Symbaloo is an online tool that looks a lot like the aforementioned gadget. It's a user-friendly collection of tiles that allows you to organize bookmarked pages, important links, and essential resources. It's easy and free to use, making it a great tool to stay on top of links you find and want to easily access.
The collection of tiles, named a webmix, is extremely easy to create:
- Simply establish an account on Symbaloo's website and you're off!For our class in particular, we created an account with Symbaloo EDU, the educator's version of the tool. Although there isn't much of a difference in the two accounts, users who sign up on Symbaloo EDU enjoy increased share-ability and access to additional educational webmixes that contain content vetted by Symbaloo Certified educators.
- Begin by adding a new webmix.
In order to do this, click on the white plus sign at the top right of the page or the drop-down menu at the top left of the page. If you choose to use the drop-down menu option, click "Add a webmix." This will prompt you to either create a new webmix or search for one that has already been made. For our purposes, we'll create a new one! I named mine EDU 3110.
The standard size of the webmix is 52 tiles, but you can change that to suit your needs. To change the size, click on the drop-down menu on the to left of the page. Select the webmix you would like to edit, which will be in blue, and click on the pen and paper icon to the right. This gives you several options that allow you to customize the way your webmix looks. By clicking "Change webmix size" you can manually change the number of columns and rows your webmix has.
- Now that you have the size of you webmix to your liking, you can start adding tiles.
To add a tile, just hover over one of the blank tiles and click on it when it says "Add a new tile." This will prompt you to either create a tile, search a tile, or browse through previously created tiles. I used websites that fit my individual needs, so I wanted to create my own tiles. To do so, add the URL of the website the tile should link to, add a name for the tile, and customize its color or the image you'd like to see on it. Once you click save, the tile will appear on the webmix! - If you make a mistake, you can always edit your tiles.
When you right click your tiles, a menu will appear that allows you to edit, copy, move, delete, or share the tile. If you'd like your tiles in a certain order, you can also drag and drop them wherever you need them to be!
- Once you've finished, you can share your webmix to the Webmix Gallery or embed it in a website.
To do this, click on the button between "Remove" and the refresh symbol. This is the "Share" button. Clicking it automatically publishes your webmix so that other Symbaloo users can see and use it.
An interesting part of this sharing feature is that even after you embed the webmix, it stays updated any time you change it. If after you make any changes to your webmix you press the refresh button, your changes will appear on your webmix embedded in your website or blog as well.
For my Symbaloo, I chose to include educational resources for students in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics) programs along with a few teacher resources that I find helpful when writing and creating lesson plans. Click here to visit my symbaloo!
Since I am planning on teaching third grade, most of these are geared towards lower to middle elementary grades. They are divided into sections by color, each representative of a different topic in STEM. Green represents science, red represents technology, orange represents engineering, and teal represents mathematics. There are additional white tiles which represent the teacher's resources. The websites associated with each topic are extremely varied, ranging from games, to homework help, to suggested apps. My intention was to focus all of the teacher's resources into the white tiles so that the STEM tiles were jam-packed with games and activities for students to use and explore.
- Science: In this block, I tried to find a variety of websites that would be relevant throughout the year. They cover a broad range of topics from educational support to exciting games. There are a few apps that I found that I believe would be helpful when broaching the subject of human biology and life cycles. Every site is interactive and encourages a deep curiosity about science.
- Technology: Most of the resources I've selected are ways that students can use mild forms of social media in the classrooms. Blogging and Fakebook are just a few. I also chose to focus on cyber safety in order to teach students how to take the proper precautions when online.
- Engineering: These resources are interactive and hands-on, just as engineering should be. There are several games and apps that challenge students to think out of the box and problem-solve. There are also engineering project ideas to inspire students to think about engineering beyond the classroom.
- Mathematics: Mathematical resources proved easy to find because there are so many ways to make math fun and relatable. Most of the resources provided in the Symbaloo are game or activity based, but some teach content and review subjects students may be misunderstanding.
- Teacher's Resources: The white tiles are for my use when working to organize lesson plans or quickly brainstorm for ideas that work well in classrooms. I included several of my own accounts to social media outlets such as Pinterest and Twitter. I also included free and paid lesson plan sites that could prompt inspiration for an idea, current events on education, and ways to make classrooms more effective. This section is supposed to be useful in my planning stages.
While I think that this is a great tool for personal use, I imagine using this when my class breaks out into centers or group work. If there is access to an iPad or computer, I would provide students with a Symbaloo that has pre-approved websites they can use while working in centers. For example, if the class is working on math centers, some students can independently choose a resource from the mathematics section and use their time playing games or working on an activity online. On other days when we are working on reading or writing, they can choose from the appropriate tiles.
Another great way to use Symbaloo in the classroom is using it to facilitate a better relationship between parents and educators. I've always believed it is important to consistently update parents on their child's progress and provide them with tools to either challenge or support their children in their education. Personally, I would maintain a class website and embed the Symbaloo there. This Symbaloo would have parent resources for all subjects, so that if their children were struggling to understand content or needed extra practice, they could easily access it. This can be done in a variety of ways but, essentially, it gives parents the tools they need to feel like they are adequately helping their children in their educational pursuits.
Clearly, Symbaloo can be an extremely helpful tool in the classroom whether it be for independent use, classroom use, or use with parents. Personally, I enjoyed organizing the resources I love in a way that is easily accessible and color-coordinated. It makes retrieving websites much easier in the future and provides teachers with a new, creative way to present information to their students.
