Curating Information

Hawaii Catholic Schools has identified a series of skills, developed from the work of Tony Wagner and the p21.org.  On of these identified skills that we want all Hawaii Catholic Schools' students to develop is Curating Information.  Hawaii Catholic Schools defines curating information as actively managing, validating, maintaining, creating and finding pertinent resources.

As taken from the Merriam-Webster online dictionary, curating is derived from the noun curator which is defined as "someone who has the care and superintendence of something."  The origin of the word curator is in "Latin, from curare, to care, from cura, care."  Information is defined as "knowledge that you get about someone or something: facts or details about a subject."  As I put these terms together, the two definitions create an interesting picture for 21st Century educators.

For as long as I have been in education (suffice to say a number of years!) teachers and adminstrators have been the gatekeepers of information at school!  we decide what information students are to learn and tell back to us.  We decide the content that is most relevant.  We manage the students' access to content through texbooks and other resources.  We decide on the topics they will research and create reports, using our format of presentation, on.  Teachers have been the guardians of information and it has provided us a certain degree of job security!

With the advent of the internet and the proliferation of mobile devices with 3G/4G access to information, educators no longer have sole ownership of content.  Everyone has access to everything at anytime they need or want to use it.  This shift necessitates a change in how we approach teaching and learning.  No longer is our role that of information dispensor or the ultimate guru of knowldge.  We now must teach the skills necessary to manage and filter the vast quantity of knowledge that is constantly moving, growing and shifting across the digital world!

As the term Curating Information hints at, students are now the owners of any knowledge they wish to search for or show an interest in.  People are creating their own content constantly in forums such as blogs, Vimeos or YouTube videos.  Teaching students HOW to navigate this ocean of digital content and apply it to our physical world in a practical and effective manner is, quite possibly, the most important 21st century skill we can help our students develop.

One of the best ways we can model this for our students is to transform ourselves into  Teachers as Curators of Student Learning.  There is so much quality information out there on the internet that is relevant for us as we look to improve our practice as both classroom teachers and school leaders.  For us to truly teach our students the skill of Curating Information, we need to open our minds and shift our paradigm around how we engage our students int the act of learning!