Content curation is something I have been doing for five years now and all along the way I developed an arsenal of useful strategies that enable me to better search, access, evaluate and share content that you read in this blog. Curating educational content is a time-consuming task because it entails a lot of searching and reading but it does not have to be a strenuous task if you are doing it only for professional development purposes or for seeking out educational tools to use in your instruction. Here are some time-tested tips and tools to help you better search for and access educational web tools and apps.
1- Twitter hashtags
These are my favourite tools to look for trending educational content. There are several hashtags that you can use as a teacher to search for web tools and apps to use in your class. The top ones I would suggest here are: #edtech and #edchat. You can also use topic specific hashtags to look for content for instance: #arted for art education, #elt for English language teachers/teaching ...this list features all the hashtags you might need in your search for educational content.You can also check this guide to learn more about how to search Twitter for educational content.
2- Graphite
I first learned about graphite from Steve Anderson almost a year ago and have been using it since then. Graphite is a platform created by Common Sense Media to make easier for teachers and educators to find the best apps, tools, games and websites to use in classroom.
3- Google Plus
Google Plus is another powerful platform for searching for educational web tools and mobile apps. There are three ways you can search Google Plus: The first one is through the feeds of the people you follow. This entails that you follow people who curate and share Edtech content. The second way is through the use of communities. There are several Edtech communities on Google Plus that you can join examples include: Education Revolution and Technology in Education.
The power of Pinterest in content curation is uncontested. More and more teachers and educators are taking to Pinterest and there several Pinterest boards you can follow to stay updated about the recent Edtech releases . Check out this list for some examples of boards to follow.
5-Scoop.it
This is my favourite digital content curation tool. I have created a specific board on it for Educational Technology and I am also following several other interesting boards. Once you subscribe to the boards you like, you will start getting updates about anything added to them.
Other tools I use for content curation include: Feedly, Edshelf, Tweetdeck, Diigo and many more.
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