RIP.MIX.FEED – E-Text in the Classroom: A Flipboard Magazine
This was a joint project between Josh Campbell and Elizabeth Weber. We encourage you to join in the conversation and contribute this online magazine too! (See contributor’s link in Josh’s description below.)
Josh Says:
I love magazines. As someone who is drawn first to the visual, and then to the textual, magazines do well to satiate my desire to “see” content, and then “read” content. This is what makes the Flipboard platform such an effective social-bookmarking tool.
In Bolter’s Writing Space, he comments, “…in particular electronic writing today, we should always ask: How does this writing space refashion its predecessor? How does it claim to improve on print’s ability to make our thoughts visible and to constitute the lines of communication for our society?” In discovering Flipboard, and using it to both “Flip” articles (bookmark and comment), and then to read articles within its interface, I found it to be an effective refashioning of other social bookmarking sites that I have been using. Flipboard adds functionality in the realm of commenting and discussion for particular links and articles, while providing very attractive interface for both its mobile device app, and it’s web-based platform.
We chose E-Text in the Classroom (with a focus on remedial methodology) as a subject for this project as e-text plays a critical role in providing multiple access points to textual information in the modern classroom. From supports for the visually impaired to text-to-speech options, to augmenting text through hyperlinks, electronic text forms the cornerstone of Universal Design for Learning. E-text ultimately, provides “flexible approaches that can be customized and adjusted for individual needs.” (Meyer, Rose & Gordon, 2014)
I am pleased to see that our Flipboard is starting to get other contributors who are adding to our collection of resources. If you would like to contribute, please accept our invitation at http://flip.it/hH.is .
References:
Bolter, J. (2001). Writing space: Computers, hypertext, and the remediation of print. Mahway, New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
Meyer, A., Rose, D., and Gordon, D. (2014) Universal Design for Learning: Theory and Practice. Wakefield, Massachusetts: CAST Professional Publishing
Elizabeth Says:
Flipboard is an app that enables users to read, post, and share content based on themes or topics, resembling a magazine. Users experience “moving through a visual and conceptual space different from the space of the book” (Bolton, 2001, p. 45). The layout is visually appealing on a laptop, as photos are prominently displayed in various sizes within a main link called Cover Stories, which is also the homepage. The main cover story is featured as a large image across the top of the page. The title of the article is displayed in white font across the bottom left side of the image. Other images are displayed in smaller sizes below the main image, and include the first couple of sentences about each article. The images and text are hyperlinked, so that users can quickly access content such as news articles, videos, podcasts, blogs, etc. Readers can “pursue connections across multiple lines of thought” (Alexander, 2008, p 156). Users can select icons on each image so that the content is flipped, liked or shared. Users can also add comments to each post. Users can flip content that has been tagged by other users within Flipboard or they can easily tag web pages to Flipboard from their web browser. The user defines the location of the flipped content. The url can be pushed to a new magazine or an existing, shared magazine. I also explored Flipboard using my iPhone, and found it incredibly easy to navigate. I liked being able to quickly access each page by moving my thumb up or down the screen.
References:
Alexander, B. (2008). Web 2.0 and emergent multiliteracies. Theory into Practice, 47, 150-160. doi: 10.1080/00405840801992371
Bolton, J. (2001). Writing space: Computers, hypertext and the remediation of print. Mayway, New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
I love Flipboard and used to love making my own magazines, yet somewhere I lost the time to do so. I reckon the MET course is to blame!
Another way you I used to collate digital content similar to Flipboard fashion was by creating empty circles within Google +. Whenever I wanted to share something with someone, it was all in one place. Again, time and the Great Firewall has kept me from doing much of that, too. However, thought I’d share the idea along.