Day 12: Curation as a Critical Digital Literacy

Today is Day 12. If you are just starting with us today, you might want to check out Day 1 here.

We often hear from teachers and leaders who have just had their “coming out of the cave” moment – that realization that their colleagues are learning together in powerful ways online, and they had no idea they were missing out.

Suddenly they realize that the information flow is just too overwhelming.  They don’t know their next step.

Shared by Alan Levine (@cogdog) under a CC BY 2.0 license.

Curation is a way to start making sense of the information overload that is social media and the web.  Curation is the process of sorting and sifting through, sensemaking and organizing, and sharing back the information that you think is valuable.

Curation is a critical digital literacy.

Connecting with great curators will enhance your ability to effectively and efficiently learn online.

Today we begin to explore the importance of curation for educators and learners of all ages.

Congratulations on continuing to become a connected leader!

TEN MINUTES OF CONNECTING: DAY 12 – A DEEPER LOOK AT ‘CURATION’ IN PROFESSIONAL PRACTICE

From “Digital Leadership” by Eric Sheninger.

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May 21, 2015: Curating Content with Scoop.It

Yesterday we looked at the important digital literacy skill of curation.  Today, we learn to use a popular curation platform (Sccop.It) both as a place to gather curated material in areas you are interested in and as a place for you to share back content that you want to curate.

As a resource, we are using Day 13 from our 30 Days of Getting Connected: Curating with Scoop.It.

 

As a challenge today, set up your own Scoop.It account and share a link you have found valuable this month.  Then, share back on Twitter using the #OSSEMOOC hashtag.

May 20, 2015: Thinking About Curation

As we work through this week, we are looking at a digital literacy skill called curation.

Briefly stated, curation allows us to share resources that we feel are valuable to our practice.  When others curate resources, the wide stream of information on the web is filtered for your personal needs.

In order to get the idea behind “curation” as an important digital literacy skill, we ask you to refer to and read – from our November series – Day 9: Beginning to Share Content,

and Day 12:  A Deeper Look at Curation in Professional Practice.

As a challenge, consider the kind of information you are looking for in your professional life, and the kind of information that you would be able to share back to others with similar needs and interests.

How Do We Get to Here?

Image shared by @plugusin (Bill Ferriter) and @gcourso (George Couros) here: http://georgecouros.ca/blog/archives/5102 and here: http://blog.williamferriter.com/

 

Ten Minutes of Connecting: Day 16 – RSS Feeds, Another Way to Personalize the Content You Receive

Today we are taking a step back to our work on content.  A tweet yesterday, by Heather Theijsmeijer, has been retweeted countless times, and it has inspired this post on how to work smarter, not harder.

 

We KNOW educators are very busy.  The OPC/UWO report on the role of the Principal in Ontario is a sobering look at the hours required to manage schools and lead learning in this province.

Today we explore another tool that will help you streamline the content you view each day.  In the comments on a previous post in this series, a colleague asked us how to quickly follow blogs using RSS feeds, so that she could visit one site and read all of the postings.

RSS, or “Really Simple Syndication” allows you to aggregate a number of sites into one place, allowing you to quickly check in and scan a number of feeds at the same time instead of visiting a number of different sites.

While there are many options to choose from when you are looking for an RSS Reader, we are going to walk you through Feedly.

When you go to the http://feedly.com site, it looks like this:

 

You are asked to pick some topics that interest you to begin.  Like other tools we have used (pinterest, flipboard, zite), you will be able to narrow this search to personalize your feed. 

Choosing #Education brings up some possible blogs/sites to follow.  Click the green plus sign to start following.

 

Feedly will then signal you to sign in with a social media account.

Once your account is created, you continue to add the blogs and sites you want to follow.

 

The blogs and sites you follow will then appear on the left side of the page.

 

How do you follow a blog that does not automatically appear in Feedly?  Let’s look at how to follow this blog.  At OSSEMOOC, we make this blog very easy to follow.  We will look at three different ways to do it.

To begin with, OSSEMOOC provides an opportunity to follow by email update.  We cater to new users, and this is the simplest method to follow every update.  But not every blog or site provides you with this option.

