Making it live with Livebinder

One of the tools I am most excited to investigate during my Inquiry Project is Livebinder.  At this point, I have never utilized a tool like this before, and I have only heard people talk about the wonders of sites such as Diigo.  There was no scientific reason why I chose Livebinder over Diigo, but I have to make a decision so I decided to go with the tool I had never heard of before.  I am one of the Internet users who will spend a lot of time looking at a variety of websites, but I rarely take advantage of bookmarks.  When I do use bookmarks on my Internet browser, I have noticed that I will often have bookmarks on the different computers I use.  I have a laptop at school with a variety of marked educational sites, a laptop which is for personal use which also has a variety of marked site both educational and personal.  Then I also have some sites marked on my iPhone.  As a teacher, I am always searching for unique and useful sites to share with my students in class, or to provide for them to use at home when reviewing concepts.  I was drawn to Livebinder as a way to organize these resources in a simple format that I can share with my students, their parents, teachers at my school, as well as for myself regardless of where I am working.


An article which recently peeked my interest in Livebinder came from one of my frequent searches through #edchat on Twitter.  The binder by Joquetta Johnson at http://livebinders.com/play/play_or_edit/3803 demonstrates the ability for Livebinder to easily organize a large amount of information and websites about one topic.  This particular binder focuses on Google.  The capabilities of Google are massive, and Joquetta Johnson has managed to organize most of the educational uses of Google into an easy to follow site.  This is my goal for the classes I teach as a grade 5 teacher.  To create a toolbox of resources that can be accessed wherever I am working.


In the Livebinder tutorial, there is a tab labeled, "Why Livebinder," which gives the information below for why to use this tool.  The rational is straightforward and user-friendly, which is another reason I am so excited to utilize this tool in my professional and personal life.

Step one in this process of discovering Livebinder is to utilize the tutorial and learn the language used on the site such as "tabs," "shelf" and "livebinder it."  This week will focus on building the initial stages of this site to be used in my classroom.

Finally there is a simple way to organize and share web content.  Here are some reasons to use.

• Binders can be created easily while you browse
• Uploads and links can be combined into a single binder for uses like lesson plans.
• Binders are dynamic and can be added to at any point in time
• Binders can be shared through email, twitter, facebook and you can put them to your website or blog
• Binders can be presented by clicking on the icon at the bottom.