#FlipboardChat Summary: Curating Magazine Collections (Metazines)
Jenn de la Vega / October 7, 2015
Every Wednesday evening, members of the Flipboard Club—an unofficial group of passionate evangelists—hold a Twitter chat about a Flipboard-centric topic. We share the tips and ideas discussed there each week. Join in the chat at 7pm PT / 10pm ET via the #FlipboardChat hashtag on Twitter. If the time zone doesn’t work for you, join this Facebook group to stay in the loop.
Last week, participants chatted about “Curating Magazine Collections (Metazines).“ Here’s what they said:
What are some good ways to organize information for students?
- In the old days, teachers would make students put handouts in binders. Now students can use Flipboard Mags.
- Use a hashtag for your class so they can find the information you set out easily.
- You can also pull material into a blog.
- Have a roadmap. Be very clear on study focus.
- Send links to websites in Flipboard so students K-2 can access websites quickly and safely. They go right to the site you want them to see, not some random place.
- I use Google Classroom to share info with students.
- We have our son still using journals to take notes. Slowly working his way into Flipboard mags by subject.
Do you currently curate or co-curate a Flipboard metazine (magazine of magazines)? If so, what for?
- I have a private metazine of mags I intend to share with my students.
- I have one called “Black Flipboard” Magazines I found that are of interest to the black community.
- I’m into Nautical Photography and I have a Flipboard Mag called Seaside. It’s full of mine & other people’s great Nautical Mags.
- Made one for the #FlipEDU conference this weekend.
- Currently working on another meta-magazine called “Gamification in Education.”
- I’m working on a Geoscience mag. @TPorter2 and I also have an Oil Field History mag
When would you opt to flip an entire Flipboard magazine instead of curating individual articles?
- I sometimes flip a mag into one of my mags because it’s similar.
- When you find yourself flipping every article in a magazine, you might as well flip the entire magazine.
- I think it is most useful when you have a “BIG” topic. Like “World Cup Magazines.”
- When you need an umbrella. Think about other pertinent magazines you could add.
- When you want your readers to see other magazines on the same topic. Or when there are a lot of articles to include!
- Cross-promotion purposes: If you like this magazine, then you may also enjoy these other mags.
- Would flip a mag if I wanted to see “fresh” content that is coming from a reliable source.
How can educators use a collection of Flipboard magazines to plan their school year?
- Collection mags are perfect for planning curriculum. You can have 1 for each class in a meta mag, or one for each subject.
- You can put each chapter into a new magazine and flip them into one for the course, along with the syllabus.
- You could have a mag for each grading period. Collect them all together in a metazine for the year.
- One idea that comes to mind is to have a metazine per grade or for the “sports teams” or the “school clubs.”
- This option gives clear visuals/road map to the students on what is upcoming during the school year.
- Could organize unit resources into different magazines and then combine them together into a metazine.
- College admissions and career specific guides.
What is a good criteria to use when selecting Flipboard Magazines to share in a metazine?
- I would use the same criteria as flipping content into my own mag. Has to come from a good source and look good.
- Magazines with fresh content.
- Do they fit in the scope of the metazine? Do they portray content in a cohesive way?
- Relevancy perhaps. Although the curator may have other interesting magazines, offtopic.
In what ways can teachers and students collaborate to create Flipboard magazine collections?
- Group magazines! Do a deep dive into a subject together.
- Build student portfolios complete with GIFs and SoundCloud recordings of topics mastered.
- A class assignment for the students to create a Flipboard mag; teacher collects them all in a collection mag (metazine).
- A metamag can be a group mag. Students can flip their own mags.
- Teachers can get the mag started and let the students creativity take over the rest!
What are the benefits of using Flipboard magazine collections (metazines) in any industry?
- Provides depth. If a certain topic or story needs attention, a metazine is perfect for the task
- They look cool.
- You can show breadth and depth into an industry with metazines.
- Sometimes you just have a “these magazines belong together” curating idea, like my metazine of mags about chocolate.
How often should you update a Flipboard metazine and how do you ensure it stays relevant and timely?
- You have to be on top of a metazine as with any mag. Mags lose covers, etc. Also check for more relevant ones.
- I think at least part of it needs to be updated every day or 2. Probably depends on the content located inside.
- Update your metazine’s individual magazines and add new ones as often as necessary. It keeps people interested.
- Depends on subject, but as often as possible. Nothing worse than stories last updated in 2012.
- It’s harder to monitor a metazine, because you need to click through the individual mags. Mags do change scope!
Don’t forget to join the #FlipboardChat this week. Start chatting on Twitter on at 7pm PT / 10pm ET, or come back to this blog for an update.
~jdlv on behalf of the Flipboard Club
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