FV_Documentary of Symbaloo in the Classroom

PE_6_Symbaloo for the Classroom

"If the student won’t come to the teacher, 

then the teacher must come to the student."

For this part of my practical experience with Symbaloo, I thought that I would explore the concept of embedding content on Symbaloo, including tutorial videos. What I found, through the process, may virtually replace my website. 

At first, I created a webmix for my students called Wekiva High School. It features the Wekiva High School website and has Wekiva Mustang wallpaper. I added my website, links to the online textbooks for my classes, and several Web 2.0 tools that I would like my students to become acquainted with using. Please feel free to take a look. Wekiva High School Webmix 

I shared the webmix publically, so that my students could find it and start personalizing the site, by adding their other teacher’s websites. The problem that I had to get past was updating. Since I am the author of the site, anytime I make changes, those changes will take place on the webmix of anyone sharing the webmix. Having the students click the “Stop Updates” link and then renaming the site with their own name, easily overcomes this.

As I started learning how to embed, the idea occurred to me that content could easily be delivered to the student by a new webmix that they could continue to share with me. If the student wants to take the content from that webmix, it can be copied to their personal webmix by clicking on the tile and simply dragging the tile to the tab of whatever webmix the student wants to place the tile on. What I created today is a webmix called Ms. Alsup. 

Ms. Alsup Webmix

On this page I experimented with the concept of embedding. By copying the link for the content, I was choosing to embed, I was able to create tiles for items on my website that I want students to access. This may seem somewhat redundant, but if I can’t get the student to my website; they may never get the content. In addition to possibly getting them to my website, Symbaloo will bring the most important content to them. In other words, if the student won’t come to the teacher, then the teacher must come to the student.

The most exciting discovery that I made was for my daily notes. I normally post them to the website as a PDF document. When I added this content to my tile, Symbaloo recognized the type of document that I was using and automatically utilized Google Docs to deliver the content right there on the Symbaloo page.  Now my students are just one click away from their work. Another thing that my students have access to, but they seldom take advantage of, is video tutoring through the textbook manufacturer. Getting to these videos is a difficult process involving numerous clicks, but with Symballo, I was able to take these links and embed them directly on my webmix with instantaneous access.

Just imagine the possibilities.  Once the student has your webmix, you control the data that is driven to that webmix.  Symballo automatically embeds from Youtube, Google Docs, Pacasa, Vimeo, Flickr, Teachertube, Schooltube,  Liveleak and Twitpic, but whether it is a supported application or not, if you have a link, you can create a tile.

While it may not replace my Website, it will certainly enhance its usability. As the Web continues to be proliferated by content, I believe it will become increasing important to find ways to harness that data and drive it in a meaningful direction.

PE_5_Symbaloo for the Classroom

The next part of setting my students up with a Symbaloo account, was to create an assignment that would guide them through the process. My students are used to having their essential question, bell work, activities and assignments everyday when they arrive in the class, so I decided to stick to the same format. This will also allow my students who are absent to complete the assignment without any additional assistance from me. The following is a copy of the assignment. I also put a copy in Google Docs if you would like to use it with your students.

PE_4_Symbaloo for the Classroom

Symbaloo EDU

As part of my action research project I have decided to have my students set up a PLE (Personal Learning Environment) with Symbaloo. To do this I needed to complete some basic training with Symbaloo. I have signed up for my first Webinar as part of Symbaloo’s Educator Certification process. While I wait to attend the first class, I watched a special training video that they sent me. I highly recommend the video. http://vimeo.com/15545299 Start the video with the password: edu

After the video, I felt comfortable in setting up my own webmix and publishing it to share with my students. I put some basic tiles on the webmix, including the school website and my classroom website. Since all of the teachers at my school are required to have a website, I will be assigning my students the task of adding all of their other teacher’s websites to the webmix.

The image above is a copy of the webmix I will be sharing with my students. 

PE3_Google Docs

Google Docs Documents

For my last installment of my practical experience in Google Docs this week, I have decided to post my reference page for my AR project, so that my critical friends can help me make sure that I have all my i's dotted and my t's crossed. I just love Google Docs. Here is the link to my public version, if you would like to take a peek. Feel free to make edits or if any of the articles look good for your project; help yourself.

Link to Anne's AR Reference Page

PE2_Google Docs

Google Docs Draw

For the second part of my practical experience, I decided to use Google Docs Draw to create a concept map for some of the reading that I so desperately need to do on my AR project. I've got to say that I hated using Draw. Maybe it's just me, but I found it hard to work with, my space was limited, and I frequently lost work because I closed the box and didn't hit return. Here was my first attempt.

Thinking that perhaps I just wasn't giving it enough time, I tried again. My second attempt was a little better than the first, but I still do not believe that Google Docs Draw is worth the time for concept mapping, particularly in light of all the other tools that are available for making a concept map.

Please don't get me wrong. I am not saying that Google Docs Draw is a bad tool. Based on the videos that I saw on Draw; it does have good practical applications, but unless I am just inept; concept mapping is not one of the better applications.

Please let me know if I am missing something here.

PE1_Google Docs

Google Docs Presentation

For Part 1 of this week's practical experience, I chose to use Google Docs Presentation to put together the slides that I would be using for my SymbalooEDU One Minute Commercial. The tool was as simple to use as PowerPoint and was easily downloaded as a PowerPoint file to my computer. Once in PowerPoint, I was able to save the slides as images, for use in my iMovie production.