 

 

OSSEMOOC also allows following by RSS. If you click on RSS – Posts,

you will be taken to this website:

 

 

Copy the web address by highlighting it and using the keys (held down together) <CTRL c >(<Command c> on a Mac).

 

Go back to Feedly and “Add Content”.

 

Paste the address into the dialog box by using the keys <CTRL v> (held down together) (<Command v on a Mac>).

Now click the green + to add OSSEMOOC to your feed.

 

It will look something like this:

You can choose what collection or stream you want OSSEMOOC to appear in.

 

To start using your Feedly reader, simply click on “all”, or on specific collections.  When you see an item of interest, simply click on it and you will be taken to the original site.

 

Of course some blogs and sites, like OSSEMOOC, make it simple to follow on Feedly by clicking on the Follow button.

 

 

 

Now you can start building your personal feed so that you can simply follow your favourite blogs, news sites, research sites, etc.

Remember to share your best findings with your PLN.

Ten Minutes of Connecting: Day 13 – Curating with Scoop.it

As we think about the importance of curating the vast amount of information on the internet, it helps to have tools to assist us in our practice.  We can begin by collecting resources that are valuable to us, comment on the value of the resource, and share it with our PLN.

Similarly, we can use the same tools to tap into the resources that other educators have chosen, and read their insight into the importance of the information.

A simple tool to start us on the path of deeper and more meaningful curation is Scoop.it.  This tool was originally a free opportunity to build a number of “topics” to share resources.  You will notice as we work through this that Scoop.it has now limited the number of free ‘topics’ you can have, and there is intrusive advertising asking you to upgrade your account.  The concept behind how this tool works is still valuable to learn.  Once you have used it, you may find that you want to migrate to a different tool without all of the advertising.

Even if you don’t have a Scoop.It account, you can access links from other sites such as Twitter.

When you see the article on the Scoop.It page, even as a non-member, you can share it with your PLN on Twitter, Google+ or Facebook using the buttons below the article.

 

 

 

 

To begin curating with Scoop.It, navigate to the site:  http://www.scoop.it/

 

Choose the “Join Free” green button in the top right corner.

 

Choose “I don’t have a Facebook or Twitter account”, and fill in the form to sign up.

 

Your page will be created, and you will need to confirm the account in your email.

 

The email message will look like this:

Click the link and your account will be confirmed.  You will be asked to select some areas of interest so that you have a stream of information to begin.

 

 

Create a “topic”.  At OSSEMOOC, we chose “Connected Leadership” because that’s our purpose.  What will you curate information on?

Starting with a fairly broad topic allows you to curate a wide array of resources.  Starting with a narrow topic helps to fill a curation niche that may not already exist.  It’s important to choose a topic you are passionate about.

Now you are ready to start curating!

So let’s start by looking at what Ontario Leaders are writing about in their blogs.  I will begin at https://ossemooc.wordpress.com/ and check out the blog links. 

Kristy Keery Bishop is a diligent blogger and she often challenges our thinking.  Today we can see that she has shared her thinking around the idea of Remembrance Day becoming a national holiday.

 

 

I want to share this post with my PLN, so I copy the link.

 

I past the link into the “new scoop” box and click the green double arrow button.

 

 

Now I have a space below the post to add my own thinking (“add your  insight”).

 

This is where you curate.  What did you learn from the post?  What is valuable for other educators? What questions do you have?  Your insights help other educators decide if they want to read this post.

What would you want other curators to share with you to help you make this decision?

 

 

Click the green “Publish” button, and your first post is complete!

Now, let’s share your great work with your PLN on Twitter.  Put your mouse on your posting and a series of icons appears at the bottom.  Choose the right-pointing arrow in the bottom right, and sharing information will be displayed.

 

 

 

Copy the URL, go to your Twitter account, and create a tweet that includes the URL.

 

 

When your twitter PLN clicks on the link, they will see your posting and your comments.

If they have a Scoop.It account, they can “rescoop” the posting, add their own comments, and post it on their own “Topic”.

This is what it looked like when I ‘rescooped’ the OSSEMOOC posting to my own “Topic”.

 

How can you “rescoop”? If you follow other topics, you will automatically see what others are scooping when you log in to your page.

If you move from “My Curated Topics” to “My Followed Topic”, you can choose some other topics to follow.

