Curation, the musical!

I asked some of my kiddos and my music teacher colleague, Monica Femovich, to help me explain our very new efforts in teaching curation.  Usually game for anything Glee-ish, our singer/actors brilliantly and generously created an introduction I can use for instruction and in upcoming workshops.

This may be the first song about digital curation.

Lyrics:

Curation, Curation Curation!

Curation, Curation. Curation!

Who day and night must aggregate the content, pull together knowledge, harness all the feeds

And who must make sense of media, tags, and text, keeping learners up to date, at school

Librarian, Librarian

Curation!

Librarian, Librarian,

Curation!

Who do we rely on for creative stuff

What’s best so we avoid the fluff?

Who must point the way to stuff that’s good enough

So we don’t miss the stuff that’s really buff!

The Network, the Network.  Curation!

The Network, the Network,  Curation!

At ten my three-ring notebook really held all my school stuff.

I know by now that binder can’t contain my research

The student, the student.  Curation!

The student, the student.  Curation!

And who does TL teach to curate with new tools,

So we can gather knowledge both in and out of school?

The learner, the learner! Curation!

The learner, the learner! Curation!

(Shift)

Curator, curator, build me a mash

Gather the feeds, so I can cache

Media, blog posts, and tweets that make sense

And mix me a perfect mash

Curator, curator, so much to read

Google exhausts me with more than I need

I’m seeking relevance, so I must plead

Let human touch intercede

For teacher let it be scholarly

Me, well, I want the feeds

To keep me current with fashion

Or causes for which I can take the lead

Curator, curator, give me new tools

So I can learn, curating rules

Livebinders, storify, scoop.it and sqworl

So many new research jewels

Please, please make it dynamic,

I don’t need the same old rehash

I rely on your knowledge and passion

To open the newsfeed sash!

Curator, curator, demonstrate mash

Use networking skills, to help us in school,

Through you we discover the big picture view

To manage new info search tools.

Starring:
Emma C.
Ben V.
Jordan S.
Dan M.
Jelli V.
Thanks to Monica Femovich
Song parody by  Joyce Kasman Valenza. Based on “Tradition” and “Matchmaker” from Fiddler on the Roof.
Music by Jerry Bock, lyrics by Sheldon Harnick.
Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial

Filed under: curation, research