New Livebinders Feature

If you are looking to get your class involved with Livebinders, it's now easier than ever.
  
Livebinders recently announced a new feature that allows students under the age of 13 to now sign up for a Livebinders account with their teacher's email address.

This new feature now opens the door for all students, regardless of age, to have a Livebinders account.  Of course, please refer to the Livebinders "Privacy Policy" prior to walking your students through the registration process.

How to have students sign up for a Livebinders account:

Here's a quick rundown of how to direct students to sign up on Livebinders.com:

Have students go to www.livebinders.com.  Then have them click on "sign up":

Once they get to the sign up page, have them click on "yes" where it says "student signing up with teacher's email address":

Once they click on "yes", they will get two different boxes - "Teacher's Email Address" and "Please Retype Teacher's Email Address".  At this point, they can enter the teacher's email address instead of their own.  You'll want to do this if you have any students under the age of 13:

Conclusion

I can not speak the praises of Livebinders highly enough.  When I first started to become involved in Educational Technology, Livebinders is where I started.  The whole point of Educational Technology is to get students more engaged in the learning process...Livebinders is a perfect start to allow your students to build, grow and engage as they learn in your classroom.  

Learn more about Livebinders at www.livebinders.com or feel free to look through the multiple posts I have on this blog about Livebinders.

Children's Miracle Network - Extra Life 2013

The time has come once again for one of the coolest donation events for kids, the Children's Miracle Network Extra Life!

This year, my fellow co-workers and I mark the third year we have participated in this event.  In 2012, we set a goal of raising $800.00.  We ended up raising $1,300!  Every penny of the donations we receive go to the Children's Miracle Network, we do not gain financially.

What is Extra Life?

Here's a great info-graphic about this event:




My Team

My fellow co-workers and I are gathering our efforts once again this year to raise as much donations as possible for kids in need.  The actual gaming day this year will be November 2nd, 2013 - a day in which we will be playing video games up to 24 hours.  We can actually start prior to this date, as long as we have accumulated 24 hours worth of gaming by the end of November 2nd.  This year, we are setting our goal at $1000.  With your help, we can easily reach our goal and beyond.  At the very least, please consider making any kind of donation to our team.  Even a donation as little as $1 will make a difference in a child's life.

You can donate to our team by clicking on the Extra Life widget on the right side of this blog or you can donate by going to my donation page.    

Want to learn more about Extra Life?  Here are more resources:

Extra Life Website

Back to School Tech Part 2: Livebinders

If you are looking to get into Educational Technology this year, Livebinders is the best place to start.  From a personal standpoint, Livebinders is where I started my journal in professional development in education and Dducational Technology after I graduated college.  To say that Livebinders opened my world to all kinds of educators and new ways to learn would be a understatement.  Here's a brief look at this awesome tool:

Livebinders - collect and share resources

Livebinders can be your one central source to collect resources, share resources, and collaborate with other educators and technology enthusiasts.  You can collect web addresses, documents,  photos and many other things in your Livebinder.  You can create a specific Livebinder for any purpose that you have interest in and want to share with others or you can choose to create a private one and keep it personal.     

For example, I've been a member of Livebinders since 2011.  Since that time, I've collected and shared multiple resources like Evernote, Study Blue, Social Studies topics and many other categories.  Here's some of my Livebinders:

Livebinders - collaborate and reflect with other educators

As I previously stated, Livebinders is where I started getting involved in professional development with other educators in educational technology.  As I started watching how other people were using Livebinders and sharing them on Twitter, I became increasingly eager to become involved.  One of my very good Twitter friends, Jen Petras (@jenpetras), one day asked if I would collaborate with her on a Livebinder over Cyberbullying.  Over the course of a few weeks, we were able to gather and collect resources into one Livebinder.  Here's where it is today:

Cyber Bullying

What is great about this is that I live in Texas and she lives in Ohio - two people who live in different states collaborating with each other.  Just imagine if all educators and students took advantage of this opportunity!

Why Livebinders?

