Technology has spread its wings far and wide. Be it learning a foreign language while on the go, imbibing information or communicating with your connections, technology continues to be the greatest ally of mankind! And, of course, the arrival of severa...
Technology has spread its wings far and wide.
Be it learning a foreign language while on the go, imbibing information or communicating with your connections, technology continues to be the greatest ally of mankind! And, of course, the arrival of several exciting mobile applications or ‘apps’ have added to the sophistication of modern technology.
Being technology-savvy geeks, I am certain you do not require an introduction about the concept of apps and their utility.
However, you would be amazed to learn that the world of technology is flooded with numerous apps that aid the learning processes. No wonder, they are quite sought after by educators, students and learning communities. One such ‘wonder app’ is the ‘Flipboard’.
How many of you are yet to be familiar with Flipboard, dear friends?
A Brief Idea about Flipboard
Does Flipboard sound alien to you? Well, I am here to guide you about this really cool app that is gradually gaining popularity among plenty of users.
Available in over twenty languages, Flipboard is a unique mobile app that flaunts a magazine format. You can use it as your personal magazine, enjoying access to a large number of interesting:
Imagine reading a recent news feature that appeared in The New York Times, Fast Company, or the People magazine – all on a common platform.
There is more.
Flipboard also permits you to connect to Instagram, LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook, thereby helping you to ‘share’, ‘like’, ‘comment’ or ‘retweet’ the posts of your friends.
How can Flipboard be a Part of Education?
It’s true that Flipboard is a special app designed for people who love to be kept in the loop of information from all corners of the globe.
But, Flipboard also has some stunning uses in education. And it is growing with every passing day. For instance, this app can be employed to guide students in completing their assignments, academic projects as well as reading assignments.
Read on to know some of most common uses of Flipboard inside the classroom.
#1. Twitter Feeds
Is your Twitter ‘timeline’ filled with random tweets and the ones belonging to those you ‘follow’? Do you wish the ‘home page’ of your Twitter profile to appear more organized?
If yes, Flipboard might turn out to be your savior.
Using Flipboard, you can subscribe to your personal Twitter timeline. This app would transform all your tweets into a beautiful magazine. The best part about it is that you can view a completely different Twitter-stream at different times of the day.
I have observed most teachers tweeting after school hours, while the members of school administration preferring to tweet even when the classes are in progress.
Whenever teachers tweet about a particular topic, they share precious information that can be leveraged by learners. If tweets are organized effectively, you would no longer need to look for the tweets relevant to education from an infinite number of tweets on your Twitter timeline.
#2. Creating a Syllabus for the Class
Students must be well acquainted with the course curriculum followed by their school for different grades and subjects.
In addition, teachers must ensure that the classroom syllabus is available to students in a compact format, so that they don’t lose it at the last moment prior to their exams.
Instead of handing out leaflets to your pupils containing the topics of the class syllabus, you can explore Flipboard. For it can help you convert your syllabus into a magazine.
The topics, articles and editorial content that would go into creating a detailed syllabus can be arranged conveniently, thanks to Flipboard. Teachers can also add their personal notes to the syllabus through their own blogs. Next, all they need to do is just include their notes in the magazine.
Flipboard works in a really smart way.
Some educators instruct pupils to add their individual opinions or ideas to the content of the syllabus with an aim to simplifying it. This has also proven to directly impact student engagement inside classrooms.
#3. Remaining Updated
Since the world has almost turned into what seems a ‘global village’, you must be updated with the latest news and current affairs taking place around the globe!
Well, for this, you have Flipboard again, at your service.
Enjoying a liaison with over 125 publishing companies including the BBC, Vanity Fair, New York Times, Tech Crunch, Harper’s Bazaar and so on, you would discover a great deal of information here.
The topics range from ‘travel’, ‘design’, ‘technology’ to hard news and feature stories.
If you wish to treat your intellect to some quality content in the form of news articles or blogs, tap on the red ribbon present in the ‘Content Guide’. Being familiar with all sorts of news and current events would enrich your general awareness, thus enabling you to emerge as an outstanding student.
Moreover, being knowledgeable about the latest trends in education from all around the globe would also benefit educators.
#4. Developing Educational Projects and Assignments
Need any assistance for your Geography project? Turn to Flipboard, immediately.
A classroom generally boasts of various types of learners. While some of them might be studious and always eager to learn new things with utmost dedication, a few others might just be waiting for their teacher to be done with their lecture! And there are the procrastinators who love believing in putting off the submission of their projects.
