Thing Five: Curation

I have a love/hate relationship with Pinterest, because it's simultaneously useful and addictive. Since I'm pretty well-versed in the world of Pinterest, I decided to try Scoop.it! and decided that it's not my "cup of tea". The layout is too busy, and when I searched, my results were much too sophisticated for the elementary school students that I teach. This would probably work better for high school students since there's no filter for reading level, etc. I also looked at EdShelf and Lesson Paths, and I felt the same way. In the past, I've used Delicious (does anyone still use that since Pinterest?) and Live Binders to curate resources. I had some success with Live Binders at the middle school level- I curated resources for students to use for a resource project. I think curation is extremely important- especially in the early grades. If I want students to research specific topics, it's great to have sites/resources curated rather than having them search the internet themselves. Until students can comprehend sophisticated text, it's pretty difficult for them to find information online that's appropriate and targeted to their needs. For my needs as an educator, the Pinterest add-on tool has been fabulous- anytime I come across something, I can organize it and save it for use later. If I had more devices, teaching students to curate in the upper elementary grades would be one of my goals. Our middle school and high school both have a one-to-one device program, so at those levels, it would be more feasible for instructors to use tools like Scoop.it! and Lesson Paths. For me, personally, curation is not something I teach to students at the elementary level, it's something I do FOR them, and in order to do that efficiently, I prefer an easy, quick tool like Pinterest during my initial unit-planning stages. Once I narrow down the resources there, I would most likely create a Live Binder for students to access what I've curated. Joyce Valenza included a ton of Live Binders on her library site many years ago, and I actually like the way you aren't limited in what you include- and also, that the resource is FREE!