I can not speak of Livebinders highly enough.  There a ton of reasons to use Livebinders and incorporate it in your classroom or personal life.  It's free, it's extremely easy to use, you will meet some amazing people and the list goes on.  One thing, however, stands out for me and that's the creators.  Tina and Barbara (@livebinders) provide the best support I've ever experienced with anything related to technology.  They love to share other's Livebinders and love to hear how what they created is making a difference.  They also are happy to provide you tech support in case you need assistance.  I once needed to correct a error on my username on my account so I sent them a Twitter message and it had been completed within a couple of hours - proof that they care for their customers.

I've previously told Tina and Barbara that "Livebinders have changed the face of education"...I firmly believe this has rung true.

Want more Livebinders info?  Here are some more resources:

My other blog posts about Livebinders:  http://engagedwithtech.blogspot.com/search/label/livebinders#.Ujz6OYZwqSo

Livebinders website: www.livebinders.com

Back to School Tech Part 1: Classroom Architect

Believe it or not, the first day back to school is just around the corner!  To kick off another year of learning, here is the first post of many with educational technology resources for educators and students to use.  

Classroom Architect

Classroom Architect, an excellent tool from 4teachers.org, helps you to setup a floor plan for your classroom.

  

With Classroom Architect, you can create a visual of how you want your classroom setup and then print or save your floor plan for future use.  Here's an example of how you can use Classroom Architech:

You can set the dimensions of your classroom, use objects such as: rugs, desks, tables, shelves, TV stands, and computer desks, and use the drawing tool to draw anything else you may need.  

This will come in handy when you first get into the classroom and start deciding how you will best setup your classroom to optimize your learning goals - which is something the website address as well.  The article, Environments that Promote Learning, talks about best practices to use when setting up your classroom and also provides helpful tips.

As we start the school year, I would like to wish all of the educators out there the best of luck!  You are the toughest and most dedicated professionals in this country today.  Thanks to you, the lives of many students will be changed for the better this year!  

Need more resources?  Feel free to visit my Livebinder page for many other useful tools by going to the "My Livebinders" tab on this blog.    

Evernote for Educators wins Top 10 Livebinders!

During this year's Livebinders Top 10 contest, Evernote for Educators was voted as one of the Top 10 winners!

Evernote for Educators

I wanted to thank everyone so much for voting for this Livebinder.  I truly hope you have been able to use this Livebinder for any resource you might need for Evernote.  Rest assured, I will continue to update this Livebinder as much as possible.

Also, congrats to all the other winners and nominees for this year's contest!  Here's the Livebinder of all the Livebinders that won and were nominated this year:

LiveBinder Top 10 2013 Nominees and Winners!

Evernote for the Social Studies: Part 7 - Evernote Food

In this seventh installment of my Evernote for the Social Studies blog posts, we will take a look at Evernote Food - a fun and interesting app to capture, cataloged, and learn about recipes and all types of food.

What is Evernote Food?

Evernote Food (available for IOS and Android) allows you to build your own collection of recipes, take snap-shots and notes of meals, and search for restaurants in your area.  While some schools have restrictions on bringing food into the classroom, it may not be possible to have a "food day" to learn about what foods come from different continents and cultures.  From the teacher's perspective, it would be just as simple to get some pictures of different meals that are enjoyed across the globe and present a Powerpoint presentation over it.  This, however, leads to little or no engagement.

Learning and Engaging with Evernote Food

When I was student teaching, I had a wide variety of students from different cultures and ethnic backgrounds.  Some came dressed every day to class with traditional clothing and was pleased to share some activities they do in their culture.  Even though we may not realize it sometimes, the best source of information is not always the internet - it is our own students in our classrooms!  With Evernote Food, students can now share what meals they have that are specific with their culture.

Evernote Food Home Page

Accessing the Evernote Food app from their IOS or Android device, students can explore recipes, create their own cookbook of their own recipes or recipes that they have clipped, explore restaurants, and access their "my meals" section where they have saved images and information on meals they have previously eaten.

