Collecting Retro Tech for Educational Purposes Curating a Collection to Showcase the Evolution of Technology
First-Year Writing
In this move, students are asked to gather (collect) material from a site, an environment, or their lives and represent it (curate) through writing/creation. Students not only produce whatever material they can find; they carefully select what information needs to be presented to achieve the assignments goals and also to think critically about the way the material will be presented. Assignments emphasizing collecting and curating ask students to focus on objects, experiences, and ideas from their surroundings, environment, and/or experiences, and to visibilize them through the process of collection and curation. We might think of the ways museums and galleries curate work and artifacts, for example (and the ethics of curating existing work).
Collecting and Curating Learning Objectives
Link to PDF of Collecting and Curating Learning Objectives
Information Literacy Threshold Concepts
- Information creation as a process
- Searching as strategic exploration
Habits of Mind
- Curiosity
- Engagement
- Creativity
Examples
| Genre | Writing goals | Collect | Curate |
| Collage | Recognizing environs as texts | Photos from a particular location | Assemble photos into a meaningful organization |
| Soundscapes assignment | Searching as strategic exploration | Sound assets from an environment | Describe and analyze what the sounds mean in a PowerPoint |
| Literacy narrative | Understand how genre influences the ways texts (memories) are collected or engaged with | Memories of literacy learning | Present in narrative form |
| Discourse community map | Engage with texts (interviews) beyond reading for information | Interviews with professionals in a discipline | A map describing the features of the discourse community |
Resources
Scholarly Bibliography
Matalene, Carolyn. Experience as Evidence: Teaching Students to Write Honestly and Knowledgeably about Public Issues. Rhetoric Review, vol. 10, no. 2, 1992, pp. 252265.
Mihailidis, Paul, and Cohen, James N. Exploring Curation as a Core Competency in Digital and Media Literacy Education. Journal of Interactive Media in Education, vol. 13, no. 1, 2013.
Sunstein, Bonnie S., and Elizabeth Chiseri-Strater. Fieldworking: Reading and Writing Research. 4th ed., Bedford/St. Martins, 2012.
PDF version of page
Applications of Educational Technology
Curating Open Educational Resources
Essential Questions
What is the difference between collecting and curating resources?Whatare open educational resources (OER)?How might educational websites provide interactive and engaging experiences for students?
Open Educational Resources (OER)
Open educational resources (OER) are free and openly licensed educational materials that can be used for teaching, learning, research, and other purposes. Creative Commons
Open Education is the simple and powerful idea that the worlds knowledge is a public good and that technology in general and the Web in particular provide an extraordinary opportunity for everyone to share, use, and reuse knowledge.The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation
Video by Open Washington: Open Educational Resources Network (http://www.openwa.org/)
The U.S. Department of Educations #GoOpenCampaign (see also#goopen) encourages schools and states to invest in openly licensed educational materials to transform teaching and learning.
Spend some time at OER Commons (https://www.oercommons.org/) to discover resources you might use. Realize the power of OER is not just that they are free to use but licensing under Creative Commons allows for re-mixing, re-using, and re-purposing of individuals creations.
The Creative Commons copyright licenses and tools forge a balance inside the traditional all rights reserved setting that copyright law creates. Our tools give everyone from individual creators to large companies and institutions a simple, standardized way to grant copyright permissions to their creative work. The combination of our tools and our users is avast and growing digital commons, a pool of content that can becopied, distributed, edited, remixed, and built upon, all within the boundaries of copyright law. (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/)
Watch this video for more information on Creative Commons and fair use guidelines:
The process of selecting, organizing, and sharing OER, though, is critical for teachers to master.
