Every think about how great it would be to access and share all of those great resources you have bookmarked on your computer… from anywhere?
Symbaloo is an online website and app that allows users to view, share, and access organized links on one easily accessible page. What makes it different from similar sites is its visual nature that makes it simple to navigate.
Using Symbaloo, users can organize important links on a page or “webmix”, which can then be further organized into categories by using color “markers”. Each webmix has its own sharing link and embed code so it can be added to a website.
Here is an introduction to Symbaloo.
In addition to organizing your websites and links in one place, Symbaloo delivers benefits in the classroom.
1. Benefits to Students
Symbaloo is a great place to house links to class documents and it provides flexible viewing options (device, time, place). Furthermore, an entire project’s documents are easily included within a marker on a webmix.
For example, students in my health class created comics using ToonDoo to refuse peer pressure, and everything they needed to complete the project were under one Symbaloo marker. From the Symbaloo link they accessed:
- Project directions (a Google Doc)
- ToonDoo website
- Peer Pressure Resource (from thecoolspot.gov)
- Comic Peer Review
When completing projects using Symbaloo students are using 21st century skills of information, media, and technology literacy.
Symbaloo is a great place to place for students to compile important resources of their own. By creating their own Symbaloo webmixes students are saving important resources for later use and organizing them so that they are easily found, thus practicing executive function skills.
2. Benefits to Colleagues
A benefit of being part of a professional learning network is the ability to share your knowledge while learning from your peers. Often, a disadvantage is that shared notes and photocopies are easily misplaced and the group may not meet regularly. With Symbaloo teachers are easily able to access many resources from one place and at anytime. Additionally, as new links are added the webmix is automatically updated.
Final thoughts…
Symbaloo provides so many great options in education. One improvement that could be made is ability to add multiple administrators to edit a single webmix. This would allow professional learning communities or student groups to collaborate in adding to the same webmix.
Have you used Symbaloo in your classroom? What are some of the ways you have or see yourself using this website? We’d love to hear… share your comment!
Resources:
teaching meets technology 