That’s not all.
A classroom also contains a handful of students who end up losing their study materials or the resources for their projects!
Therefore, ask your pupils to start developing a magazine for their class project.
In this magazine, they should compile their:
In short, they should include everything here, which are required for their project. This habit would make sure students keep a track of their project materials. Naturally, they would not feel compelled to ransack their study room at home, or the cupboard in their classroom to seek a particular resource for completing their project.
Learners might choose to work independently or even in groups.
If you are keen to work in groups, just tap on the option ‘Invite Contributors’ present in the front page of the magazine.
#5. Collaborating
The concept of team-work is essential to usher in success in classrooms. And this holds true for teachers as well as learners.
When students are involved in group activities like sports or even group projects, they start learning about the significance of collaborating with their classmates. This instills a certain degree of team spirit among the students.
Teachers always encourage students to engage in collaborative learning activities, as it helps them to work on their abilities to cooperate with each other and move towards achieving a common goal.
It grooms students for their careers in a professional environment.
With Flipboard, teachers can make students collaborate on a class project. They might contribute their personal ideas or other kinds of resources essential to create the project, adding it to the magazine.
However, teachers can also make efforts to utilize Flipboard for this very purpose.
I have met many teachers who love collecting interesting videos or other kinds of materials related to the class syllabus and add them to the magazine. It creates a useful database for the teachers.
#6. Preparing Guides
As you already know, learning is an eternal process. Even if you are an educator, you cannot claim to know everything!
In such a scenario, it is important to ensure that your study materials are arranged in an organized way. It would save you precious time that you would otherwise spend in locating them while you are revising for your exams.
If you have assimilated too much information in the form of notes and other reference materials, you should try to compile them in a common folder to check yourself from misplacing them.
Flipboard, once again is there to assist you in decluttering the study space of your pupils.
This can be done by developing a ‘resource guide’. The resource guide can be created by adding your articles and study materials to your Flipboard magazine. You can then share it with other educators and also your students.
#7. Keeping Parents Informed
Parents are the best people who have the potential to inspire their children to concentrate in their academic lessons!
This is one of the major reasons why schools invite parents to discuss the academic progress of their kids through parent-teacher meets. When I was a school student, I remember how my teachers asked us to get our answer sheets signed by our parents. And trust me, it spelled doom for some of my classmates who failed to secure good grades in their exams.
In short, schools consider it their duty to keep parents involved in the education of their children.
Here is an intelligent idea for teachers who are attempting to increase the involvement into classroom sessions of their kids. Create your Flipboard magazine. Now, this magazine should comprise images of the classroom activities or assignments being completed by the students.
Secondly, teachers might also add photos of certain explanations that they have taught in the class, or snapshots of the class syllabus in the magazine.
Next, they should encourage parents to subscribe to the magazine to keep a tab on the classroom sessions attended by their children.
#8. Offering Feedback to Students
I was speaking about creating academic projects with the help of Flipboard.
However, teachers can also ask their pupils to discuss certain academic topics in their Flipboard magazine. Once they write about a particular concept, the app provides a space to users to mention what makes the content interesting! This offers a golden opportunity to students and even educators to start a conversation based on that interesting point.
The good thing about this app is: users have no choice but to specify the area that makes their discussion compelling.
So, every teacher should make it a point to subscribe to the Flipboard magazines of their students. Teachers can also interact with the author of any article available in the magazine. And so can the students.
This is due to the fact that Flipboard provides options to ‘like’, ‘share’ and ‘comment’ on the articles one adds in this platform. In this regard, the app is strikingly similar to some of the other popular social networking sites.
And if educators wish to add certain articles of their students into their own magazines, all they need to do is ‘remix’ it!
You can easily download this app in iOS and even in Android. Like most of the users, I bet you would fall in love with Flipboard once you start using it, thanks to its crystal clear images and user-friendly features. Just imagine the amount of time you would save if you employ Flipboard, rather than collecting information and news from websites, newspapers or magazines! You would also notice a marked improvement in the productivity of your students after you add Flipboard to your classroom sessions.
Here is hoping every educator and student enjoy utilizing this cool app!
These are some of the ways in which Flipboard can be used in the classroom. Let us know what you think about these procedures of using the app. I am sure there must be many other processes as well to utilize Flipboard in education. Can you think of some of them? You can share it with us in the comments section below. We are eager to hear from you.
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