Collecting vs. Curating
We have all collected web-based resources by bookmarking in a browser to be able to visit them later. This is collecting saving something for our own use and enjoyment. Curating is a bit different. When we curate, we are thinking critically about resources, considering how they can be used in a specific context, and purposefully sharing them with others. Annette Clancy explains Collection is additive. Curation is subtractive.Collecting is for yourself, curating is for others. Nancy White shares a chart illustrating the differences between these two activities:
Differences between collecting and curating resources arranged by criteria
A curator is an expert learner. Instead of dispensing knowledge, he creates spaces in which knowledge can be created, explored, and connected. (Siemens, 2007).
Types of CurationTools
Social BookmarkingYou probably already keep bookmarks of your favorite websites to go back to whenever you might need them. Social bookmarking takes it a couple of steps further, allowing you to access your bookmarks from any internet-enabled device, organize resources in a searchable manner by tagging, and share your bookmarks with individuals and groups who share your interests. In this course, you are getting to know the social bookmarking tool
Diigowell, as we are posting, tagging, and sharing resources with our EDTC 3123 group. In the Resources section of this chapter, there are links to more social bookmarking tools you might like to try.
OER CommonsOER Commons
offers adigital library and network of resources curated by educators.
Standards Connector A Standards Connector is a collection of digital resources that is specifically organized based on a set of standards.
Types of Websites
ArchivalandPrimarySourcewebsites A type of educational website that provides original historical materials for students to access and analyze.
Collaborationwebsites Communicate and collaboratewith others around the world in order to create students who are competitive and globally-minded
Educationalwebsites A source of Internet-based digital content, often designed with K-12 learning goals in mind.
ExplorationandDiscoverywebsites A type of educational website that allows students to engage in online explorations of topics of interest.
LessonPlanwebsites A type of educational website featuring lesson plans and related teaching materials.
RealtimeandRecordedDatawebsites A type of educational website that presents scientific data for students to access and analyze.
Skills/Practicewebsites A type of educational website that provides basic learning activities for students.
StudenttoExpertswebsites A type of educational website that supports exchanges of information between students and adult experts in organizations outside of school.
VirtualFieldTripwebsites Online learning adventures where students are able to visit far-away places using their classroom computers.
ISTE-T Standards
2. Design and Develop Digital Age Learning Experiences and Assessments
- Teachers design, develop, and evaluate authentic learning experiences and assessment incorporating contemporary tools and resources to maximize content learning in context and to develop the knowledge, skills, and attitudes identified in the ISTES.
- Design or adapt relevant learning experiences that incorporate digital tools and resources to promote student learning and creativity
- Develop technology-enriched learning environments that enable all students to pursue their individual curiosities and become active participants in setting their own educational goals, managing their own learning, and assessing their own progress
- Customize and personalize learning activities to address students diverse learning styles, working strategies, and abilities using digital tools and resources
- Provide students with multiple and varied formative and summative assessments aligned with content and technology standards and use resulting data to inform learning and teaching
3. Model Digital Age Work and Learning
- Teachers exhibit knowledge, skills, and work processes representative of an innovative professional in a global and digital society.
- Demonstrate fluency in technology systems and the transfer of current knowledge to new technologies and situations
Key Terms
bookmarkinginteractive video conferencingsocial bookmarking
Resources
Social Bookmarking and Standards Connectors
TES Teach with Blendspacehttps://www.blendspace.com/LiveBindershttp://livebinders.comOrganize your favorites into binders with tabs and sub-tabs and share or embed those binders.Pinteresthttp://pinterest.comPinterest is a site where you can pin (or collect) photos you find on the internet. The photos link to the webpage or blog post where the photo is located, so you can read more about it.Standards Toolbox https://edshelf.com/tool/standards-toolbox/Symbaloohttp://symbaloo.comIs a highly customizable graphic page with tiles creating a webmix. Share your webmix or use those others have put together.
Learning or Classroom Management Systems
Collaborize Classroom
http://technologiesforteaching.weebly.com/collaborize-classroom.htmlComplements classroom instruction and engage students in online activities, assignments and discussions that allow for deeper participation inside and outside the classroom.
