Flipboard - One of the best curation tools out there for the classroom

How I Use It

I initially create a magazine around a specific topic related to our curriculum, usually tied directly to the summative project or learning task for a unit. For example, one of our units focuses on modern problems tied to agriculture/population growth/food production. For the final project for the unit, students have to create a project that advocates for a specific plan to solve/address those problems.

I create a magazine for the topic and, before we start work on the project, save/flip articles into it. Examples of article subjects would be things on food waste, hydroponic agriculture, or fishing techniques. I curate the articles based on relevance and readability for students. When they begin their research, I share the magazine to the students. It becomes like a textbook, but it is constantly evolving. I delete articles and add all the time.

Perhaps most importantly, the Flipboard magazine starts out as the BASIS for research. Once students demonstrate that they can find relevant articles that they truly understand, I enable them to save/flip articles into the magazine as well. The magazine then really becomes like a living, SHARED textbook with students becoming active in the curation process.