Curation: Not Just for Libraries Anymore

As educators we are continuously finding exciting new ways to present content or amazing apps that we could implement within our curriculum, but how many times have you lost the note page you wrote it down on? Here are some applications just for curation that you can use to keep yourself organize or implement them within your classroom to create a central location for sharing. 

Padlet

Padlet is a great way to create a collection in one location. Padlet and all of its many functions are free for educators to use, one silver lining to the Pandemic occurrence. Educators can use Padlet to make walls, timelines, grids, shelves, backchannels, and maps. You can create a Padlet board to store shared resources with your students while you are studying a particular topic. Use it to create a backchannel discussion board for book clubs or classroom reading assignments. In history class create a collaborative timeline as you study a particular error, and in art class create a collection of virtual galleries or collections of pieces by artistic movement. 

Wakelet

Wakelet is a completely free platform that has endless possibilities for curation of resources. Consider it a way more advance notes page where you can house all of those links to cool and interesting applications you are hoping to one day implement. Richard Byrne has a wonderful blog posting that is dedicated to helping educators learn more about this platform and how to effectively use it as an educational tool from a whiteboard to an art gallery and everything in between. Also check into the Waklet community, making connections with interest groups outside of your building walls can help to inspire innovative learning ideas! 

Webinar for more information : https://youtu.be/X1tKx7OD6uQ

Symbaloo

Symbaloo is one of my personal favorites to place bookmarked links to various sites for my students. This platform allows for a fun way to present and organize your resources either for yourself or for your students. You can create numerous boards for various purposes and either embed them onto your webpage or provide accessible links within your Google Classroom for your students to access. Despite Symbaloo's longevity of existence it still proves to be an amazing curation tool! 

Feedly

If you are like me you like to keep up your PLN through various blogs and news feeds is daunting and sometimes causes more tabs to be open than needed on your computer. Using Feedly can create automation of RSS feeds where you can catch up on all of your favorites in one place and limits the number of bookmarks needed. Not to mention an easy way to catch up when you have time without trying to remember all of those site addresses! 

Kasey Bell's blog "16 Curation Tools for Teachers and Students" provides even more links to other tools that can be used in amazing ways to enhance productivity, PLNs, and your curriculum! Some of these tools are super familiar and easily overlooked at being used for education, while others may provide some new ideas. 

Google Keep, Padlet changing pricing model, New Google Sites

More Ways to Use Google Keep

Over the last two weeks there's been a lot of conversation at the secondary level about different ways to use Google Keep. 

Google Keep is a digital sticky note tool integrated into your G-Suite apps. Find it by clicking on your nine boxes and scrolling down. On the teacher side, it's a great way to collect and share resources with co-teachers and to provide students feedback.Students can use Keep for notetaking and learning.

• Students can use the color palette in Google Keep to organize bibliography and corresponding note cards. Bonus, the cards can't be lost!
• Students can use a Keep note as an exit ticket by recording their learning, taking a screenshot, and turning the screenshot into Google Classroom.
• Students can click on Tools in Google Docs or Slides to access their Keep notes from within the document they're using to access resources and  previously taken notes or to record new thoughts and questions. Since notes can be dragged/dropped directly into Slides or Docs, one of the middle school teachers had her students put their screenshots on a shared Google Slide to create her own Padlet-like board.
• Teachers can use Keep to create a library of feedback for common errors or stickers for informal feedback.Kasey Bell of ShakeUpLearning has great ideas on her Google Keep Resources page.
• Teachers can drag Keep notes into docs to create checklists for their students. Like the idea of a checklist for students but aren't ready to explore Google Keep? Check out Control Alt Achieve's post on creating interactive checklists in Google Docs. 

• (My fav trick? Personalizing notes by inserting a picture on the top of the note.)

Padlet Is Changing Its Pricing Model

Last week Padlet announced that it will be making some changes to its pricing model. Users will still be able to access a free basic account but will be limited to 3 Padlets, 10 MB of file uploads, and will see banner ads. Padlet Pro is $8.25/mo. Read more here.

New Google Sites is Amazingly Easy to Use

Really! The new Google Sites, which has been around a couple of years, has a click and drag interface that makes website creation a breeze. So, if you're looking at that sweet spot of time between STAAR testing and the end of the year to get a jump on next school year, you may want to consider updating your website or creating one with the new Google Sites.