So why not just put the presentation together in PowerPoint? For this project it really didn’t matter, but for a collaborative group project, the ability to have the document shared by multiple users would be invaluable. The need to own the PowerPoint program would be virtually eliminated for the shared users.  Also, the original presentation would be safely stored online, easily accessible with an Internet connection. 

BP12_OMM_SymbalooEDU

SymbalooEDU

 A Web 2.0 Tool for Every Mood You're In

BP11_Link to Comments on Kristi Swartz

See my comments to Kristi Swartz, on her beautiful concept mapping. 

BP10_Link to Comments on Thanh Kirby

Use this link to see my comments on Thanh Kirby’s amazing commercial for uTutti.

BP9_Symbaloo_EDU

Symbaloo EDU

During the first week of my Emerging Technologies course at Full Sail University, I found a great video on PLE’s. If you have not had a chance to see it, please take a look.

Drexler, W. (Producer). (n.d.) Welcome to my PLE! Retrieved October 3, 2010 from www.youtube.com/watch?v=YEls3tq5wIY

I showed this video to my students, who had never heard of a PLE and I have been bombarded by questions ever since. My students wanted to know what she was using and how they could set a PLE up for themselves. Wow, my students were asking to take responsibility for their own learning.

I could see very quickly that this needed to be part of my Action Research project to help shift my classroom from a teacher-centered classroom to a student-centered classroom, so I am researching Symballo EDU this week for my new Web 2.0 tool and will use it next week for my Practical Experience assignment, to try to help my students set up their own PLE’s in the classroom.

So what is Symbaloo, other than a strange name?  Symbaloo is actually a Greek word that means, ‘assembling’, 'gathering'. It is a social bookmarking tool that allows users to organize their desktop into a series of tiles and tabs for commonly used bookmarks. These tabs are called, Webmixes and can be shared with other members of the Symbaloo community.  You can search for Webmixes on almost any topic or create your own Webmix. Each Webmix is made up of tiles that you can move around to personalize. You can search from an extensive library of pre-made tiles or custom design your own tiles to fit your specific needs.

Why does Symbaloo appeal to students as opposed to something like iGoogle? Symbaloo is simple and colorful. iGoogle takes a little more patience, but ultimately provides a more in depth PLE. My thought is; combine the two. Make an iGoogle page part of the Symbaloo Webmix, so that a student learns to use the iGoogle page as a more precise way to organize their individual projects.

The basic service is free, but Symbaloo provides upgrades and custom services to companies and larger organizations, that undoubtedly makes it a profitable business venture. They recently launched Symbaloo EDU to target the education community. Symbaloo is currently offering the following special for teachers:

(Available until November 1st)

Special for teachers: 50 additional keys for your Free Plus Solution AND a Free webinar about Google Docs & Embedding on Symbaloo.

Click here for further information on this special and other pricing options.

BP8_OMM_VoiceThread

A Web 2.0 Tool You Need to Use

Voicethread.com

BP7_Link to comment on Peter Binskin

See how I got help on a question about embedding on Blogger from Peter 


Thanks Peter!

BP6_Link to Comments on Debra Atherton

Read my comments on Debra Atherton’s post about Google Docs

BP5_Voicethread

Voicethread

Voicethread is a group communication forum. Users can post images, documents, videos and other users can comment on what is posted in five ways. Though written text, a recording from a microphone or telephone, a video recorded from a webcam or an uploaded audio file.  The best thing is that those comments can be made separately, but compiled together in real time through the Voicethread. This is great for team members with busy schedules who find it difficult to get together. For it’s versatility alone, I’d have to put Voicethread at the top of my Web 2.0 Tools.

My fellow team members of the Technogals got together to make a Voicethread and show off some of its features. Here’s our work in progress. Feel free to leave your own comments.

Teachers can apply for a special K-12 account for free, that allows up fifty student accounts. An upgraded educator account can be purchased for $60 per year and may be worth the investment if you are going to be using the tool a lot or with younger students. Voicethread takes extra precautions to ensure that students are only communicating with other students, teacher and people that have been chosen by the teacher. For older students, it is probably better to have each student sign up for their own account. Even 100 accounts are sparse in a secondary setting, but there are also issues with moderation of the comments. There is greater control over comments when each person has their own account and more accountability.

I am thinking about several ideas for math. Having review questions worked out with time for students to have questions and answers. I could also create a video challenge problem that allows the students an opportunity to leave their comments on how best to solve the problem. I might post a video related to mathematics for my students to comment on.  Or in an effort to give the students greater control over their learning environment, have them create a Voicethread lesson to teach a particular skill to their class.


Here's a good step by step tutorial for educators to get you started. 

BP4_Glogster_Web 2.0 Tool

Glogster

Glogster is a combination of a Blog, with a Poster. It allows teachers or students to create colorful presentations and post them online. The poster can contain video, images, text, sound, data attachments and more.

With my free account, I can have up to 50 student accounts. This would allow my students to make projects and post them through my account to simplify my ability to grade.

For my project I decided to provide some training videos on the Order of Operations. The site links videos directly from School Tube, so uploading is a breeze. Once I got the knack of editing, the project came together quickly.  This could be a very interesting way to present information, as well as a good way to offer project-based assessment to students. For an artistic student this would be perfect for developing creative expression within almost any discipline.

The site also allows educators to share their work with other educators. Through tagging, educators can search for other Glogs, from over 5 million users worldwide.

Here is my completed Glog: http://annealsup.edu.glogster.com/order-of-operations/

BP3_Diigo Group

BP2_iGoogleScreenShot