With Evernote Food, students engage in the learning process by doing their own research and sharing what they have found.  Going back to the idea of having students capture their own meals that may offer a look into different cultures, Evernote Food makes that process quick and simple.

When you create a "new meal" in Evernote Food, it provides this easy to use template.  You can choose to create a meal title, select the place which it was taken, type of cuisine, and create a tag for better organization in your Evernote account.  You can also input notes and snap shots regarding the meal into the same template.  This would work extremely well if it is shared in class or if the student shares it on the class website or blog - the explanation is already done in the template itself so students can begin reading about it as soon as they see it.

The great part about this is that you can also choose to share this meal information by coping the URL to it and sharing it that way, or you can share by posting to Facebook, Twitter, or Google +.  The unique URL would work especially nice because you could have your students copy the URL to their meal and submitting it to a designed Google Form or blog post.  And of course, once the student shares the meal either on a social media network or by simple URL, other students and teachers can save that information into their own Evernote account.

As a side note, once you have created the new meal, it automatically saves it into your default folder in your Evernote account.

Here's an example of what a finished meal template looks like:

Conclusion

Evernote Food provides many ways students can interact and engage in learning that they may not have given much thought to before.  The main reason to use any technology like this is for the students to engage with what they are learning and with each other.  Students must be able to share what they have learned with their fellow classmates and teachers.  With Evernote Food, if you ever decide to have your students do projects over certain cultures or countries, let them go out and experience it and capture whatever it is that they are doing.  Whether it be traditional meals, dances or songs, students need to capture that moment and share among their peers.

If you would like more information about Evernote or Skitch, please visit my Livebinder, Evernote for Educators:

 

Evernote for Educators

5 Excellent Note Taking Apps

Thanks to technology, notes that are taken during class, on field trips, and during experiments are more interactive and engaging.  No longer do notes contain paragraph after paragraph after paragraph of text that mean only something when it comes time to study for tests.  Notes are now much more interactive and have much more meaning.   Notes contain pictures, video, sound clips and website links - all of which can enhance the learning.  If you are looking to get your students, or yourself, started with taking digital notes, here are 5 excellent note taking apps that are worth a try:

Google Keep (Android, Chrome Web App) 

Google Keep - a note taking app released by Google earlier this year - is a simple and easy to access note taking app.  Students can quickly launch this app from their Android device and begin taking notes on the fly.  They can also attach pictures and audio or insert text or check-lists. From their mobile device, students can also share their notes via email, Facebook, Twitter or on Google +.  One of the features that makes Google Keep unique is the ability to change the color of the note itself.  Students could utilize this feature to organize their notes - i.e. blue notes are history, yellow notes are math, etc.    

Catch Notes (IOS, Android)

Catch Notes - a note taking app with many features - is also a tool that students can use in the classroom.  Catch allows students to take notes on their IOS and Android devices - while being able to attach pictures, video recordings and even set reminders.  The ability to set reminders on notes is a awesome part of Catch - no more forgetting homework prior to running out the door before heading to school or forgetting certain project deadlines.  Whenever you set a reminder on a note, you will get a alert on your mobile device (I tested this by creating a note on my Nook HD + and my standard alert tone came on letting me know of the reminder from the note).  With Catch, you can also create "spaces" (also referred to as "streams") which you can organize your notes into.  With each space you can invite collaborators to comment on notes, update checklists, and create new notes within the "space".  Free accounts are limited to 5 spaces and 250 MB of storage.  

Evernote (IOS, Android, Blackberry, Windows)

Evernote - a note taking app that showcases some of the best features out in the field today - is certainly something worth trying.  One of the aspects that makes Evernote great is the multiple platform that is supported on it.  Whether it be on IOS, Android, Blackberry or Windows, Evernote has you covered.  Students can easily create notes and organize them into different notebooks - i.e. history, economics, science, math, etc. - and have access to them whenever they need.  Students can attach pictures, files, videos and audio files - all from their smartphone, computer, or tablet.  Evernote also allows you to share notes and notebooks with classmates and colleagues via email, Facebook, Twitter and multiple other ways.  

