation?
Content curation is not simply an aggregation of links – it is a more active process than ‘liking’ or ‘favouriting’ a website for later use. It is a process of strategic collection, where what is left out is just as important as what is included. It is also an editorial process, where context specific knowledge is added the each digital resource, and then delivered via a tool that best suits the needs of the identified audience.
If you are new to this concept, I encourage you to read this post which introduces the art of content curation. You can also expand your understanding of the processes involved in content curation by reading this post on the importance of content curation and its value as a digital literacy skill.
Teachers and Teacher Librarians have always curated content – however digital tools now allow us to curate sources and share them as useful educational artefacts for others. You may curate sources for students to support the curriculum and leisure and you may curate content for your colleagues for professional development. Your curation for Assignment 1 is the latter.
Your collection of resources on inquiry learning pedagogy is a professional development resource for you and your colleagues.
What curation tool should I use?
Each curation tool has its strengths and weaknesses. You may need to play with several tools to work out which you prefer. I advise you NOT to use Pinterest as it doesn’t allow a long enough annotation. Also, it requires you to register to view the collection. Scoopit, Elink, and Diigo are popular tools which allow annotation and which are easy to access. Bag the Web or Pearltrees are other tools you might like to trial.
The curation collection should include scholarly and professional sources. Scholarly sources are peer-reviewed journal articles and academic books/book chapters. Professional sources are those written for educators such as teacher books, teacher blogs and curriculum documents.
Note: The scholarly sources are likely to be behind a pay wall or subscription database. DO NOT hyperlink to the QUT Library database. This will only cause frustration for the reader who is outside QUT. Instead either link to the abstract and information provided by publisher at their paywall or link to the Google Scholar entry on the article. Make a note in your rationale to explain to the reader that there is a pay wall.
How to create your curated collection and blog post
Choose a minimum of 8 high quality sources and curate them using a social media curation tool (e.g. Scoopit, Elink.io, Diigo).
Your high quality sources should be a combination of scholarly (journal articles, book chapters, conference papers) and professional (e.g. teacher blogs, teacher websites). Note: Please do not curate students’ blogs from previous iteration of this unit.
The sources should be focused on your primary inquiry question and your title should clearly indicate your focus. Choose specific sources that inform your research question, don’t choose broad, general sources on inquiry learning. Your sources must be high quality and relevant. Your collection should be a high quality, shareable professional learning resource.
You should provide a 100-word annotation for each source.
Please note: some curation tools (e.g.Pinterest) have limits on the amount of text which can be included in annotations. It is preferable that you choose a curation tool that does not limit your annotation, so that you can write the full 100 words for each resource.
When writing your annotation, you should consider the following questions:
- How does this source help me to extend my understanding of my primary inquiry question?
- How relevant is this source to my primary inquiry question?
- Is it useful in offering theories, concepts or practice-based examples?
- Is it particularly well-written and argued?
- Is it confirmation of other sources or does it offer an alternative perspective that should be considered?
When you have created your collection, create a blog post and include a link to your curated collection (or embed within the post if you would prefer).
You can see an example of a curated collection post here.
This is a highly weighted post.
You will be marked on the quality of the sources you present, of the set as a whole, and on your annotations.
The Curation Collection is a professional resource that is your contribution to the professional conversation on inquiry learning and to your professional digital footprint.
You are encouraged to share your collection with your professional learning network (PLN).
Please consider using the hashtag #LCN616 so that we can all share the learning!