Coursesites
https://edshelf.com/tool/coursesites/Online course creation and facilitation service that empowers individual K12 teachers, college and university instructors and community educators to add a webbased component to their courses, or even host an entire course on the Internet.
Rcampus
http://www.rcampus.com/Comprehensive Education Management System and a collaborative learning environment.
Class Dojohttp://www.classdojo.com/aboutA classroom management system that digitally tracks students behavior using avatars and by giving/taking points.
Data Topics
Humans have an imperative to practice Data Curation. People have and continue to gather, maintain, and archive data at ever greater volumes, and they always have. They drive to get useful data for today and tomorrow.
As Mike Schmoker elegantly states, Things get done only if the data we gather can inform and inspire those in a position to make difference. But, organizations struggle with getting things done and operationalizing Big Data well. Especially where 41 percent, of 150 executives at large companies, said that their data was too siloed. Without access to good Data Curation, business effectiveness decreases.
Risks of poor or no Data Curation include factually inaccurate information, incorrect guidelines, and knowledge gaps. This scenario has and continues to replay. For example, out of 401 items sent for a child passenger safety , by 101 organizations, about 25 percent of the evaluated items contained complete and accurate information. Each item could be thought of as a data collection. Less than 1 percent of the items seemed developed for other relatives or audiences transporting children, indicating knowledge gaps.
The resulting electronic collection and insights into the curated data, provided by individualized institutions, continued its use long after the study ended. A collection of about 400 materials, siloed and leading to inappropriate selection and installation of child seats may seem small, compared to using Big Data to make inaccurate financial decisions and impacting millions of customers. Good Data Curation is a must.
What is Data Curation?
Data Curation is a means of managing data that makes it more useful for users engaging in data discovery and analysis. Data curators collect data from diverse sources, integrating it into repositories that are many times more valuable than the independent parts. Data Curation includes data authentication, archiving, management, preservation retrieval, and representation.
Characteristics of Data Curation include:
- Social Signals: Datas usefulness depends on human interaction. Aaron Kalb, the Head of Product at Alation calls this social signals or behavioral interactions. Just as Amazon presents recommendations based on what users choose, Data Curation leverages human responses towards customized knowledge. Data Analysts install their own methodology in interpreting and manipulating data. Data Curation provides access to this kind of human knowledge, which can be valuable on how others do their work. As Stephanie McReynolds, VP of marketing at Alation, says:
The process of ideating around data and having it be an open communication around all the aspects of data brings the entire organization up to another level of data literacy so that we can really find useful solutions rather than get stuck in our own little silo.
- Active Management throughout the Data Lifecycle: The University of Illinois Graduate School of Library and Information Science defines Data Curation as the active and ongoing management of data through its life cycle of interest and usefulness. This lifecycle comprises steps of conceptualizing, creating, accessing, using, appraising, selecting, disposing, ingesting, reappraising, storing, reusing, and transforming Data. During this process, data might be annotated, tagged, presented, and published for various purposes. Data Curation means active management of data reducing threats to their long-term value and mitigating digital obsolescence.
- Complimentary Work with Data Governance: Data Curation compliments Data Governance, but does not replace it. According to DAMA International Data Management Book of Knowledge, Data Governance is defined as the exercise of authority and control (planning, monitoring and enforcement of data assets. Implement a Data Governance program results in policies on how to handle data. Data Curation may make use of a Data Governance when customizing information. However, Data Curation produces customized business data, like a modern corporate library. The resulting Data Collections allow for more relevant information that is easier to search, not just a set of policies.
What is Data Curation Doing for the Data Industry?
