Curating Content

Mrs. Mattox pulls out an old folder passed down to her from a thirty year veteran teacher who has just recently retired.  She starts thumbing through the materials over the Inuit, a Northern Native American tribe.  She has to teach an entire unit over this topic and has no real prior knowledge over the subject.  It was very nice of this veteran teacher to leave behind a plethora of worksheets, reading material, and cut and paste activities.  She will have more than enough paper work to keep her students busy during the unit. Although it would have been easiest to just start making copies, would it be the best way to ensure her students are engaged and actively learning the material?

She sets off on a mission to recreate this unit.  Videos, websites, books, and images flood Mrs. Mattox's computer for the next several days.  Finally, it is time for the unit to begin.  It was done under pressure and may not be as organized as she'd like, but the students are engaged, asking questions, sharing, and seem to be taking it all in.  By the end of the unit, the students have really learned a lot about the Inuit people.  Job well done!  Now take a breath and move on to the next item of business.

What happens when next year rolls around?  Mrs. Mattox will be spending days behind her computer trying to find all that great information again as well as trying to make improvements and add to what she did last year.  Wouldn't it be easier to just pull out that old folder?  It is organized, easy to find, and ready to go.  Once again, she is faced with, "Should I start making copies or make sure my students are engaged and actively learning?"

We as educators need to remember that just because the digital age is upon us doesn't mean we can't be as organized as we were in the times of file folders, page protectors, dividers, and plastic tabs.  Now our units, lessons, files, and resources can be organized, added to, and edited wherever we go.  We can curate and store our content using a digital tool.  I have recently learned about many of these great tools.

Next year, I plan to utilized My Big Campus bundles.  Initially it will be a lot of work, but it's work that won't have to be repeated year after year.  Some other tools that could be helpful for teachers who don't have My Big Campus as their Learning Management System are www.scoop.it, mentormob.com, pinterest, symbaloo.com, and live binder.

These tools will organize your content and help you facilitate the learning that is taking place.  Maybe Mrs. Mattox isn't the only one who will benefit from "chunking" her material into bundles.  Her students will also reap the benefits.  They will be getting better, updated, and engaging materials.