My friend Alex Ragone (a fellow PLP-er) tweeted a link from PBS MediaShift this morning. I like the site, so I jumped into the article to see that word again– curator.
Like you, I’ve been seeing the word for a while now (was Jeff Jarvis the first?), describing how we will learn to sort through volumes of information online. I have my own curators (here, too) and I’ve been working through how to help our students do/find the same.
Those in the know say we are now relying much more on individuals rather than organizations to provide us with our news and information. As a former journalist and journalism teacher, I worry about our lack of “gatekeepers” when it comes to relying on everyone. However, worry aside, learning to discern is critical.
As much as I prefer the skill to be integrated into every discipline, I am tired of waiting for everyone to get on board. In my perfect world, I would create a course for all students–one that teaches them to sift,sort, share and do. This wisdom will help create better citizens of the world.
Read the article here…it’s worth your time.
First time I’ve heard reference to curator for our people networks. Interesting Susan. Thanks.
I REALLY like creating citizens of the world, too! And I like the adjective of “curator,” but in some ways I think it’s too limiting. I feel like it accounts for the collecting of information, but doesn’t account for the actual reconstructing of it in a new and different way. Why else would we need to sift through information if we weren’t sifting for the possibility of improvement through advanced reuse? If it was all merely a collection, then anything could be collected, whether it merited classification or not. Either way, I think we have a more progressive understanding of being online curators, but our language has yet to catch up. Pondering new and tech-forward vocab now…
Thanks for pushing my thinking on this, but curator implies more to me. After all, doesn’t a curator choose, evaluate, and tag for re-use (new exhibit for the public eye or for personal consumption)? Now, if our new citizens of the world also need to remix and republish,then you are right–“curator” may not work. Here’s an interesting discussion:http://blogs.asaecenter.org/Acronym/2010/03/isnt_curator_just_a_reporter.html
On the other hand, perhaps if we haven’t been able to come up with a new descriptor, then can we assume a shift in meaning to embrace and include actual reconstruction and/or transformation of information? But like you, I hope the language will catch up. Please share if you come up with something. Fascinating.