Symbaloo: A Real Hot Tool

This past week was spent in Technology Wonderland, also known as ISTE '11. It seemed like many people were looking like the new, big tool. For myself, I was looking for new strategies and ideas, but felt I had plenty of tools in my web toolbox. I noted a few new titles and avoided sessions that were all about the tool. As much as I love that students can create and share their work online, it is about the the learning not the tool.

Then there was this one tool that kept popping up, Symbaloo. I had heard about it before ISTE, but never had the time to check it out. Then representatives from the company were at the DEN (Discovery Educator Network) pre-conference event. I skipped their sessions to learn more about topics that I was already interested in like mobile learning and green screening.

I ended up sitting in an unplugged session about Symbaloo on the last day of the conference to support the ladies that work for the company. It was more about the personal connection than the tool. I met the ladies during the opening session and then again at the EdTech Karaoke party. We even sang a song together. If there is any evidence to this, I won't admit to it.

The conference is over and I decided to give Symbaloo a try. I have to admit I like. Symbaloo is like a dashboard of web sites, media, and widgets. It is easy to make your own web mix and edit as much as you need to. You can save and edit webmixes from other users. I was pleasantly surprised to find that they already had an edu version.

So I started building a webmix for class to check it out. So far, so good. I am thinking of making this the home page for my students. Then I can add the link to the class site in case students want to use the web mix at home. I have to admit that this hot tool has gotten my interest.