Curation- educationally speaking is the art of selecting, designing, and arranging learning opportunities.

Technology is one tool that can be used to curate student learning.

As I have been studying this summer-yes I am a little strange- I have found a plethora of blogs and articles about curating in education. I know this is a new term to education but thought it to be the answer to a lot of my questions in the past.

I have always been constructivist and constructionist at heart. Learning through discovery and doing is one of the most successful approaches or theories I have come across for all ages and stages in learning. Yet I could never describe to the teachers what their roles were...at least not succinctly. Then this spring I attending Yancy Unger's session at SxSW Edu in Austin. He described curation and I thought to myself...THAT'S IT! As the teacher we facilitate by selecting, managing, displaying, and offering facilitation of learning. We DON'T make it. We CURATE it.

Jeff Cobb's blog, Who are your curators,  on the blog Mission to Learn sent me on an exciting journey through the idea of curation in education.  He begins with a definition that includes skills such as:

• "locating and evaluating valuable content
• organizing and connecting content so that it is as accessible as possible
• creating and re-purposing content when it adds to the underlying value
• capitalizing on the Social Web to build connections and context
• building trusted relationships with learners and other curators
• design learning experiences (in a much broader sense than traditional approaches)"

Next he discusses George Siemens' article Learning and Knowing in Networks: Changing roles for Educators and Designers. Although this article was published in 2008, I believe it is right on track. To curate well one needs a network to help them avoid cognitive overload and manage those pieces of knowledge that best meet the stated need or objective.

Finally, I know that additional URL's are resources that may help you on your journey toward curation of learning. Check out these links:

ISTE's Curated Learning

SmartBlog on Education

Education and Curation Tools

Understanding Content Curation