Beyond Bookmarks with Flipboard

In my last post, we explored social bookmarking with Diigo as a way to collect and share Internet resources.  In this post, we’re going to take  a step further, and look at “curating” with Flipboard.

Curation

Let’s start with the idea of  curation. “The term curation in the past commonly referred to museum and library professionals. It has since been applied to interaction with social media including compiling digital images, web links and movie files.” (link)  When you curate content, you offer your filtered collection of web sites to yourself  or to your “followers” – in our case your students and/or colleagues.  It’s sort of like bookmarking; but it is much more visual, interactive, non-linear (though it is sequential), and more attractive.

There are many, many websites offering a curation platform, but in this post, we’re going to concentrate on Flipboard.  (In future posts we’ll look at Paper.li and Scoop.it)

First, let’s look at what Flipboard is

Flipboard describes itself as “… your personal magazine, filled with the things you care about. Catch up on the news, discover amazing things from around the world, or stay connected to the people closest to you—all in one place…”. It is a free social-network aggregation, magazine-format application software for  iPad, iPhone, Android, Windows 8, Kindle Fire and NOOK, and is also viewable as a web page. It collects information from the Internet, and presents it in a magazine-style format that allows the reader to “flip” through the pages – hence its name.

It is the possibility to view a Flipboard magazine with a webbrowser which has moved it into the educational spotlight – one no longer needs a tablet device to read Flipboard…any computer with an Internet connection will do.

Help for downloading, installing, setting up and using Flipboard can be found on the Flipboard web page, as well as in countless YouTube videos!

Next, let’s look at how you could use Flipboard

There are two sorts of content for your Flipboard – static  content  where you choose single videos, sites, files, webpages, blog posts, etc., to add to your account, like a “scrapbook”, and dynamic content that you subscribe to through an rss feed, hashtag, or a Flipbook collection, that constantly updates itself.

cc licensed ( BY NC ND ) flickr photo by Chris Rimmer: http://flickr.com/photos/chrstopher/50175587/

As you begin to imagine how Flipboard could serve your own teaching or learning, think of its “pushme-pullyou” possibilities.

• As a personal reading tool – pull in the material you want to read yourself.
• As a creation tool for your classes – pull in material you want your students to read, and then push it out to them.
• As a “magazine” for your school community – pull in your school’s own publications in one magazine, and then push it out to the community.
• As a class “management” tool – pull in all your students’ blogs in one place for reading and commenting.

In a recent blog post, Robert Schuetz described four uses for Flipboard, which are shared here:

1. “Flipboard can be used as a social media “aggregator”. Social networks such as Twitter, Google+, and Linkedin, can be subscribed to, and reviewed alongside your favorite articles and videos. Efficiently, subscriptions can be created based upon social media criteria such as, Twitter hashtags, or Google+ circles. As with other popular RSS readers, your favorite content can be shared with a single click out to your social networks.

2. “Flipboard can be used as the “reader” for collections curated in other apps. For instance, I can subscribe to those favorite contributors that populate my Blogger reading list. I can check in on the “instructional technology”  folder that I had previously set up in Google Reader. I can also subscribe to local news outlets.

3. “Flipboard can be used to create collections of web content that can be shared as “magazines” to social networks, or resources to be shared with students or colleagues. Others can be invited as contributors to the magazine, thus making collections collaborative. Much like Diigo  or Delicious , Flipboard can be used for social bookmarking – identifying favorite web content and sharing it with relevant groups, and subscribers. Here is my first magazine, The Linked Learner , which I created and shared earlier this week. I also invited a few friends from my PLN to be contributors to this magazine.

4. “Flipboard can be used to create a repository for student blog posts, or tweets. Teachers can quickly read, review, and share student submissions from a single app. Students can collaborate to create class magazines that feature their research and learning. Students take particular pride in the number of subscribers and flips that their works receive.”

In a post on his blog, A Changing Classroom, Joe O’Brien describes how he created a class magazine on Flipboard, in which he subscribed to all the blogs his Social Studies students were writing during a large research project. “I was able to make a magazine on Flipboard.  Then using the Chrome Extension I opened each student Blog and added it to my newly created project magazine.  I have been reading, following comments, and commenting on my students’ Blogs via Flipboard.  They’re all in one place I have quick access and the Flipboard app is very easy to use.”

[youtuber youtube=’http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dM6RMIwVqoo’]

Read about Flipboard for Educators on the Inside Flipboard blog. Would you like curate a magazine with other teachers?  Watch this video:

[youtuber youtube=’http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d_ianlhMrlA’]

Look at this magazine I created for this blog post, containing all the weblinks, videos, blogposts, etc., mentioned. http://flip.it/8YVh6

Flipboard magazines to inspire you 

Created by teachers for classes:

IB DP Geography Richard Allaway’s collection of  8 Geography magazines https://flipboard.com/profile/richardallaway

Physical Geography http://flip.it/WziVU

Early Humans http://flip.it/pgJ0Q Resources for MYP Unit: What makes humans human?

Writing for Middle and High School by Michelle Fanter http://flip.it/zmsz4 Resouces and articles relating to teaching writing at the middle and high school levels

IB Business & Management Case Study Book http://flip.it/yu3XY

IB Language and Literature by Kevin Blissett http://flip.it/G8iV7 Bits and pieces for the IB Language and Literature class

IB Psychology by Olly Thompson http://flip.it/eXD7e Articles related to Psychology

For my Anatomy & Physiology students by Chrissie Gallagher-Mundy http://flip.it/qgYDx

PYP PE by Nathan Horne http://flip.it/pwizd

Curriculum areas:

Orwell http://flip.it/Sxww6 Shades of 1984

James Joyce’s Journal http://flip.it/Xeq8Y

Margaret Attwood’s MaddAddam’s World http://flip.it/Fktx4 The Science, the Nature, the Gardening, the Tech, the Outfits (see this press release)

History http://flip.it/ZiKI7

Archaeology and History http://flip.it/zDrrA New and Old World Archaeology and History.

Earth Observation News http://flip.it/3tKYq Stories that are relevant to Earth observation, policy, and education.

Archaeology from an Archaeologist http://flip.it/WTILU Uni Glasgow archaeologist @DrDonnaYates brings you archaeology, heritage

Anonymous Swiss Collector http://flip.it/MHqh3 Looting of heritage, trafficking in cultural property, archaeology, illicit antiquities

rogueclassicism’s ancient eye candy http://flip.it/SFn3W photos etc. relating to ancient greece and rome

Art Education in the News http://flip.it/GwkMH

Collecting all the school blogs, news, tweets, Facebook posts, etc. in one publication:

ISOCS on the Web http://flip.it/hMeXx Published by the International School of Central Switzerland

Hixson Middle School by TheTechSpec http://flip.it/XlmRq News from Hixson Middle School in Webster Groves Missouri

Burns Middle School http://flip.it/0PenC

Meriwether Lewis Elementary School by Tim Lauer http://flip.it/XkPOF Posts From our Classrooms. Lewis School – Portland, Oregon

A sample of news feeds

The New York Times http://flip.it/WTf6S

Al Jazeera http://flip.it/p6C0W

PBS NewsHour http://flip.it/cxQ8O

BBC News http://flip.it/g2NwP

The Guardian http://flip.it/oa0Mx