Before we take a look at my collection I've been working on, lets think about why we would even want to create a collection in the first place.
Curation is a super important topic to me. We are teaching in what might be the most incredible times ever, due to the shear amount of information we have access to. Websites, apps, videos, games, you name it, there is probably countless number of resources for it. The more and more we rely on the knowledge of others (as we should, in addition to creating our own new knowledge with it) we need a system to organize and share that information.
And for students it's equally as important a skill to have.
But sometimes we all just need a little help. Be it to find good resources that others have curated or an easy platform to curate and store that information ourselves.
Thats where appoLearning can help, a lot.
I've been working on a Professional Learning Collection. I get asked all the time about the best places for educators to learn from other educators on their own time. So creating this collection will be an easy way to share all the places I've gathered over time to share with others.
Creating a collection couldn't be easier. You sign in with your Google, Twitter or Facebook account. Then give your collection a title, a description and decide if you want it public, private or viewable by anyone who has the link.
A note about the privacy settings. This can be really helpful. Some of your resources you'll want to share with the world. Others, you might have resources that can only be viewed by the teachers on your team or grade level. And other times you might just want to keep a personal collection. The choice is yours!
Once you've set up the collection you then need to add the resources. Remember you can add any type of resource. For mine I have websites, apps and some videos. All you need a link.
And you aren't limited to resources you bring in. Use the wisdom of the other users of appoLearning. You can search from the entire collection of resources already uploaded to appoLearning and make incorporating them easy too.
appoLearning will figure out what kind of resource it is and some basic information. Then you can fill in the rest. Give it description, tell what grades it's good for and tag it so its easier to find. The more information you can provide, the easier it will make to find it in search.
And thats it! Easy peasy! Collections are only as complete as you want. If you find a new resource, come back and add it. One not relevant anymore, delete it.
As we mentioned earlier you can create collections for a yourself, your students, your colleagues, you could even create collections of resources for your parents and the community. The possibilities are only as endless as what you can create.
Remember, all this is free. So give it a go!
Oh and check out the Professional Learning Collection. Tons of places to improve your practice on your own time!
