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"With the amount of content that is shared on the Internet every minute, it's no surprise that many people feel overwhelmed by the quantity of information out there. This is why content curation is becoming an essential digital literacy skill for teachers and students. The act of curation requires critical and creative thinking, as decisions are made around what to keep, what to discard and how to connect and present ideas. Social bookmarking tools allow collaboration across the world to share and build collections. Thankfully, there are plenty of tools available to help us. In this article, I'll explain firstly the different ways in which I curate, and then describe some of the different tools I use for curation."

"While content marketing strives to generate brand awareness through "clicks," it's dangerous to your business and brand if your content is misleading or misrepresentative. This type of content is most commonly described as "clickbait."   The New York Times defines clickbait as "headlines that leave readers feeling cheated when they've finished the article" in the post 'How We Define Clickbait (Which We Do Our Best to Avoid). "

"Content curation is nothing new and has always been a coveted skill. It has been this way for hundreds of years - think of art galleries, museums, or newspapers.  Educators, too, have always been curators- bringing together the most valuable materials to help their learners learn. However, in the past, this might have been limited to books, posters, concrete materials, guest speakers, etc. However, as of now, we are in a world of information overload. So, to help you hone your digital content curation skills, we decided to list some tips."

"Educreations is a recordable interactive whiteboard that captures your voice, handwriting, typed text, and images. The final product is a cool video lesson that teachers can share with students. This is both a web-based app and iPad app. The cost: Free! With Educreations, students can replay a teacher's lesson online on or their iPads as often as the need to master the content. It also takes the camera off the instructor and turns the focus toward the content, and the content is key, right? It's like a video of your chalkboard or smartboa"

"Our goal as iPad teachers is to rely less on content-specific apps and further our knowledge in using creation apps to make valuable lessons for our students."

"As avid lovers of literature, teachers often find themselves wanting to impart every bit of knowledge about a well-loved text to their students. And this is not just an ELA issue-other disciplines also often focus on the content of a text. However, teaching reading skills in English classes and across the disciplines is an almost guaranteed way to help students retain content. Unfortunately, the tendency to focus on the content is a real enemy to the ultimate goal of building reading skills. ADVERTISEMENT Without a repertoire of reading strategies that can be applied to any text, students are being shortchanged in their education. In order to teach students to read effectively, teachers must be sure that they are not simply suppliers of information on a particular text but also instructors of techniques to build reading skills. Here are some ideas on how to incorporate reading skills lessons into a curriculum."

In response to growing interest and inquiries regarding flipping the iPad equipped classroom, I have begun considering the many ways in which the popular tablet's unique capabilities and myriad applications can play a role in flipped teaching and learning. Last week, in Part 1 of this two part post, we considered the topics of Finding and Creating Digital Learning Content, Delivering & Consuming Learning Content, and Ensuring Content Consumption. This week we continue our exploration by delving into how to use class time, reinforcing learning, assessment, and lastly - tools for organization and productivity (an important consideration in all types of classrooms, not just the 'flipped' ones!).

"It's no longer just about creating content. We are living in an era of content abundance. It's now about finding and putting content into a context, in a meaningful and organised way, around specific topics. Using tools like Scoop.it, Pinterest, Diigo and Livebinders educators collect the best resources to put them into context with organisation, annotation and presentation."

"So this collection wasn't as easy to curate as it'd seem. It wasn't a matter of simply choosing the best apps across content areas-math, science, social studies, etc. The title says "every iPad," which seems to imply universal needs. Every. iPad. Same with age and grade level, reading level, and gender. So we took at look at apps that could be used in any content area, and at (almost) any grade level K-5. (Phonics Genius likely wouldn't be as necessary in later elementary grades as it might in K-3, for example.) The focus is on literacy, content, and play. An argument could be made that elementary school students may be better served with an Encyclopedia app rather than Google Search. You almost may want something with a subscription as Brainpop has, or a slightly more child-friendly word processor than Pages. Substitute away!"

"What we've tried to do in the following list is provide an evidentiary-based counterpoint to the lingering persistence of the textbook in education. We've collected ten apps from across the content areas, from Shakespeare to the Elements, that each serve as compelling argument against textbooks. Only one of these apps is a game; the rest are examples of how-when properly designed-content can be refracted digitally, with a user-centered touch interface, full multimedia capabilities, while still maintaining a focus on delivering content to students. Or rather, providing access in a way that's more compelling than any textbook could ever imagine."

"Recently I have been inspired by listening to some great speakers at some of the Apple events I have been privileged to attend.  Bill Rankin in particular spoke a lot of sense and it got me thinking about how education needs to adapt to the changing world. The traditional style of education is based around content, teachers deliver the content and students learn it.  This is changing, slowly, but it is getting there.  Schools are starting to focus on the context, what does the information mean in the world that they live in? The next stage for me has to be creation."

"Problem based learning ( PBL) is a teaching strategy that involves the minimum amount of direct and formal instruction characteristic of lecture based teaching.  In a PBL model, students are provided with complex problems to work on and during the process they get to learn the lesson content and theoretical knowledge underlying the problem. In other words, unlike traditional content-based teaching where the primacy is put on the delivery of content and the imparting of knowledge to students, PBL foregrounds problem-based activities as a way to stimulate students cognitive skills and engage them in hands-on learning."

"Disclaimer: Downloading content from YouTube can be interpreted as a violation of it's terms of service. Back in November 2009 I surveyed readers for their opinions as to whether or not teachers should download content from YouTube. The survey results indicate that most teachers would download YouTube content, but there were also some very passionate comments against that action. You can read the post and the subsequent comments here. "

I meet quite a few bloggers during conferences and events and one of the most commonly discussed issues among new bloggers is, "How can I create content on a continuous basis? Where do I get the ideas from?" This is one of the major reasons most bloggers start with lot of enthusiasm and quit in despair. It's simple math, content creation on regular basis adds value to a blog which brings more users. Now go in reverse, No content - No Value, No Value - No visitors.

"Program Overview Students interact with music, movies, software, and other digital content every day. Do they understand the rules that dictate the ethical use of these digital files, and do they understand why these issues are relevant? The Digital Citizenship and Creative Content program is a free, turnkey instructional program. The goal is to create an awareness of the rights connected with creative content. Because only through education can students gain an understanding of the relevance of and a personal respect for creative rights and grow to become good digital citizens."

"There has been a huge buzz recently on Twitter about the new YouTube Kids app. There are thousands of great videos to search for on this new platform. The app opens up in a very clean and inviting menu that breaks down content into four categories: Shows, Music, Learning, and Explore. Each of these sections has designated channels packed with amazing video content. The YouTube for Kids App is FREE and is certainly one that I will be recommending at future conferences I present at. Where we couldn't fit all of the great content into this post, we certainly welcome you to use the comments section below to share your favorite YouTube for Kids channels."

"There is a difference between personalized learning and differentiation. Differentiation is a kind of personalized instruction, where teachers adjust process, & product, according to a student's readiness, interest, & learning style. Planning of the learning starts with the content, and the content remains the same for all students. This is a school and curriculum-centered approach that attempts to amend the delivery of the content to match the student's needs, strengths, and general readiness. Personalized learning starts with the learner and asks the question, "What does this student need to understand, and how best can that happen?" This is a student-centered approach, and is built around the idea of recognizing the vast differences in students-not just in terms of literacy or schema, but an authentic need to know."