Springpad (IOS, Android, Chrome) 

***Springpad shutdown in June 2014***

Springpad - yet another useful tool for the classroom - allows students to create notes and organize them in notebooks.  Unlike some other utilities, as of the writing of this blog post, there are no limits to notebooks or storage space you need.  What is unique about Springpad is that in each note you can "spring" different information.  You can simply type a quick note, attach photos, include a website link and several other items that Springpad has included as built-in categories such as: movies, tv shows, music, books, products, wine, recipe, scans (barcodes), tasks, checklists, events.  With this, you can easily create reading lists, movie and tv show lists appropriate for the classroom, checklists, etc and share with your students.  When you choose to share a note, it will generate a unique URL so you can post it anywhere you like.  

Fetchnotes (IOS, Android)

Fetchnotes - a quick and simple note taking app - allows you to organize your notes by using hastags.  There's not too many features other than this at this time.  However, if your students are needing something to quickly launch and type a note, they can do so with Fetchnotes and still access their notes via the fetchnotes website. With the ease of organization with the hashtags, students can quickly search through notes they've tagged.  This is a excellent app if you need jot things down really quick or even take notes while on the go.


All of these apps are well worth the time to look into.  Depending on what level of complexity you need the app to be will depend on which one will work best for you.  By the way, the best part of all these apps - they are free!

5 Free Nook Apps for Kids

The way teachers teach and the way students learn has changed over the last several years due to technology.  Instead of students seeing pictures of different landscapes across the world in a textbook, they are now touring those landscapes online with Google Earth.  Instead of teachers having their students put all their work into a folder or binder, they are now having their students create online portfolios to share with their fellow classmates, family and across the world.  

All of this comes with using technology in the classroom.  Whether it be with computers, smartphones or tablets, technology has changed how we teach and learn.  Recently, I picked up the Barnes and Noble Nook HD +.  Over the next few weeks, I'll be reviewing this device and providing more resources on how this device can engage our students and fellow teachers.  To begin, here is 5 free Nook (compatible with the Nook HD/HD+, Nook Color, Nook tablet) apps for kids:

Letter Paper

Letter Paper is a free app that allows kids, or even those learning to write for the first time, the opportunity to practice writing on their Nook.
The app provides the traditional practice writing lines for when kids are learning the basics of writing and differences between capitalized and non-capitalized letters.  With this app, students can practice their writing skills even when a pencil and paper is unavailable.





Learning Gems - Colors N Shapes

Learning Gems - Colors N Shapes is a free app available in the Nook store that lets kids learn shapes and colors in the form of a game.  The game has levels of difficulty, each getting gradually harder the further you get into the game.  Each level asks the player to click on the matching color or shape from the given color or shape displayed.  For example, the game will provide a picture of a triangle and the player must select a triangle from a selection of different shapes.  The game continues on in that fashion while adding in different shapes and colors.  

Math Racer  

Math Racer Addition is a fun math game for kids that requires the player to add different numbers.  At the beginning, the player gets to choose the color race car they want and choose the numbers that want to play with (1's, 2's, 3's, 4's, etc).  If the player chooses to play with 1's, the game will ask the player to do addition with 1's - i.e. 1+2, 1+3, 1+10, etc.  Each time the player gets the answer right, their race car advances to the "finish line".  It will track their score and time so that the player can keep track and try to beat their record.  

Memory Master Lite

Memory Master Lite is a free Nook app that helps kids with their memory skills using a simple card matching game.  The player can choose from 4 cards to start out with and go up 16 cards.

Alphabet Robots HD

Alphabet Robots HD is a another card matching game that helps kids recognize letters by sight and pronunciation.  This can be either a one player or two player game and has different levels of difficulty.  At the first level, it is a simple card matching game.  At the second level, the player matches the pronunciation of the letter (an audio file is one of the cards) to another card that is the letter of that pronounced letter.  With the addition of the audio pronunciation, the player learns how the letter is pronounced and what the letter looks like.