As well as reducing duplication of effort in research data creation, Data Curation enhances the long-term value of existing data by making it available for further high-quality research. Data Curation does the following for the Data Industry:
- Making Machine Learning More Effective: Machine Learning algorithms have made great strides towards understanding the consumer space. AI consisting of neural networks collaborate, and can using Deep Learning to recognize patterns. However, Humans need to intervene, at least initially, to direct algorithmic behavior towards effective learning. Stephanie McReynolds, VP of marketing at Alation says Curations are about where the humans can actually add their knowledge to what the machine has automated. This results in prepping for intelligent self-service processes, setting up organizations up for insights. Forrester research shows that insights-driven firms are 69 percent more likely to report year-over-year revenue growth of 15 percent or more.
- Dealing with Data Swamps: A Data Lake strategy allows users to easily access raw data, to consider multiple data attributes at once, and the flexibility to ask ambiguous business driven questions. But Data Lakes can end up Data Swamps where finding business value becomes like a quest to find the Holy Grail. Such Data swamps minus well be a Data graveyard. The Geological Survey of Alabama (GSA) has first-hand experience with this. The GSA has been reviving decades of dark (dead) data that could provide value. As part of that effort, the GSA has undertaken Data Curation to discover which of this data has locked-in value, even if it is old, that can be redirected to the benefit of users. This has led to a new GSA website with customized Data Collections.
- Educating Audiences: Data Curation provides intrinsic value in educating users. Take the legal profession. Ultimately, the goal of any attorney is to get the jury to understand the case facts as they see them, so anything you can do to educate the jury to the forensics is extremely helpful, says Jason Fries, CEO of 3D-Forensic. Through using the curated information provided by 3D-Forensic the jury learns how forensics created the analysis and have explanations of experts opinions involved in the case.
- Ensuring Data Quality: Data Curators clean and undertake actions to ensure the long undertake actions to ensure the long-term preservation and retention of the authoritative nature of digital objects.
Through the curation process, data are organized, described, cleaned, enhanced, and preserved for use, much like the work done on paintings or rare books to make the works accessible now and in the future, according to ICPSR.
The value of these Data Curation activities and its resulting attention to quality improve Data Research and Management. For example, Data Curation tasks pertaining to Biodiversity have led to a framework to assess datas fitness for use and increased data value. As a result, two Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF) task groups have more useful data on Species Distribution Modeling and Agro-biodiversity for collaboration.
- Speeding Innovation: Organizations are looking to identify ways they can manage data most effectively, while establishing the collaborative ecosystem to enable this efficiency. Data Curation enhances collaboration by opening and socializing how data is used. This results in innovation, as mentioned by Harvard Business Review. This article describes how the head of the U.S. Armys Rapid Equipping Force built a curation process, including an internal and external collaboration, to help technology solutions be deployed rapidly. In this case, Data Curation helped the U. S. Army identify who the customers for possible solutions would be, who the internal stakeholders would be, and even what initial minimum viable products might look like.
Data Curation: Advantages and Challenges
Shacklett notes Data Curation is just now starting to enter corporate vocabulary because of Big Data and the need to aggregate data from diverse sources to form a unique picture of a business situation. Why now? Industry prognosticators and companies are beginning to think about their data as a corporate asset. Companies are beginning to understand that they cant just continue to blindly store up the vast piles of data streaming into them without developing a way to value this data and to determine which data has present or potential value, and which will always virtually remain useless. Data Curation provides organizations the means to get useful data by leveraging expertise and knowledge of its own data assets.
However, Data Curation requires a huge investment, as Dianne Esbar, associate partner and brand leader at Digital McKinsey in San Francisco. It requires companies to find the right people to curate data and give them the right tools. This presents a challenge to many companies. Either they overinvest in tools that dont work with each other or dont give them what they need, or they have an army of people who in ten years time wont be as valuable.
Towards establishing successful Data Curation, Kathy Rondon cleverly laid out the fact that Data Curation is about contextual Metadata, and presented four primary requirements of setting up a successful Data Curation program, at the DATAVERSITY Enterprise Data World 2017 Conference in Atlanta, Georgia. By staying educated and informed on Data Curation best practices, including data reviews with end users, companies can reap its benefits.
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