Ever have one of those nights when a friend sends you a “resource you might be interested in” and before you know it, an hour has passed and it’s after your bedtime? I did recently, courtesy of Dr. John White, fellow TICAL and ACSA compadre from Los Angeles USD. (Thanks, John!)
In all seriousness, John recommended I consider a site called “Live Binders” in my review of sites for an article on the “Top 12 Internet Resources for 2012.” My work as a coordinator in curriculum & instruction at the Santa Clara County Office of Education focuses on the visual and performing arts. I took a look at Live Binders from the arts perspective. Hundreds of educational searches are possible on this site where random individuals have created and share online resources organized in digital “binders.”
I started with art and couldn’t believe I hadn’t heard of this website! More than 7,000 people had viewed specific binders of interest to me. For example, in one called “Art: Paint/Draw/Create Online,” organized by a teacher from the Chicago Public Schools, I quickly found enough content for a daylong workshop I was preparing on “the arts and technology.”
For an arts person, the options are endless! Dozens and dozens of sites are shared where students, using only keyboard and mouse, can quickly get started in that kid-kind-of-way—without reading instructions. Crayola Digi-Color is a great starting place, and Crayola is known for its kid/family/educator/everyone friendly website and resources so even the youngest of young can get onto this site and start drawing. ScribbleTown and Magic Paint are easy to use sites that also let you print your creations.
The “More Ways to Create” section is fabulous and allows you to start into the realm of portraits, mosaics, tessellations, and more. PicassoHead provides great opportunities for using imagination and creativity, particularly for English learners. Looking at LiteBrite, I longed to return to my childhood! Matisse is another of my favorites, along with ThinkDraw, one that showcases recent student work and prompts thinking for those who need to see a concept before comfortably venturing out on their own.
What can I say? All this in just one binder. Not looking for art resources? Dozens of other binders exist. In fact my next task is to check out the Live Binders on “common core.” There are 74 of them! What topic will you explore?
Tags: arts, cool tool, creativity, resource collections, visualization
Lisa, thanks for the information. I will certainly take a look and see how this tool can be useful for aspiring administrators. I sounds like you had some fun researching it!