Enter your interest area into the search box, and suggestions are immediately populated.

 

 

Narrow your search, and then click the search button (the magnifying glass icon)

 

 

A number of topics will appear.  It is tempting to follow all of them.  First, let’s check to see how active they are.  If I mouse over the topic, I get some details.

Education and Leadership is exactly what OSSEMOOC wants to follow, but when I look at the stats, I see that the last posting was almost two years ago.  I don’t think I am going to get valuable new insights by following this topic!

Similarly, this topic has a terrific title, but it has very few followers and no recent updates.

By comparison, look at this! Lots of activity here!  I think this might be a great place to learn more about what is happening in the world of Distance Education Leadership, so I will follow this one.

This topic looks like it has a huge following as well, and it has regular updates.

This one looks new, but active, and this is a topic we want to learn so much more about, so I choose to follow it as well.

Now I can return to my own home page.

 

And I can check out “My Followed Scoops” since I am now following some new topics.

Tom D’Amico from Ottawa has scooped a very interesting science resource.

 

 

I can click the “rescoop” green button to automatically curate this resource and add it to my topic.  I “add my insight”, which I admit is minimal at this point because I have not viewed the resource yet.

 

 

After publishing this on my site, though, I can come back and edit my comments at any time.  I can add value to my curated topics after I have spent more time with the resource.

This is what the resource now looks like on the OSSEMOOC Topic page, and I can now share it with our PLN.

 

 

 

 

Now you are well on your way to curating resources, and sharing curated resources with your PLN.

If you need help with this tool, please leave a comment on the OSSEMOOC blog.

We look forward to learning with you.

Resources:

Follow the OSSEMOOC Scoop.It site here.

 

 

 

 

 

Ten Minutes of Connecting: Day 12 – A Deeper Look at ‘Curation’ in Professional Practice

Over the past few days we have been looking at tools to help us share valuable information and learning with others in our Professional Learning Network.  By sharing, you are telling others that you believe something is worth their time.  It is also a way for you to sort the content you want to look into more deeply in the future.

Content curation can be deeper than simply organizing information.  In the video below, Robin Good compares curation with choosing food when you are hungry.  When we need to find information on a topic, “Googling it” isn’t enough any more.  There is just too much out there.  We want a deeper understanding.  We want to read an explanation of the topic – a remix of sorts.

Similarly, when we are hungry, just going to a fast food outlet and grabbing the quickest thing on the menu is not necessarily what we want.  We would like something more substantial.  We want to be able to choose the restaurant and then enjoy what the restaurant has to offer.

As educators, how can we begin to think more critically about the information we are taking in?  How can we more effectively share that information with our network?

Curation is also a reflective process.  Reflecting on content helps us remember it more clearly, and to build on it as we take in more information.

Sue Waters has written extensively on the process of curation.

Click on the image to read the full article.

 

As important as curation is for our own professional learning, it can be argued that students need to learn curation as a key 21 C skill/competency.

 

Click the image to find the original post at edumanity.com.

 

Barbara Bray explores this topic further in her blog, and asks, “If  you don’t take the time to read the contents and just Scoop-it, then is the resource really useful and valuable?

Curation skills can include:

• understanding keywords and tags
• scanning text
• reading and summarizing content
• building connections
• choosing appropriate resources
• sharing resources
• promoting and branding topic”

Certainly content curation skills are important for educators, as we model the kind of learning we want for our students.

How do we properly attribute the information we are sharing?  This is a poorly understood aspect of online curation. If you want to explore further, this post attempts to address the issue: The Curator’s Code.  You can find more here: Brain Pickings on the Curator’s Code.

Honouring your source of information is the underlying thinking behind the idea of a curator’s code.  For example, if Mark posts a terrific article on Twitter, and I go and read it, I wouldn’t share it on Twitter again without adding via @markwcarbone, just to demonstrate that Mark shared it first and sent me off to learn from it.  Honouring your source is always the best practice when sharing and remixing.

Take a few minutes today to consider the role of curation in your professional life (both sharing and learning), and as a critical skill for our students.  We have posted some reading below, as well as a video conversation on the topic of curation.

As we work through this week we will explore tools for deeper levels of curation – more than just sharing links.