If you would like more resources over the Barnes & Noble Nook devices, please feel free to look at my new Livebinder, Nook for Educators:

Nook for Educators

Special Guest Post - A Teacher reflects upon 28 years in education

It is my absolute honor to have one of my former teachers, Susan McIntyre, submit a special guest post on this blog.  As of this coming May, she will have completed 28 years in the teaching profession and will be retiring.  I can honestly say that Mrs. McIntyre is one of my teachers who influenced me to be a teacher.  Here is her reflection upon her days as a teacher as she approaches retirement: 

Susan McIntyre - A reflection of 28 years in the teaching profession

Thousands of students, 28 years in the profession, 25 years as a group sponsor/coach, 15 different classrooms, 11 different courses, 3 different schools, 2 school districts, and one outstanding career. How does a teacher look back over the years and evaluate his or her success?

As I approach the end of this school year and the beginning of my retirement, I find myself trying to answer this question. I think about that first year in the classroom. The students I had. The teachers I worked with. I had a two-year-old child and a four-month-old child. My husband had the job of taking the kids to daycare on his way to work. As I think back now, I wonder how either of us ever made it. I know it was only by the grace of God.

I learned that God had a sense of humor in 1985. I had been praying for a teaching job for over a year when He answered that prayer. I forgot to ask to have my teaching position in Amarillo, so I spent my first five years as a teacher commuting from Amarillo to Hereford. I enjoyed my years at Hereford. Both my students and my co-workers left me with many good memories of those early years.

Unexpectedly, in 1990, I heard about an opening at Palo Duro High School. For the next 23 years, I spent many hours working with great students and teachers. I taught 16 years in the math department at Palo Duro, followed by seven years teaching Health. I sponsored the Class of 1997 and had a group of students who worked hard to achieve their goals every year. I then took on co-coaching cheerleaders to go along with co-coaching Academic Decathlon.

I had three special years with the cheerleaders and 14 years with the Academic Decathlon program. I expended many hours on the road in buses and 15-passenger vans with both of these groups. I have many special memories about both organizations. While working with the cheerleaders, I had the privilege of visiting a hospital in Lubbock after a cheerleader fell from an extended lift and received a concussion. I also attended the girls state basketball tournament when the Lady Dons earned the opportunity to play for a state championship. While working with Academic Decathlon, I visited several schools as we competed from one year to the next. I even mastered the skill of making cotton candy as we worked to raise money for the team. I also had the privilege of cooking for the Academic Decathlon students that went to Santa Fe on a study tour. So many memories shared with students I loved as if they were my own kids.

With the ending of the Academic Decathlon era at Palo Duro, I took on my next coaching challenge, the UIL Math team. Although I spent a few years frustrated because the UIL process was so different from the Academic Decathlon process, I enjoyed the students in UIL just as much as the students I had worked with in all my other coaching endeavors. For a few years my Academic Decathlon kids would become my UIL kids after the AD contest. To this day, I still enjoy working with the UIL Math team.

Memories continue to fill my mind as I write this article. They are the memories of a 6 and a half foot, 450 pound young man hugging me while he stands in line waiting to graduate, tears rolling down his cheeks; of a young man coming up to me at the prom and telling me thank you for holding him accountable; and of a young lady, whose mother quit her job to attend school with her daughter to keep the girl from skipping class, hugging me after her graduation while her mother stands there with tears of joy flowing. A memory of running down the hallway after one student decides to shoot another student with others being injured as well. No one said all memories would be happy ones.

So to go back to the initial question, how does a teacher look back over the years and evaluate his or her success? Well, I believe that my success is scattered across this country and even into a few other countries. My success stories, as a teacher, are the lives of those students who sat in a classroom, in a bus, in a van, and even in a plane with me. I have previous students who are serving in the military and previous students who are serving as parents. I have previous students scattered in various fields of work and in various fields of study as they are completing their college years. As a retiring teacher, I am excited about my future as I leave my profession in the hands of some of my success stories.

