Livebinders for the Social Studies - Part 4: Using Livebinders to build on collaborative skills
On the previous post on "Livebinders for the Social Studies" we looked at how you can use the "Livebinder it" tool and how to use Livebinders in general to organize and gather resources for lesson plans. On this post, we are going to look at how students can use Livebinders to build on their collaborative skills.
When it comes to the Social Studies classroom, students take part in research projects on historical events or historical figures throughout the year. Students research data in books, newspaper articles and, primarily, online content. When you determine that your students will complete the project in groups, something you must consider is the "nuts and bolts" of how it will be done. How are my students going to collaborate on the project? What is the best way to make the project effective that will build my students' skills?
With Livebinders, you can provide your students a central location where they can collaborate and combine their efforts to enhance their learning.
The benefits of using Livebinders
As a student teacher, I tried to engage my students as much as possible in collaborative activities. One of the ways I used was creating a webquest and assigning responsibilities to where each group member had a responsibility (jigsaw method). When I made the webquest, I hoped that my students would at least like the activity and have some fun while learning, When my students started getting hands-on with it I realized how much they loved doing something besides something on paper or listen to me lecture. What I also realized is how important it is to provide each student ownership of the project.
Livebinders gives you both the means of engaging your students and giving them ownership of what they contribute. Livebinders also provide a means of collaborating and contributing throughout the year. This is something they can constantly update and reflect upon.
Collaborating on a Livebinder
Livebinders provide a way to engage each one of your students and give ownership of the project to not one member, but to all. Each student will have the opportunity to contribute to the Livebinder when they are added as a collaborator. Whenever they find a resource, they can add it. Each member of the group can add a tab to their group's Livebinder and add content to that tab - which gives them part ownership of their group's Livebinder.
Having your students do a project on World War 1? One member can create a tab on the key historical figures, one can create a tab on battles and another member can create a tab on pictures/videos. All of this combined into one Livebinder where the students can reflect upon their learning.
When students are engaged, the learning experience is enhanced. This also has the potential of sparking interest in your students that may have not been discovered prior. As a educator, these interests are key to providing the most meaningful lessons possible.
How to add collaborators to your Livebinder
Please note that each student will have to have previously signed up for their own Livebinder account in order to collaborate on any Livebinder.
Click here to go to the blog post on www.livebinders.com about how to have your students sign-up for a Livebinders account.
There are two ways which you can add collaborators to your Livebinder.
The first, and quickest way, is to go to your "My Binders" tab. From there, place your cursor on the Livebinder you would like to add collaborators to - this will bring up three quick menu tabs (Options, Edit, Present).
You'll then want to click on the "options" tab which will give you several options to choose from, including: share this Livebinder, collaborate, show details, link or embed, add to shelf, make a copy, edit it, present and delete from your account.
The option you'll want to click on should be the second selection, "collaborate".
Once you click on "collaborate" you will notice that the "Add or Remove Collaborators" selection is now on the left side of the webpage.
The second way is to add collaborators is via the "edit this binder" link once you open your Livebinder. Simply open your binder, click on "edit this binder" link and then "binder settings".
Once you get into the binder settings of the Livebinder, you'll see the "add/delete" button where you can update your collaborators for that Livebinder.
The collaborators that you add to your Livebinder will receive a email asking to approve to collaborate on that Livebinder. Once they complete those steps, they will be added as a collaborator to that Livebinder.
Here's an example of a Livebinder that was collaborated by myself and Jen Petras (@jenpetras) on Cyberbullying:
Cyber Bullying
For more details on having your students collaborate on a Livebinder, please visit this Livebinder created by Tina & Barbara, the creators of Livebinders:
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Intellicast (IOS, Android) is a excellent resource to check out current weather radars and severe weather alerts. The app also offers push notifications for your phone/tablet whenever there are severe weather alerts for your area (Severe Thunderstorm Watches/Warnings, Tornado Watches/Warnings, etc.) With the push notifications enabled, you can be alerted of what is going on without even being in the app. You can also access Intellicast by going to their website at www.intellicast.com. 
Accuweather (IOS, Android, Windows) provides a excellent app severe weather and weather forecasting. Along with the other apps mentioned thus far, this app also provides push notifications in case of severe weather, weather forecasts and weather radars. The app also includes news and videos related to weather events. You also have the choice of sharing your current weather conditions on social media websites like Twitter and Facebook. 
The Weatherbug app (IOS, Android) is a great weather app to have in you need to look at the weather forecast, weather radars or receive alerts for severe weather. Weatherbug provides also a lightning detector called "Spark". This gives you a idea of how many lightning strikes are in a certain area. The app also provides live weather cams from different locations across the United States. 
The TVN Weather Live Storm Chasing app is one of my favorites. If you watched Storm Chasers when it was on the Discovery Channel (or caught it currently on Netflix), you'll be familiar with Reed Timmer. Dubbed as a "extreme Meteorologist", he, along with multiple other chasers for TVN (Tornado Videos.net) chase tornadoes. This app provides weather radars and live video feed from chasers who are online. So, if you are looking for live video of potential tornadoes in your area, this app has you covered. This can also be accessed from their website, www.tvnweather.com. 
As educators, we run across multiple resources while searching the web. Thanks to Livebinders, you can collect, save and share all of those resources. To get started collecting your digital resources, the first thing you'll want to do is install the "Livebinder It" bookmarklet tool, click here to go to that page at www.livebinders.com. 
Code Writer is a great coding app that lets you create documents for HTML, Javascript, CSS, etc. Once you create that new document, you can save it in SkyDrive. According to the Windows store, "Over 20 syntax-highlighted file types supported including HTML, CSS, JavaScript, XML, C#, VB, C++, ASP, PHP, Markdown, Perl, Python, Ruby, SQL, and many other common languages". (apps.microsoft.com) 
HTML Programs is a Windows app that gives you a visual of how certain things should look in HTML code. It starts by showing you some of the basics in HTML and then goes into more advanced coding such as lists, forms and tables. There is already sample code in the app so this would work great if you just need to quickly have a reference of certain areas in HTML. 
HTML Master is a well-done Windows coding app. This app provides literature over the basics of HTML, exercises to get hands-on with HTML and quizzes to test what you have learned. If you are just starting your coding journey, you should definitely download this app and give it a try. 
HTML and also a coding editor, it is a solid app that will guide you to learning code quickly and efficiently. 
HTML Playground is a app that lets you code with HTML, CSS and Javascript. If you basically need a "playground" where you can input code and immediately see how it looks all within the same app, this app has you covered. This app is great if you have some knowledge of HTML, CSS and Javascript and want to get your hands on doing the coding. 
