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Robin Good: Here is a good example of video curation at work. CoFounder.tv is a video web site curating only the best and most inspiring entrepreneurship video clips. From startuppers, to investors and VCs, the growing collection strives to bring together a variety of viewpoints from those who have been there.

The curated video site is maintained by Rony El-Nashar, a VC at Dubai based SeedStartup, a startup accelerator and seed venture fund that invests in early-stage startups from all around the world.

He writes: "My goal with Cofounder TV is to build a resource that educates and inspires entrepreneurs globally."

Right on track. A pioneering example of what you are going to see in place of blogs soon. 9/10

Check it out: http://cofounder.tv/

Robin Good: I believe that content curation will play a very important role in the future of education and learning and this presentation-map focuses on this topic.

I have identified at least ten reasons that are transforming and weakening the education-certification system as it is now, and may rapidly give way to new ways of teaching, learning and getting certified which will likely involve a great deal of curation (both for those who teach/guide and those who want to learn).

In this presentation-map I am introducing the concept of curation for education, the key factors that I see are transforming traditional academic institutions and the learning industry in general, and the tools, resources and examples that are relevant to those working in these fields and wanting to find out more.

As part of my workshop session during the emerge2012 conference in which I have first presented these ideas, I have also created an "open", collaborative wiki-map where, you are welcome to contribute inspiring curated collections. You will find instructions on how to contribute to it at the end of this presentation.

Full presentation-map: http://www.mindomo.com/mindmap/content-curation-for-education-and-learning-robin-good-emerge2012-98ccaad217074a07b9bff8b76effab8e

"What is content curation in the context of education and why it is going to be so relevant in the near future. Benefits of content curation, examples and tools."

Emerge2012 Conference

Robin Good: Must-read article on ClutterMuseum.com by Leslie M-B, exploring in depth the opportunity to have students master their selected topics by "curating" them, rather than by reading and memorizing facts about them.

"Critical and creative thinking should be prioritized over remembering content"

"That students should learn to think for themselves may seem like a no-brainer to many readers, but if you look at the textbook packages put out by publishers, you’ll find that the texts and accompanying materials (for both teachers and students) assume students are expected to read and retain content—and then be tested on it.

Instead, between middle school (if not earlier) and college graduation, students should practice—if not master—how to question, critique, research, and construct an argument like an historian."

This is indeed the critical point. Moving education from an effort to memorize things on which then to be tested, to a collaborative exercise in creating new knowledge and value by pulling and editing together individual pieces of content, resources and tools that allow the explanation/illustration of a topic from a specific viewpoint/for a specific need.

And I can't avoid to rejoice and second her next proposition: "What if we shifted the standards’ primary emphasis from content, and not to just the development of traditional skills—basic knowledge recall, document interpretation, research, and essay-writing—but to the cultivation of skills that challenge students to make unconventional connections, skills that are essential for thriving in the 21st century?"

What are these skills, you may ask. Here is a good reference where to look them up: http://www.p21.org/storage/documents/P21_Framework_Definitions.pdf (put together by the Partnership for 21st Century Skills)

Recommended. Good stuff. 9/10

Full article: www.cluttermuseum.com/make-students-curators/

(Image credit: Behance.net)

Robin Good: Cloudscapes are collections of "clouds" about a certain topic. A "cloud" can be anything of relevance to learning and teaching clike an essay, a presentation, a resource, tool or event.

A cloudscape is therefore a user-driven collection of learning materials/resources pulled together for a specific need.

A cloudscape contains multiple elements:

1) Content - the actual text content

2) Cloudstream - tracking all the editing activities in the collection

3) Clouds - individual information objects

4) related Tweets

5) an RSS feed

6) a discussion area

Cloudworks, the platform where cloudscapes are born, is an open repository of educational and learning materials that motivates participants to share, find and discuss learning and teaching ideas.

Although the word "curation" is never used on the site or in the related documentation, this is yet another example of how the convergence of open repositories, open content and sharing platforms like this one, provide a natural and fertile ground for spontaneous curation approaches.

On this platform users can create topical learning collections by bringing together a selected set of existing content resources.

Cloudworks is developed by the Institute of Educational Technology at The Open University in the UK and it is part of the Open University Learning Design Initiative (OULDI) project.

Example of a cloudscape: http://cloudworks.ac.uk/cloudscape/view/2035

More info: http://cloudworks.ac.uk/