Written with love and gratitude for my God, my family, as well as, all students, colleagues, and administrators who have touched my life, thank you!

Susan McIntyre

  

Explaining with Skitch

 As some of you may be aware, the Texas Panhandle is covered in snow today!  I've decided to take this opportunity to talk a little bit about Skitch, a awesome tool from Evernote.

What is Skitch?

Skitch, initially a web tool on it's own but later bought by Evernote, is a image markup tool that makes explaining images much easier.  It is available on Mac, PC, Android, and IOS.  You can markup images with text, arrows, highlights, and different shapes.

Here's a snap shot of what tools are available from Skitch:

Explaining simplified

As I mentioned previously, the Texas Panhandle has been hit with a huge snow storm today.  With Skitch, instead of just saying what the snow is like, I can show you!  

By simply adding the overlay of text and arrows, the image is already explained.  This also to engages students more than just listening to you explain it.  When the student sees the image and notice the text and arrows, they are already processing what they are looking at and what "snow drifts" are.

Skitch mobile

If you have a mind of a teacher, you'll get a lot of ideas while you are out and about and want get a snapshot of whatever you find.  Skitch, available on Android and IOS, allows you to capture pictures via your smartphone and markup the image right there.  Plus, once you are done with the markup, you can share right from your smartphone to Twitter, Google +, email or several different other options.  Here's a good video from Evernote.com about the Skitch app for Android (there are several other Youtube videos over Evernote and Skitch available at Youtube.com):

     

Evernote and Skitch

Best of all, any image that you markup or capture will automatically be saved into your Evernote account.  Once you have saved the image, your image will be uploaded to your Evernote account where you can do editing with Skitch on your PC or Mac and share when you are ready.  Once it's in your Evernote account, you'll have it until you delete it.  

Want more info on Skitch?  Here's some more resources from myself and Evernote:

Evernote for the Social Studies: Evernote and Skitch

Evernote.com/skitch

Evernote for Educators Livebinder

P.S.

If you are curious, here's a another photo I took of the snow at my place.  I stand 6'6 and the snow drift was up to my knees:

10 free Social Studies Android Apps

Android devices can be extremely useful in the classroom.  Just as IOS devices, student can connect and engage with content with apps on their smartphones or tablets.  Here's a list of 10 free Android apps for Social Studies:

1.  United States Constitution - This app allows students to explore the United States Constitution along with other historical documents.  Here's a list of the listed features via Google Play description:

Features:

- Searchable US Constitution and Articles of Confederation

- Resizable text

- Ratification Dates of Amendments

- Bios of the signers

- Constitution timeline

- Declaration of Independence

- Articles of Confederation

- Gettysburg address

- Mayflower Compact

- Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen

- Star-Spangled Banner

- Emancipation Proclamation

- I Have a Dream

2.  Smithsonian Channel - The Smithsonian Channel app provides full videos from an assortment of topics like Science, Nature, History and Culture.  Some videos can be over a hour long in length.  History videos range from documentaries about Abraham Lincoln to documentaries about the Great Depression.

3.  Google Earth - An excellent tool released from Google.  Google Earth allows you to explore the globe and even points out points of interest from the area that you are looking at.  Bring a breath of fresh air into your Geography class with Google Earth!



4.  History Pin - History Pin is a great way for students to explore areas beyond geography and demographics.  With History Pin, students can explore areas through photos that other people have "pinned" or even capture a photo from a event that is happening at the time they take the photo.

5.  White House - The official White House app provides everything from videos, photos, and articles from the goings on around the White House.  This would be pretty useful in Government class.




6.  America's Economy - This app from the US Census Bureau provides information based on 16 key economic factors about the current status of the US economy.  This is really good if you are teaching Economics and about how the strength of the economy is determined.  Here's a list of some of the features of the app from Google Play:

Key Features

• Quick overview of indicators measuring the U.S. economy

• Detailed page for each indicator with trend data

• Share indicators on Facebook, Twitter and via email

• View release schedules for indicators

• Set up notifications and custom views  

7.  US Presidents - A great app to learn about the president of the United States.  The app includes facts about the presidents, vice presidents, and their years in office.






