I will be presenting a short session on LiveBinders at the fourth annual Brock University Education Technology Showcase. This PD event showcases innovative educational technologies, and more importantly, how such technologies can be integrated in the classroom.
LiveBinders is a Web 2.0 tool which can be used to organize websites, blogs, photos, videos, word documents, Google Docs, Voice threads, PDFs, and so on. Visualize it like a bookshelf in your room. On each shelf are binders containing information on various topics. Each binder is organized by an overall subject. Each subject is further divided into sections, and smaller subsections using tabs.
LiveBinders allows you to bundle online resources without printing hard copies of the information. But more importantly, links are automatically updated as they would appear on the web, and other mediums such as Livescribe Pen files, Google Docs and webpages can be added as well.
By making LiveBinders public, you can make your binders open for others to view. Or you can decide to just search other Livebinders while keeping yours private. It’s like borrowing someone’s book and making a copy for yourself. But no physical storage space is needed, it’s accessible from any device with an internet connection, and we’re reducing our eco footprint by not printing off a stack of papers.
The following is a video tutorial I have created for new users of LiveBinders:
For me it’s about the organization of information. With the limitless amount of information available at our finger tips, I needed to find a way to organize and compile data in a useful and meaningful way. Learning about these individual tech tools is great, but not if it’s information overload.
Through the use of LiveBinders, I can go into any classroom with an internet connection and have with me every teaching resource I’ve ever compiled, as well as other teachers’ unit plans I’ve found to be helpful.
I have learned that teaching is not about reinventing the wheel. It’s about taking snippets from multiple places and molding it into something that suits the needs, abilities and interests of the students. Almost every teacher I’ve worked with has had an intense physical filing system full of lesson ideas and plans, as well as multiple shelves of books. LiveBinders is a digital and collaborative version of such traditional filing systems. This is the filing system of the 21st century teacher.
