Karen Albert
7/8 grade Technology teacher
Robert L. McCaffrey Middle School
Galt Joint Union Elem. School Dist.
Twitter: @kalbertGalt
Fall CUE 2014
Title: Using Symbaloo to Keep Your Classroom Organized�Description: Discover how a classroom teacher keeps websites and tools organized for students. Bring your laptop/tablet to explore and build a Webmix to keep your students focused instead of typing URL’s. �
Direct link to the Albert Tech. Conference Symbaloo Webmix: http://edu.symbaloo.com/mix/alberttechconference (click on Add this Webmix)
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Getting started with Symbaloo:
1. Go http://edu.symbaloo.com/
2. Click on the search icon - top middle of page.
3. Search for a Webmix: Albert Tech Conference. If it does not appear automatically, then click Search for other webmixes
*** If you had to click on Search for other webmixes, when the Symbaloo Gallery appears, find the Albert Tech Conference and click View this webmix.
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5. Click Start Using This Webmix
6. To create a free account in Symbaloo, click on the Create free account tab on the upper right side. You will be sent a confirmation email that you will want to open and verify.
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Creating a Webmix
Click on the + to the right of the Albert Tech Conference Webmix
Give your Webmix a name. This could either be a mix for you, or one for students. Give it whatever name you want (you can always change it later). Click on ADD.
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Adding pre-made tiles to your Webmix
You may add tiles that are already created by the Symbaloo site, by searching for them. On the top right, choose Tiles and begin typing in a website name that you are looking for. If the one you want shows up, you may click on it. You can also hover over the tile to see a more detailed description.
Tiles with the RSS feed logo, will be a RSS feed tile. These tiles will show frequently updated information: blog entries, news headlines, audio, video, etc. When clicked they will appear in the center space of the page.
A widget tile will have the gears symbol in the top left corner. Widget icons are small applications with limited functionality that can be installed and executed within a web page. When clicked, they will appear in the center space of the page.
Move tiles by clicking and dragging them where you want.
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Adding your own tiles to your Webmix
To add your own tile to the Webmix, first you must go copy the web address of the site.
Click on Create a tile.
Paste the address.
You can then decide the color of the tile, whether you want the text (which you can also edit) to appear, and change the image to something else. For students I try to have the picture that represents the site on the tile. This make a quick visual to find the correct tile to click on.
You may wish to color code your tiles (certain colors for games, project searches, etc.)
Click Save when done.
Move tiles by clicking and dragging them where you want.
To edit a tile, right click and choose edit.
Now, go back to the Symbaloo page, click on any empty tile and choose add new tile.
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Adding links to Google Docs, etc.
If you wish to add a link to a shared document (for example a form in Google Docs), follow the protocol for sharing the form/document in Google Drive and get the link to share. I usually choose Anyone with the link, can view.
Make sure you COPY the link that appears when you hit Save.
The entire Galt Joint Union Elem. School District uses Google Drive/Docs. Students and Staff. This makes it a uniform way to share and collaborate on what we do. It also makes it easy to post items on Symbaloo that you want all people to find (even if they don’t use Google Docs).
This is the share setting on Google Drive
Go back to the Symbaloo page and follow the directions for creating a new tile.
Under the Add the address of the website, paste your link to the Google Doc. Customize the tile how you wish and choose Save.
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Sharing a Webmix (with the world)
To share your Webmix with the world, click the share icon on the top middle of the page.
To share in the gallery: (This will be a Webmix that ANYONE can find and use.) Fill out the information in the fields on the left.
Make sure if you want others to be able to find and use your Webmix, that you leave it on Publically (available in Gallery)
Click Share My Webmix when done.
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Sharing a Webmix (with select people)
To share your Webmix with select people, click the share icon on the top middle of the page.
To share privately: (This will be a Webmix that only people with an invitation/link can use.) Fill out the information in the fields on the left.
Make sure if you want only specific people to be able to use your Webmix, you choose, Privately (with friends)
Click Share My Webmix.
Now the right side of the window will be active and you can choose how to send out your Webmix to others. You can copy the link and send it out some way (email, etc.). You can also choose email directly from here and enter in someone's email address.
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Updating a Webmix you have shared
It is important the you SHARE any updating you do to your Webmix, with the people you have originally shared it with. Changes that you make on your page don’t automatically happen on their end.
To update your page for viewers, you must click on the share icon again.
This will bring the share box up on the left side of the screen. Click on Update Webmix. You will then see a quick flash at the top of the screen that says your Webmix was updated.
If the person you are sharing with (say a student) was already on the page before you updated it, they will need to refresh their page before they see the new updates.
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To change the look of your Webmix
You can customize the webmixes that you have created by going to Options on the top of the page.
Click on Change your wallpaper to add a fun wallpaper to your Webmix. You can even upload an image. I find it fun to put a few new pictures on each week of students working or other fun happenings at school.
You can also change the Webmix icon (next to your Webmix name) and the size of the Webmix page (how many icons you have), etc.
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How I share a Webmix with students
(I wanted to keep my Webmix for students private, invitation only. There may be other ways, this is just how I sent my class up)
Even though our students in Galt have a Google Drive account, they do not have an email account. I created a generic Hotmail account that they do NOT have the password for, etc. It is just so that they can be the recipient of a shared Webmix without having access to any of my other email accounts. THEY will never log into the email account, only Iwill. The steps I took to do this are:
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Notes:
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