Sweet Mother of God, I'm EXHAUSTED!

You'd think I laid around completely stationary the past 18 days with as exhausted as I am after our first day back after break.  It's a whole new level of pathetic....I've got that.  We even had the heavenly gift of a 2-hour late start, so I don't even have that excuse.  

With the sliver of time I still have tonight before going completely comatose, let me give you another great idea for your tech-rockstar toolkit.  This little sweetheart goes by the name of Symbaloo. And, boy, it's incredible!

Symbaloo offers you a visual pinboard, of sorts, for links to all of the favorite sites you want to have easy access to.  While you could use this as your version of Draggo (see previous post on that one), I have a technology integrationist's opinion on how to use this in an even more awesome way.

For our district, I am asked on a daily basis for sites that teachers need for various purposes.  I used to just send them the link.  However, the moron alert went off in my head when I got to thinking that I was relying on a wink and a prayer that this teacher actually filed the site for future use.  Instead, why not post that site for him or her to a location that is not only easy for the teacher to access, but the students as well!  Hence---Symbaloo.

When you go to Symbaloo, you'll see the "Create free account" option at the upper right.

Notice the grade level tabs across the top of the page.




The genius in this comes in the fact that I simplified what could have become a very lengthy process into something that serves everyone in one fell swoop!  I made one Symbaloo for the entire elementary.  Each grade level gets their very own tab.  




There is also a "General Webmix" default tab that includes links that all students and teachers would need (ie; our district's web page, our Google Apps link, etc...).  I provided all teachers with the username email (a generic email run through our email server set up by our IT guy) and a password.  So, not only can I add the sites teachers ask for, but they can take ownership and add anything they want as well. As you add sites, you may find that you and your colleagues want to swap your Symbaloo boards.  This is where the "Share Webmix" option at the top comes in handy. See the following snapshot of what options you'll have for sharing.


Finally, a great option is to save your Symbaloo Webmixes as your homepage.  This can be done with a simple click.  This is perfect for classroom computers, library computers, or even your own computer! And, because it's also a free app in the iOS App Store (and probably Android, but I don't go there), you can download it to all of your i-devices, log in and voila!  Your Symbaloo perfection on the go!  Best of luck! You won't be disappointed!  Now, I sleep.

Comments

  1. Thank you for sharing the Symbaloo Love! Your post has been added to our Symbaloo Love page here http://bit.ly/symbaloolove. We really enjoyed your post! To address your last paragraph, we DO indeed have an awesome Android app as well! Thanks again and we're glad you enjoy using Symbaloo!

    More information about SymbalooEDU can always be found at www.SymbalooEDU.com, latest updates are posted to our blog http://bit.ly/SymbalooEDUBlog and we always appreciate feedback via email: edu@symbaloo.com

    Derek Saruwatari
    @SymbalooEDU

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