21st Century Learning and Teaching

Thanks to Alan Berkson intelligent use of hashtags as he retweeted his own post dating back to December 2012, and to Trendspottr, who made it easy for me to discover it, I have just run into one of the most inspirational short posts about curation that I have read in some time.

The post is quite short, but it packs such an important truth, that I can't but bring it to you in its full integrity.

"Being able to properly vet might be the most important skill of the 21st Century.

Not curing sick animals.

Not retiring from military service.

I’m talking about “subjecting to thorough examination or evaluation.”

We’ve been trained to rely on experts to do this for us.

If we go back 30 years or so, we would find experts in a limited number of places: academia, government and non-government organizations, and major corporations including media. As I wrote in The Age of Thought Leadership:

“…the Information Age is allowing experts to step out from behind the veil of a corporate (or academic) entity…”

This is a double-edged sword. As individuals we can develop and express thought leadership. However, also as individuals, we can no longer solely rely on third parties for pre-vetting our experts.

• Learn how to do research.
  
  
• Know the difference between a primary and a secondary source.
  
  
• Become more discerning in your content consumption.
  
  
• Develop a healthy level of skepticism."

Content curation, if intended as the art of helping other people discover, learn and make sense of things they are interested into, is all about cultivating your own ability to become an expert by honing the skills of research, vetting and contextualization.

This is it. Must read. Must share. 10/10

Original post by Alan Berkson: http://blog.intelligistgroup.com/that-third-kind-of-vet/