Content Curation and Critical Thinking: Teaching Students How to Manage, Create,

and Share Information in the Digital AgePresented by:Kelly Korenek, Nelson Elementary Librarian, Denton ISD

Barry Fox, Director of Instructional Technology, Denton ISD

"We are moving from an era of extraction to an era of contribution."

-Nancy Giordano, Brand Futurist and Founder of Play Big, Inc.

What is content curation?

Content curation is the continuous selection,

collection, organization, and sharing of online

information on a topic. A content curator is a digital

archivist.

What is the difference between

collecting and curating?

Collecting• The organization

of online information for personal use. Collections are oftentimes random and may or may not be shared.

Curating• The targeted collection

and organization of information about a specific topic. According to Robin Good, curation is about, "making sense of a topic/issue/event/person/product, etc. for a specific audience." Nancy White emphasizes the significance of continuous evaluation, interpretation, and synthesis in curation. Genre TEKS with Figure 19 Livebinder

How is content curation relevant to

my students?

Content Curation and Information

Literacy• Content curation warrants the use of critical thinking skills otherwise known as information literacy. Information literacy is the ability to, "recognize when information is needed and to locate, evaluate and use effectively the needed information." -American Library Association

• These skills are crucial to the growth of life-long learners in the digital age.

According to Understanding by Design developers Grant Wiggins and Jay

McTighe,

"Students reveal their understanding most effectively when they are

provided with complex, authentic opportunities to explain, interpret,

apply, shift perspective, empathize, and self-assess."

Content curation can provide these authentic learning

opportunities for our students.

Do our students currently have what it takes to

evaluate online information and locate relevant sources

to address a problem or answer an essential

question?

We must teach our students how to navigate through the "data smog" to locate relevant,

authoritative information.

Ask a Librarian!

Resources for teaching digital literacy:

• Common Sense Media

• Cornell University's Digital Literacy Resource

• Google's Search Education Online

• November Learning's Education Resources for Web Literacy

Use curation tools to...

• Search for information that has already been curated for you!

• Create curated collections for your students to utilize for research.

• Teach your students how to use information on the Web to create, publish, and share with an audience.

Search and create learning playlists video

http://snapguide.com/

Download the app

http://www.edcanvas.com/

Additional curation tools:

Is content curation safe and legal in a

public school setting?

What about FERPA?(Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act)

• "FERPA was never intended to place students into the box of a physical or online classroom to prevent them from learning from the public. Rather, FERPA requires schools to maintain control over certain student records (Fryer, 2009). These records include medical information, social security numbers, and grades." -FacultyFocus.com

My students are under the age of 13.

Can they legally utilize content curation tools?

COPPA• The Children's Online Privacy Protection Act of

1998 requires the operator of any website or online service that collects personal information from children under the age of 13 to, "obtain verifiable parental consent for the collection, use, or disclosure of personal information from children."

• Due to this federal law, most social media and content curation sites choose to deny accounts for children under the age of 13.

Content curation in the elementary classroom: a few tips

• Students may utilize content curation sites under a teacher account. Parents will have signed a district acceptable use policy allowing you, the educator, to act in loco parentis. (You assume parental status during school hours.)

• Provide parents with information explaining the assignment, it's educational purpose and what will be posted publicly.

• Never post your students' personal information. Assign them (or let them choose) a username that maintains their anonymity on the Web. Safety must always be your first priority.

When does content curation become plagiarism?

• To avoid plagiarism, always give credit to the source, and link back to the original article, video, or image

• Remember, content curation is about creating something new, so provide commentary or a unique spin whenever possible when curating media from the Web.

What role(s) will content curation

play in your classroom?

Sources• http://webtools4u2use.wikispaces.com/Curation+Tools

• http://www.ala.org/acrl/standards/informationliteracycompetancy

• http://www.mindomo.com/mindmap/content-curation-tools-the-newsmaster-toolkit-by-robin-good-2bbb4d3b0995449e9160de4455ad4f2b

• http://joyce-valenza.wikispaces.com/Content+Curation

• http://d20innovation.d20blogs.org/2012/07/07/understanding-content-curation/

• Classroom Aid: Resources for Teaching Digital Literacy

• Google Power Searching online education

• Authentic Education: Understanding By Design

• http://www.facultyfocus.com/articles/teaching-with-technology-articles/ferpa-and-social-media/

• http://www.coppa.org/coppa.htm

Images from Flickr• Ken Whytock

• Metro Transportation Library Archive

• Gwynethe Jones the Daring Librarian

• SparkCBC