This is a response for the Ontario Extend module focusing on Curation, specifically accessing and curating from repositories for course content. This is not new for me. I’ve mentioned that I consider curation as a new literacy for teachers to acquire [The Web We Weave]. It’s shifting to a critical stance to examine, analyze and reflect on the resources and materials we use in our teaching. In the past, collections were done in a variety of ways. Even today, it’s easy to build collections of digital stuff around a topic or event. Just look at Pinterest as an example if you want to come up with an idea for an art activity.

Curation is NOT collecting. Curation brings sense making and critical analysis into the process. It puts the learners’ needs at the forefront. It takes context into consideration.

As I build a domain of my own, thanks to eCampus Ontario and Reclaim Hosting, I am rethinking about the curation of SELF as a means of crafting your digital identity. I’ve acknowledged that my digital identity is an ever evolving iteration [Radical Doubt and Digital Identity] that I curate with care. Rebuilding a domain of my own puts me squarely in the role of CIO, or chief information officer, as I read, reflect, discard and curate the bits and pieces of my digital creations.

But it’s not just ME I’m curating. I curate for my students to extend their learning beyond the confines of time or LMS space. As part of my sense making with course design, I’ll curate resources around topics or modules. I openly share the curated course sites that I use as a springboard for my teaching. Since these are open and accessible beyond the time frame of the course itself, they become repositories for engagement with content and topics. They become searchable collections of meaningful connections that lead to learning. [Curation as Course Web Sites].

Also, as part of this curation module, I’ve pulled together and analyzed a number of open, free, image resources and a couple of handy attribution tools so your media is creative commons friendly – One Picture.

So my call to action, don’t just collect it, – CURATE IT – it’s yours to make meaningful!