Curators                

Media specialists are some of my favorite teachers. Last week I had the privilege of speaking to a great group of media specialists in my hometown and am reminded of how important it is to treasure these talented educators. When a school has a great media specialist, the library is the true hub of the school. We used to tease one of our media specialists that he made the library "user friendly." It so important that media center is organized and maintained by someone who is motivated by the ability to serve the school. One of the most important 21^st century skills for students is to become a curator of resources. Who understands being a curator better than anyone else in education? Our media specialist, for sure! This "tuesdays" is focused on the curation work of two media specialists that I have never met, but who understand the power of sharing and gathering others to join in the process.

May I encourage you to expose your students to the idea of being a curator? In the same way a museum curator may acquire objects of relevance or an art curator may select works of art by themes or artists, our students are gathering relevant information and items of interest throughout their school careers. Why not encourage them to organize their findings and treasures in a manner that can be share by other students and educators. Having a wider audience to share with gives students an immediate sense of importance that leads to higher quality experiences. Every time they find something online they can begin to organize them "in the cloud" for easy access from any computer or device. When students begin to understand that research is the tool of empowerment, they will benefit by sharing. Social networking is not just for chatting. It can be the true tool of lifelong learning once students are shown the way.

How do you advise your students (or perhaps your colleagues) to become curators of relevant information? There are many social networks that give us the ability to gather, organize and share. My favorite for a long time has been Delicious. It's still available, still FREE and still easy to use. I wouldn't hesitate to tell students about this great tool. The following list is a suggestion of possible places where the becoming a curator can be a great adventure for students and teachers.

• Digg
• Diigo (very nice on the iPad)
• Newsvine
• StumbleUpon
• Pinterest

Be a curator. Be a lifelong learner! Thanks to media specialist everywhere for being the great curators in education.

"Google can bring you back 100,000 answers, a librarian can bring you back the right one."

Neil Gaiman 

The media center at Port Charlotte High School This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license.

ipadio   

LiveBinders 

Doceri 

NASA's Image Gallery 

Popplet 

Zoey's Room
Finance in the Classroom
Fotopedia 

The Common Good Forecaster  

Google Earth 

UJAM 

Symbaloo.edu 

Google Science Fair 

Stossel in the Classroom
Word Sift 

Lee Kolbert