Title: Padlet
Platform: iOS (Android coming soon)
Cost: Free with paid versions with extra features for schools, businesses, and personal use
Padlet is a web-based tool that's been available for a few years. Recently an iPad app launched which makes it easy for libraries working with and for teens to use the tool in a variety of ways.
As with the web-based tool, the Padlet app is a good way to create walls of content. The content might be a curated list of resources - including audio, video, websites, Google Docs, images, and more - that a teen is going to use in a presentation. It, might be a wall where teens brainstorm together and collaborate on ideas for a new project. Or, it could be a place where library staff working with and for teens collect resources of interest to help them provide high-quality service to the age group.
The slideshow below takes you through the basics of using Padlet, adding content, applying settings, and inviting collaborators.
Padlet iPad App - Created with Haiku Deck, presentation software that inspires
New Padlets can be created in the app by selecting the "New Padlet" link. Then to add content all a user needs to do is to either double-tap on the screen or tap on the + at the bottom of the screen. When adding new content it's possible to add a title, a description, and then a link to the content (if web-based resources are being used.) I found that the touch-screen features were not as easy to use as I would have liked. Sometimes a double-tap didn't open up the content window and sometimes using my fingers to drag an item on the wall to a different location - as one is supposed to be able to do - didn't work as easily as it should.
All of the basic features of the web-based version of Padlet are available including changing the wall background and layout, adding notifications when someone adds to a wall (if collaborators are taking part in a Padlet project), adding collaborators, and sharing a Padlet for website or social media integration.
Using Padlet with teens who have access to tablets is a great way to give them opportunities to collaborate on content development and brainstorming. It's also a great way for teens to curate content for projects of academic or personal interest. The fact that it's now available as an app means that teens, who have access to tablets, will have more opportunities to use the tool.
If you or the teens you work for and with are already Padlet web users using the iPad app will be something that you can add to your arsenal of resources. If you haven't yet used Padlet for or with the teens you work with, give it a try.
I’ve written about content curation before, telling how useful a marketing tool it is.
Well, it still is.
Generating content on a regular basis is a must. In fact, in a study on blogging frequency, it noted that businesses that posted 16+ articles per month had 4 ½ times more leads than businesses that posted under 4 times per month.
For smaller companies with 1-10 workers, posting 11+ times
Content curation is the process of using the content of bloggers with authority on your own site. BUT, you don’t simply reprint it with their byline (which not all bloggers allow anyway), you write your own lead-in to the curated content and then link to the source.
The 10 step process is easy.
1. You read an interesting and/or helpful article on another blog (preferably a blog with authority
The internet is busting-at-the-seams with information, a lot of it free.
There are websites that offer unbelievable tools for you to learn just about anything: coding, tech stuff, playing a guitar, health strategies, content marketing . . . it goes on and on and on.
I found a great article at Lifehack.org that gives a list of 25 amazingly useful websites. I'm sure they'll be at least one that
In last week’s article, we went over blog post formats 1and two, the how-to post and the list based post.
Now, it’s on to formats 3, 4, and 5.
3. The Content Curation Blog Post
Before we get into the format, let’s go over what content curation is.
In simple terms, it’s using someone else’s content on your site by linking to it. You lead into the source content with your own perspective
A couple of weeks ago YALSABlog readers may have noticed that the weekly Tweets of the Week had a new format. A few days after that revision there was a Blog post that used Storify (The tool also used for the Tweets of the Week) to highlight findings in a new Pew Internet and American Life report on teens and social networking. Some may wonder, “what’s going on here?” Well, what’s going on is that curation has come to the YALSABlog and curation is probably something that you are or will be thinking about for the work you do with teens.
There has been a lot of buzz about curation over the past several months. What people are talking about when they buzz about content curation is the organization of information, usually using web-based tools, on a particular topic. For example, Storify enables users to search a variety of sources, including Twitter, YouTube, Google, and Facebook, to uncover and organize topic content. With Storify it’s possible to integrate text in-between curated resources to provide context and flow to the curated content. For example, the Storify below is all about the Austin Teen Book Festival.
View the story “Austin Teen Book Festival 2011″ on Storify]
Storify isn’t the only curation game in town. Scoop.it is another popular tool for organizing content on a particular topic. With Scoop.it the focus isn’t on telling a story but more on gathering resources on a topic in order to display them visually. When an item is added to a Scoop.it a portion of that content is displayed and Scoop.it curators can annotate items in order to focus on specific aspects of a resource. You can see an example of a Scoop.it I’ve started on resources that help teen librarians to be successful curators.
You can organize the resources on a Scoop.it page by moving content from place to place. For example, I’ve organized the curation and teen librarians Scoop.it with content related to curation tools on the top left and information about libraries and curation and about best practices in content curation in the bottom left and the right column.
Along with Storify and Scoop.it there are several other curation tools including Pearltrees (which was a YALSA app of the week a few weeks ago) LiveBinders, LibGuides, and BagTheWeb. As a librarian working with teens it’s possible that each of these tools will come in handy at different times in the work that you do. It all depends on the needs and interest of the teens and the community. For example, Storify is perfect for adding context to content as its curated. Scoop.it is perfect for gathering and annotating resources on a topic. Pearltrees is good for showing connections between content in the form of a mindmap.
As I’ve been thinking about content curation and teen library services it’s been clear that we’ve always curated content for those we serve. However, in the world of the web and social media curation takes on new and exciting forms. Current content curation tools make it possible to collaborate on curation. It’s alsop possible to inform teens about resources in ways that are interesting and appealing. Some curation tools make it possible to embed lists into blog posts, Facebook pages, and so on. That’s definitely better than the paper pathfinder that a teen in the past needed to pick up at the librar
