Learning Curation Post #4

Prompt for Module 6:

Build your toolkit: This week’s prompt is to begin to collect (curate) effective online tools that you can use later for both your students and the teachers you will work with. Begin with the MediaSmarts site, there is a wealth of information here. And then explore out. They can be demos, games, presentations, YouTube clips, websites, online commercials, media from this course, anything that inspires you in your teaching and learning of digital and media literacy. You can organize and present your collection in whatever way you wish.  Submit your curated toolkit with a short rationale or reflection on where your search took you and what it represents.

 

My Curation:

I use this image to start my digital literacy unit with students every year, and it’s exactly how I felt developing this curation. There is such a huge amount of information that I spent time feeling too overwhelmed to know where to start. It was a reading from Module 8 that got me through this paralysis by outlining the 5 Cs of curation: collect, categorize, critique, conceptualize, and circulate. Most importantly, their statement that critique “allows the teacher to hone in on specific elements or attributes that lie at the core of the instructional unit, thereby driving the point home by selecting materials that best exemplify those features for students” (Sharma and Deschaine). It prompted me to consider my inquiry goals, and I was able to start organizing thoughts and resources into categories. So, here is a brief discussion of my three inquiry goals and their relationship to this curation.

#1. Explore the purpose and philosophy of the SLLC

Canadian School Libraries’ Leading Learning framework outlines the standards and themes expected in Canadian SLLCs. Among them is “fostering literacies to empower life-long learners,” including digital literacy.

“Teacher-librarian teaches students digital rights and responsibilities to build their digital skills…and empowers students to take ownership of their digital responsibilities.” (CLA)

Teaching digital literacy, media literacy, and digital citizenship is an important responsibility of the SLLC and the TL. Therefore, resources like these must be selected to provide information and support both a TL-led digital literacy curriculum and resources/recommendations for teacher activities in their classrooms.

#2. Adapt to a DL environment

Digital literacy is important for every student, but more so for DL students because they learn completely in an online environment. Their lessons are provided online, they use online research sources, are often asked to connect with each other through online forums, and submit work online – all without necessarily having face-to-face interaction with a teacher or TL. A well-developed digital literacy curriculum supports all aspects of these students’ learning. Therefore, it is important for DL schools to create and share resources that parents and students can explore together. Curations like this one are a good start!

#3. Gather ideas

This curation is the beginning of my collection of digital literacy resources. I hope that it will be useful to myself and other teachers for many years to come. I aim to keep it up-to-date, including new resources and different perspectives.

 

View the curation of learning resources here: https://padlet.com/mrsknichol/digitalliteracy

 

Note: I used Padlet to curate these resources. It was very easy to use and I love that it can be set up for collaborative collections! It also allowed for a wide range of organization schemes and had lots of options for sharing. However, I didn’t like that the amount of scrolling it took to read through each column. I also don’t like that the attached content is shown at the bottom of the description (because I can’t put the images first and citations at the end).

 

Citations:

Canadian Library Association. (2014). Leading learning: Standards of practice for school library learning commons in Canada. Ottawa:ON. Retrieved from http://www.accessola2.com/SLIC-Site/slic/llsop.pdf.

Kapor, Mitchell. “Getting information off the Internet is like taking a drink from a fire hydrant.” via Top 10 Free Content Curation Tools For Teachers. Christopher Pappas, 2013, https://elearningindustry.com/top-10-free-content-curation-tools-for-teachers.

Sharma Sue Ann & Deschaine Mark E. (2016). Digital Curation: A Framework to Enhance Adolescent and Adult Literacy Initiatives. Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy, 60(1), 71–78.

 

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