 

Resources:

Sue Waters: Curation – Creatively Filtering Content

Barbara Bray’s Curation Scoop.It Page

Students Build Knowledge Together: Langwitches Blog

Edudemic:  20 Free and Fun Ways to Curate Web Content

50 Ways to Curate and Share Web Content

Curation as a Tool for Teaching and Learning

Robin Good on Curation:

Ten Minutes of Connecting: Day 9 – Beginning to Share Content

Update: We have added a screencast guide to today’s learning.  We hope this is helpful for you!

 

Over the past week we have been looking at different ways to find content online to help us with our professional learning.  While we still have more tools to explore, today we are taking a pause and looking at the bigger picture.

At one time, we would read articles, and if they were useful to us, we might clip them or copy them, and file them away for future use.  Everyone had their own private filing cabinet full of clipped articles and other resources they might pull out later to use for specific purposes.

 Sarah Cady via Compfight cc

Now we search and save online, but it is much more powerful if we share what we are saving.

For example, if I taught Geography of Canada, I might clip articles about ecozones or national parks.  But what if I had access to the articles that all of the Geography of Canada teachers were clipping, sorting, and saving?

As we collect content and think critically about how we can use it and/or integrate it into our practice, we can organize that content and share it with others.  This is the beginning step as we move toward content curation.

We will be digging into the idea of content curation as we work through the next week.  Today we want to keep it simple and explore how “social bookmarking” works to help us aggregate resources. While our video selection is a bit dated, we do love how it really breaks down the ideas.  If you have a more recent video to share, please suggest it in the comments.

Please take about four minutes and see how social bookmarking can help make the process of accessing resources so much more efficient for you and your Professional Learning Network!

Social Bookmarking by Common Craft

 

 

 

Further Resources:

Five free social bookmarking tools – Edudemic

Social Bookmarking – Mind/Shift

Delicious Help Page

Learn it in 5:  Social Bookmarking in the K-12 Classroom

Learn Camp: Social Bookmarking

Social Bookmarking Explained for Teachers (Educational Technology and Mobile Learning)

“Share” photo credit: Funchye via Compfight cc

Ten Minutes of Connecting: Day 3 – What Can You Learn Online?

If you came to this page to share, please scroll down to the form at the bottom of the page.

 

(If you are just starting 30 Days of Getthing Connected today, please see the links to Day 1 and Day 2 on the right side of this page.)

 

Aris.Sanchez via Compfight cc

Finding that 10 minutes to connect might be challenging today, but learning to be a connected leader will help your students in so many ways.

You can do it!

As we continue to look at how we collect information online, we will spend some time today looking at resources for educators.  By the end of the month, you will be curating and sharing these resources with others, but for today, we will just survey some of the valuable resources available to you to help you with your professional learning.

Yesterday we focused on reading some of the blogs written by Ontario educators and other educators.

Take 10 minutes today, and look at some of the valuable information available to you online.

Here are a few sites you might find useful:

Canadian Education Association

TeachThought

ASCD

MindShift

Free Technology for Teachers

Larry Ferlazzo’s Websites of the Day

If you already take time to read and learn from websites like these, what other sites would you suggest?  Please fill out the form below, and we will share the responses here for readers.

 

Consider how much easier it will be when you are connected with other educators and you share the best information from sites all over the world!

Responses (it may take awhile for new responses to populate this page).

Learning from Ontario Educators

Here in Ontario, we love Fridays!

It’s not just because warm sweaters and jeans are finally acceptable work attire, but also because Doug Peterson is working his best magic in connecting Ontario educators and enabling the sharing we all need to do to keep up with change.

Doug’s #FollowFriday “Active Ontario Educators” posts on Twitter are the perfect starting place for new and old tweeters alike as we build our online PLNs in social media.

But what is really special, is Doug’s curated summary of the Ontario edublogs that impacted his thinking through the week.  What a great opportunity to sample the rich thinking this province has to offer.

So as we embrace this last Friday of October, and think ahead to our November work in nurturing leaders into becoming “connected”, we want to thank Doug for his tireless efforts to connect our thinking in Ontario, and suggest that following Doug’s work is a great starting point for any Ontario educator looking to become a connected leader.

Happy Hallowe’en!