Symbaloo is a start page that allows you to add colored or pictured tiles for any websites you choose. I heard about the site a few weeks ago, but haven’t had a chance to play around with it until recently. The color-tiled format was appealing and I thought it was something my students might really like. So, for the past two days, I have been tinkering a bit to figure out how it works. It really is quite simple. After creating a free login, the page opens to a series of pre-designed webmixes. I haven’t really checked out the gallery, but some of the webmixes looked interesting. To get started on my own page, all I did was click on the plus sign and I was able to create a webmix from scratch. I decided to start with a page my students could use to easily access the many technology tools we use in class. I had fun adding links and choosing colors like crazy, and before I knew it the page was filled.
Tech Tools for EDU
After I finished with the first page, I was hooked and decided to create a page of resources for the English Teachers at school.
Resources for High School English
So now, I am thinking about the possibilities for the use of Symbaloo in the classroom. My students could use this as a start page to stay organized or to create theme-based pages for research projects.
One way I thought it might be fun to introduce Symbaloo is to use it as an icebreaker assignment in the very beginning of the year. My students could work in groups to create a color-coded page filled with things they are passionate about and then, they could present them to the class. It would be an easy way to incorporate cooperative groups and also have them do some informal presentations right away. It’s also a new and interesting way for us to get to know one another. Another plus is that they would also have the pages as a resource to draw from throughout the year when working on different assignments.
Can you think of any more uses for Symbaloo? I would love to hear about them.
I just learned about Symbaloo last spring and used it several times last year in my 5th grade class.
What I did was to make a desktop with links to pictures, maps, text, and video about an upcoming unit. (Sometimes I want to work on the skill of searching for information, and sometimes I don’t. Since reading level is an issue for 5th graders, I find that it can be worth doing the searching in advance and sharing many accessible results.) I organized the tiles so that pictures were at the top and as you moved down the desktop the links had more text. These were mostly on the left side. Then on the right side I linked to a few wallwishers for students to add discoveries and questions. Our first class period on the subject was set aside for students to investigate and comment, individually or in pairs.
I have to say it was great. The students got a chance to come at the new topic from either text or image first; they asked and answered each other’s questions on the wallwishers; they were excited about what they found and could bring to our first class discussion on the topic. Also, as I filled in more information, they had a framework already on which hang their new knowledge.
I will definitely be using this strategy again.