Not too long ago it was a novelty to employ a tech program during the teaching day. Our main emphasis then was to navigate the integration.
Now that tech programs are abundant, our focus is on curation which means choosing the best possible tools for student learning. When I curate content, I look for one or more of the following criteria:
- Is the program engaging for students?
- Can students access the program 24-7?
- Does the program offer helpful student/teacher/parent feedback?
- Does the program continue to readjust offering a child new challenges as he/she learns?
- Does the program meet our current school standards and/or good learning in general?
- Does the program offer a collaborative learning or creation platform as we know collaborative learning is advantageous for students' academic development?
- Does the program meet the school systems' LARK protocols?
- Does the program benefit personalization and differentiation in the classroom with regard to teaching every child well?
I often try a program out with children to assess the benefits from a child's point of view.
I'm not the only one thinking about content curation? Parents, curriculum leaders, specialists, and tech integration specialists are thinking about content curation too.
When we think about content curation, we have to think about learning, and the ways we determine what is best for student learning. Content curation needs to take on an efficient, regular, responsive system of research, assessment, and revision. This has implications for multiple systems in a school system--systems including purchasing, budgets, curriculum creation and delivery and more.
I suggest that content curation systems have the following elements:
- Curation based on an inclusive list of protocols--protocols built from researched criteria that supports optimal student learning.
- Testing pilots that allow students and teachers to try-out, share, and even "hack" tech for best effect. This builds innovation, growth, and development into a system.
- Multiple voices in the process, not just one department, individual, but instead representing all voices in the learning community.
- Conversation, discussion, and share--not static processes, but instead vibrant learning processes resulting in best content and process.
- Efficient systems leaving most time for direct student services--when there are too many people spending lots of time on inefficient systems, it's the students that suffer. The aim of most systems should be to make more time for student service with best tools.
How do you curate content for your students and organizations? I look forward to your ideas?
