Who knew life could be so simple with Symbaloo? This on-line website allows users to "tiles" with links to all of your most frequently used websites and it's super easy to use!
After getting a brief tutorial of Symbaloo's most basic attributes, I was able to join for free and easily had some of the most popular tiles for news, social media, weather, email, etc. After quickly adding those links with just the click of a button, I could move on to making my Symbaloo more personal.
By color-coding my tiles, I've been able to add websites that I frequently visit for both my home life and school life. There's room for 60 different tiles on the first page, which I am quickly filling up as I add tiles I realize I want/need. I'm amazed at the number of websites I visit in just one day! For the more advanced users, tools like Webmixes are available and maybe someday I'll make one.
As an educator, I can never find a new technology without thinking how it will impact my students. Since our district is beginning a one-to-one intiative where each student has a laptop in their hands on a daily basis, websites like Symbaloo are especially interesting. The whole time I was creating my Symbaloo, I kept thinking how much my students would love and use this tool. Then I realized, that our district has something very similar. With http://stuview.unit5.org, students have a pre-made Symbaloo with instant access to websites and programs they frequently use. The biggest difference is that they can't add tiles on their own.
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