Using Collections: One Tool, Many Purposes

It's so Much More than Just a Curation Tool

Jason See, Follett's Director of Classroom Solutions, gave educators at ISTE 2017 a sneak peek of Collections, a new addition to the Destiny Discover suite of tools. There was a buzz in the air, and I'm sure many educators looked at it as an answer to their curation woes. Collections delivers exactly as advertised. Nader Qaimari, President of Follett School Solutions, June 29, 2017, in a press release said, "Collections is the first step toward making Destiny a content discovery and resource collection tool designed for use in the classroom, the library and at home." In previous blog posts, I've shared how Collections allows educators a singular place to curate Open Educational Resources (OER), web pages, videos, images, educator created resources and documents. In just a few short months of widespread use in our district, we've found it to be so much more!

We've used Collections in the following ways:

Curriculum Resource Management Tool
Districtwide Workgroups (Technology Policy Workgroup, Guided Reading Workgroup, Elementary Scheduling Workgroup)
ACLU Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) Request & Response
Materials for District, Local or National Presentations

This series of blog posts will explore each of the ways our district has used Collections for both its intended and unintended uses. As we continue to have collaborative discussions in our district there are many teachers that are excited about using Collections to curate student work over time. I'm really excited to see how we use Collections to help our students create a portfolio of their growth over time.

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