A-Z Tools & Technologies: LiveBinders

What are LiveBinders?

LiveBinders can be thought of as an online version of a ring-binder. It allows you to collate resources in a number of formats into one place. You can pull together websites (including social networking sites, blogs, YouTube etc.) along with PDF & Word files into one place, but rather than simply being a list of URLs for you to then click on, it actually embeds these pages into your binder. You can install a LiveBinder button into your web browser, allowing you to ‘send’ a website straight to your binder when you are viewing it.

How does it work?

Your ‘binder’ is able to be divided into tabs and sub-tabs – so to use an example related to my field of Careers, I could have a tab described as ‘Job Application Processes’, and then within that, have tabs on ‘CV Writing’, ’Completing Application Forms’, and ‘Interview Skills’ etc. Within each of these, I could embed word documents (e.g. CVs, job descriptions), a web page with video clips in (examples of good and bad interview responses), and a blog feed with a discussion on how to write a good application form.

What about Teaching & Learning?

Although it can be used as a personal resource (effectively an alternative version of social bookmarking or curation sites), it is perhaps most powerful as a sharing tool. So building on the above example, as a Careers Adviser, I could have further tabs related to careers in different areas – Marketing, Counselling, Teaching etc., and under each one a number of sub-tabs with websites, documents etc., that I can share with students who come to me asking for careers information.

How can I find out more?

Visit http://www.livebinders.com/, which includes example binders and a video clip showing how it can be used.

There are also a range of videos at http://www.youtube.com/user/livebinders.

How might you use LiveBinders in your own context?

Robin Woollam
Careers & Employability Advisor
http://www.yorksj.ac.uk/ysjconnect/ysj-connect.aspx