Content creation and curation

Content creation for educational purposes differs from our usual understanding of content creation for the web. We have to take into consideration that the audience is no longer a faceless public, but rather a classroom of learners and parents. So although we are creating shareable and editable videos, images, text, presentations and so forth, you might not want to use the same software used for a primarily web audience. The resources presented here have been selected for their educational value.

There has been an increasing shift over the past decade in the use of digital devices and media towards creation, storage and sharing and away from simple consumption. Given the many user-friendly digital tools now widely available, so-called amateurs are now in a position to unleash their creative genes and produce content like never before.We are “now able to create, capture and store an ever-increasing amount of digital information about or for themselves, including emails, documents, portfolios of work, digital images, and audio and video recordings, and can edit, share, and distribute them easily over the net via blogs, personal webpages, peer to peer networks, or shared services”.

As a result of this phenomenon, there are now a proliferation of on-line spaces where individuals and groups can create, co-create, save, store and share their work; a few of which I will share here today.

Of course, here at UBC, students and faculty have free access to UBC Blogs and UBC Wiki for content creation and storage but there are many more spaces ‘out there’. Take a moment to check these and others out out. Find a space that works for you or share your own favourite space by commenting! *while all of the applications listed below have some kind of free access, these are not all ‘open’ resources.

• Interested in digital storytelling? Find some cool tools and share your stories at 50Ways to tell a story.
• Self-publish your own digital children’s books for FREE ePubBud
• Store and share your own teaching resource ‘binders’ (basic membership free) at LiveBinders
  *Visit this pbworks wiki page for an introduction to livebinders.
• TeachAde is an online community for educators that allows lesson storage, sharing and discussion – a potential commmunity of practice
• Pinterest is a space where you can store and save images for inspiration or use.
• Teachertube allows users to upload educational video content – this site tends to be ‘free’ of the type of ads found on other popular ‘tube’ sites (IMHO, a ‘safer’ bet for housing and displaying content for students!)
• While Edutopia doesn’t afford the ability to archive your own material readily, you can access a variety of resources, blogposts, articles and even join the conversation in their blog space.
• TeachersNet allows you to share your own ideas, learn from others and participate in dialogue through chatboards.
• Participate in the co-creation of knowledge on Wikieducator which also allows you to save ‘books’ of content
• See this list of Top 10 Social Network sites for teachers… more on this later when we explore Personal Learning Networks!
• iTunes U houses free educational/academic content. You can even create and share your own course! See this tutorial.
• Feeling really brave? Try creating or co-creating your own course – MOOC – see this guide for a  how to on mobile moocs.

*Please note that most spaces (with the exception of UBC blogs/wikis) are housed on American servers and, in accordance with FIPPA, you may not upload and share student content or images without explicit permissions.

**Always check copyright and attribute where needed before sharing content you didn’t create yourself!