How classrooms are using Topico
Below are a few ways classrooms are utilizing Newsrooms to bring their students together around sharing news and information.
Classrooms
A single Newsroom, creating one newsfeed for every student to contribute articles for the entire class.
In this way a classroom can tackle an event, issue or topic of interest, with every student contributing varied sources and perspectives into one news feed for the entire class to collectively gather news and information.
Groups
Using permissions, students can form groups to have their own Newsrooms to curate perspectives.
A classroom can assign small groups of students to gather news and information from a single source, or a specific perspective into their group’s Newsroom, allowing students to work together in teams with unique goals.
Individuals
A class can also create a hub that connects every student’s personally curated Newsroom.
This option allows student’s to each have their own unique curation, and then connect them to a main hub that aggregates all the articles from each student into a central Newsroom for everyone to discover the news.
Know your sources
On Topico, we knew for our members to judge the validity of a posted article they would need to immediately evaluate the source (example: WaPo, Fox News, Gizmodo, E Online, etc…)
This meant a shift on what sources we allowed members to post.
These guidelines are based on ensuring that members can view the source, and that it has some minor form of editorial oversight, whereas sources that allowed instant-posting (YouTube, Reddit, and Medium, etc..) of user-generated content had to be restricted because of their lack of oversight, and inability to often display sourced urls that allow for accountability.
Hot button issues
On Topico, we also wanted to create an environment where we can share news and information on all the issues and events that are important to us.
While news can cover a great many topics; movies, sports, science etc.. there’s often those hot button issues that many of us will not post about due to their controversial nature, and while we may be passionate about a specific issue, or an event – we steer clear of posting articles because of the potential for anger, abuse, and friction.
We believe it’s essential for us to to feel comfortable sharing news on the divisive issues as much as the non-divisive ones.
Removing the friction
No comments. No opinions. No rants.
To feel comfortable sharing the news – we have to first create a civil environment in which to share it.
We want students to post articles without encountering the friction from personal attacks, opinions and rants.
While members can recommend a posted article, they are not able to engage with each other. Why? Because when it comes to sharing the news we want an environment where our members aren’t socially inhibited from posting articles members.
When anyone posts an article on Topico we don’t want them to hesitate, or be concerned of the backlash of abusive trolls, or divisive comments.
Sharing the news should be an enjoyable experience – no matter the topic.
We have always had a natural affinity towards sharing news and information.
At Topico, we simply love sharing the news, and we know that to repair our broken relationship with the news – we need to first enjoy the experience of sharing it again.
So we focused on being a community for sharing sourced information – not personal opinions.
Sharing news isn’t an individual experience. It’s about informing others on an event, issue, or topic that interests us.
It’s a collaboration.
Contributing to create historical timelines
Creating the arc of a story
Contributing to the future
A legacy of perspectives
It’s often times important to study the entire arc of a story so we can fully understand all perspectives on an issue, or event.
By contributing articles, students are creating a reference to capture a specific point in time around an issue, or event.
Classrooms can learn from the headlines, viewpoints and perspectives of previous students to create a legacy project.
Connecting everything
Encourage exploration
Connecting the dots
Discovering new paths
Topic tags can take students in directions they might otherwise have never explored, discovered, and gained a new perspective.
As students tag the articles they post, they’re creating connections to every relevant article to help connect the dots.
Easily surfing topics is essential to browsing and discovering new perspectives across the curations on Topico.
