I’ve recently written about Symbaloo. I originally used it to make a homepage that had tiles that quickly took me to popular websites. I then began creating my own webmixes. A webmix is a set of tiles that are related. For instance, I have a webmix for all of the websites I use at work, in my Grad work, and for my online teaching position. The webmixes are divided into tabs so I can quickly jump between them to get the correct link.
A few things I’ve discovered about Symbaloo since I started would be helpful to someone just thinking about using it or setting it up.
- Make Symbaloo your home page. That’s what really makes it valuable. I alternate between 3 browsers and I’ve made it my homepage on all three so I always have access to my webmixes.
- Make Symbaloo your home page on all of your computers. Symbaloo is cloud-based so by doing this, I have access to all of my webmixes where I log in. Of course, you can always go to the Symbaloo site and get access there.
- You can add any website to your webmixes. All you have to do is click an empty tile space. Search and see if the site already has a tile available. Many popular sites do. If one is not available, you can make your own, choose colors, text, and even a graphic. If you want, you can upload a graphic to the tile to make it more personal.
- I haven’t done this, but you can change the background of Symbaloo to match your style. I’m fond of the sleek black look so I haven’t used that feature.
Today, I discovered another great feature of Symbaloo. All of the webmixes can be shared and are searchable. So, I did a search for education and found a lot of great, already created webmixes. Symbaloo also provides the webmix rating and number of people using it so you get a real idea of the usefulness of the webmix. For instance, the EDU Tools webmix I’ve linked above has over 10,000 users and is ranked 3 out of 5 stars.
Carol Mortensen has nearly twenty-three years of educational experience. She began as a substitute teacher as she worked toward her degree. Upon graduation, Carol began teaching middle school Math and Algebra I and served as the technology liaison for her campus. She served as a teacher for 16 years and was lucky to have taught at Hillcrest Middle School, a 1:1 campus where every student was issued a laptop computer. She also worked as an Instructional Technology Trainer for her district providing training and technology integration support for campus and district staff, faculty and administrators. Currently, Carol enjoys her position as the Campus Technology Integration Specialist for Deer Park High School – South Campus. Before taking this position this year, she served for three years as the Campus Technology Integration Specialist at Fairmont Junior High in Deer Park Independent School District. In this position, Carol provides integration support and training to the students, staff, faculty, and administrators at the campus and district level. In addition, Carol is an online Math instructor for Aventa Learning and K12. The Texas Computer Education Association (TCEA) named Carol the Classroom Teacher of the Year for her innovative and creative use of technology to create a 24/7 virtual classroom using her classroom website. Carol has presented at school districts throughout Texas as well as state and local conferences on a variety of technology integration topics. Her article on the use of websites as an instructional tool was recently published in the TechEdge Magazine. In February 2011, her article, Lessons Learning In a 1:1 Classroom, was published by TechEdge. The article was republished in ISTE’s Learning and Leading magazine in August 2011. She was named Fairmont Junior High’s Teacher of the Year for the 2011-2012 school year. Carol is passionate about the positive impact that technology has on student achievement. Her presentations are packed with real-life solutions, quality resources, and humor. She has an ability to connect with her audience and motivate them to take technology integration to a higher quality level.
