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Sunday 5 February 2012

SideVibe - a website that helps you teach paperless



I learned about SideVibe website from my Twitter PLN (@lelapin). It attracted my attention immediately both by its appearance and fantastic usability. You have to download its toolbar and then you can start using it for practically every web page that you think can be applied in your classes.

SideVibe is a web based teaching tool which replaces the old-fashioned handouts by putting the worksheet on your screen. Neither you nor your students need to print anything because all the learning, testing and homeworking can be done online. The worksheets or task sheets are created by the teacher and they are attached to the web page you choose for your students to explore or read. The teacher can choose from the three types of activity vibes or a discussion vibe.
The students register with the teacher's code (provided by the site) and are automatically listed in the teacher's account. After the students do the task, you assess their work online and send them feedback - without printing a single strip of paper.

To test the website I chose my favourite site East of the Web / short stories section and prepared a simple assignment for my students about one of the short stories - Professor Panini, a witty story about dramatic mishaps taking place in 2023. The students were asked to do it as home reading task. I have not seen the results yet.





 The assignment is written by the teacher on the "vibe" which can be dragged around the page to any place which is convenient for viewing. Thus if the page is long and stretches far down the screen, the vibe is taken along and you don't have to scroll up and down to access it. Students write straight in the answer box without the need of opening a Word document or a notebook. After they submit it, the teacher can assess it and send feedback.


4 comments:

Tyson Seburn said...

I'm not a fan of requiring additional toolbars to clutter up my browsers (buttons are always preferable), but this looks kind of useful. Have you found it to make attractive 'handouts'? Have you consistently used it? What kinks have you found?

Baiba said...

I agree that one button instead of a toolbar would be more convenient but that's how it is if you want to use SideVibe.
I've used it several times w/ my students and though the task sheet is very plain, its main value is the ability to "float" on the webpage assigned for the task. I consider it really innovative and I have not seen any other tool which could do the same.
Students like it mostly because of the novelty of the method.

Tyson Seburn said...

Have you tried http://www.bounceapp.com/? It's a collaborative tool that allows anyone with the URL to leave notes on a webpage by dragging a box for any certain part.

Baiba said...

Bounce perhaps is draggable around but on SideVibe teachers can write their questions prior to students' reading the page.