Friday, June 28, 2013

Symbaloo: More than a bookmarking tool



Symbaloo is another web tool that I think has a lot of possibilities for the classroom.  It is a bookmarking tool, but looks very different from many of the curation/bookmarking tools available on the web currently.  It is a visual representation of links arranged in a checkerboard fashion and just fits on your homepage. It can have several pages, called Webmixes, arranged as tabs at the top of the page.  Each tile is a clickable link, which is easy to create.  You just click on a blank space, fill in the URL, pick a color or design if desired and save.  The tile pops into the space that was blank.  You can select from several pre-made Webmixes or start fresh and create your own. 

Here is a screenshot of one of my personal webmixes.  I used it to organize links for a WebQuest and shared it with each student.  That was a bit time consuming, but if you used the same links regularly, it might be worth the time as you only need to set it up once and then share it.  If you make changes, you can push the updates to people you already shared it with.





I think this tool has good potential for use in the classroom. I picture this tool as an organizational tool for students, as a review tool, or a choice tool for websites you want your students to use.  The visual nature of the tool makes it ideal for visual learners. 

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