8.  50 States - Need to brush up or learn the 50 states of the United States of America?  This app provides information for all 50 states including: population, state flag, state bird, geography, etc.  Another great app for your Geography students.




9.  Countries of the World - If you are studying in World Geography, this app will help you study different countries across the globe.  Information includes: capitals, populations, languages, GDPs, religion, and other useful info.  Certainly more engaging that reading all that info from a text book!




10.  Congress - If you want to engage your students in happenings of legislation, this app is great.  Here's a list of features from Google Play:

Keep on top of Congress.

* Find your representatives, see how they vote
* See what bills are coming up for a vote next
* Search for bills and votes you should know about
* Stay on top of floor activity, committee hearings
* Be notified of just about everything

Building a digital portfolio with Livebinders

With today's classrooms starting to use more online resources to enhance the learning experience, the question could be raised on how we showcase and catalog what teachers and students are doing in the classroom.  If students create an online project or online document, how can they share that with their fellow classmates and others around the world?  Thanks to Livebinders, this question has been answered - all while being free and extremely easy to use.  

Livebinders is a free online service that allows you to collect resources and create online binders to share via social media and embed on your blog or website.  Here's a great post from the Livebinders blog about how educators are using Livebinders: 10 Great Ways that Educators are Using LiveBinders.  

Digital portfolios is a excellent way to showcase what students are doing in the classroom.  Remember when you were in elementary school and you drew a picture or got a good grade on a paper - where did it usually end up?  Mine typically was pinned on the refrigerator by my parents or got placed in a folder - which I only looked at it every so often.  Thus, this raises a question, "What is the point of doing a project or any other activity that will just end up getting thrown away or put aside for only one or two people to see?"  

That is what I love about the idea of having students create digital portfolios - they can go back at any time and reflect upon their learning and they can share what they did with everyone they want.  Part of the learning process, I believe, is to discover, create, and share.

For example, here's my Educational Technology Livebinder shelf:


As teachers, we should focus on learning ourselves.  Thanks to Livebinders, I am able to discover, create and share resources on things live educational technology, social studies, pedagogy, etc.  Now, put this tool in the hands of students - do you think this would engage students more if they were to create their very own "digital portfolio" for what they were doing in class?

Students can make their Livebinder their own - adding photos, website links, Youtube videos and upload documents.

Once the student has added content to their binder, they can share via social media, email, or simply grab the link or embed code for the binder:

Here are some of my favorite ideas that students can use Livebinders for:

1. Collect/organize blog posts - their own or fellow classmates
2. Create a "My Evernote" tab - students can insert links to certain Evernote notes
3. Research - students can use the "Livebinder It" browser extension to add a website link to their binder
4. Comment on fellow classmate's binders - Livebinders allow you to add comments to a binder, which is great for peer review. 
5. Upload lecture notes - whether it be a Evernote note link or a MS Word doc, students can upload/insert their class lecture notes.

There a ton of ways teachers and students can use Livebinders.  If you are also concerned with customer service, from a teacher standpoint, to help you with the website, Tina and Barbara (makers of the website) are my favorite by far.  A few months ago I need to make a correction to my user ID - I simply contacted them via Twitter (@livebinders) and within a hour or so it was done.  I've contacted other websites that I use at least twice about technical issues I've experienced and never heard back.  Tina and Barbara actually do care about you and your students and the experience you have on the website.  I've been a member of the website going on two years now and I've been blown away by the service and experience I've had.  

If you do plan to use technology in your classroom, Livebinders would be one of my top picks to use. 

Here are some other blog posts I've done over Livebinders in the past:

5 reasons why you should be using Livebinders

Don't grade students binders, grade their Livebinders

Livebinder It Tool