Symbaloo is a graphic bookmarking tool, the displays your bookmarks using icons in a ‘webmix’. To create a tile, you choose an empty tile, and enter the website. The Symbaloo program searches for the icon image, and if there is one available it will automatically display. If one isn’t available, the user can choose to upload an image. Another option is to colour-code the tiles, or use a cartoon image provided by Symbaloo.
I discovered Symbaloo while creating my online artefact. I loved it instantly, despite multiple issues with uploading images for the tiles (countless ‘unexpected errors’ almost drove me crazy!), and I immediately thought it would be the perfect way to display my ‘100 Days of ICT’ challenge. It’s a work in progress, so excuse the haphazard placement of the tiles!
Unfortunately, wordpress.com won’t let me embed the Symbaloo into a post, so here is a screenshot…
[screenshot coming soon…]
I didn’t really get thinking outside of the box regarding application of Symbaloo until I read how one teacher was using Symbaloo in her teaching practice! This prompted me to Google “using Symbaloo in the classroom”, and I found that many teachers had already identified Symbaloo as a valuable resource in their classroom!
Teachers are using this tool for everything, from organising resources for their lesson plans, to creating subject-specific boards for their students to explore, to making boards that display their professional development and learning links. Teachers are also accepting Symbaloo as a way for their students to display their completed assessment tasks and projects. Another fantastic feature is the search engine, allowing users to view and use webmixes that have been shared publically!
Tell me… What else do you think you could you use Symbaloo for?
ICTs in Education 
I like the thought of number 11 where you can use it as a playlist for videos. I know a lot of teachers ask me how can they save their videos from You tube to be in one convenient spot and this sounds like a very good solution.
LikeLike