Curation and Creation

This post is a reflection on the Leading Edge Digital Educator unit on curation and creation.

Portfolio assignment for module 5:  Minute Space

Creation is something that I would somewhat expect the students to learn on their own. I may still provide the tools or the resources to them, but students need to learn through their own explorations or from their peers. I’ve found that students have the most trouble creating when I give them a very narrow set of instructions of what I want them to do. It’s very hard to replicate someone’s exact steps when there are millions of potential pathways. As a result, I really have to think about when do I actually want something specific from them (i.e. final version in a specific file format) or when can I let them go free to solve the problem in a method of their choosing.

On the other hand, curation is a skill that might need some more direct teaching and guidance. I am constantly modeling my curated lists to my students, but I don’t think I ask them to create similar lists very often. This was something I addressed on one of the previous posts where students were declaring their engineering idea was unique if their exact idea didn’t appear in the first page of Google results. Students need to learn how to actually use Google search and need practice evaluating the credibility of sources (See Discussion 3B video link: goo.gl/o7njeN). Being able to backup any creation with curated resources and references is where the deeper learning is actually taking place.

In summary, students need to learn how be creators, but they need to be taught how to be curators.