Yesterday I was talking to a friend about an emerging concept that is being thrown around in digital learning circles PERSONAL LEARNING ENVIRONMENTS. I hasten to say that I am NOT an expert and have only recently embarked on my own digital learning journey, but when I stumbled across this concept I became VERY excited because it was quickly apparent that it would help me organise all the ideas that I was accumulating but not getting organised.
In the past months I have eagerly signed up for all sorts of Web 2.0 tools. I have started 2 different blogs - just to experiment with the range on offer. I have subscribed to a range of RSS feeds in my various fields of interest and I am fast loosing track of where everything is...not to mention trying to remember user names and passwords!!!
Through a friend of a friend of a friend I came across a video tutorial that I would love to be able to insert in here, unfortunately I am still to navigate the rules and expectations on using other peoples work and so I will err on the side of caution. It is however entitled Welcome to my PLE! This video showed a student using a Personal Learning Environment tool called SYMBALOO. When I showed it to my son (10yrs) and my students (12yrs) the first thing they said was "What is that Mum/Miss and how can I start using it?" For scatter brains like myself it appears to answer a lot of my problems as I learn new skills and try to use new tools faster than I can acquire them!!! It allows me to create a small visual reminder and link to all the cool tools, websites and blogs that I am discovering as I scoot through the web. I haven't been using it for long and as usual the children learn faster than the adults. Son has already created his Webmix and added a dozen tiles with their own unique picture etc. I tried to create ONE unique tile and it won't do what it should...grrrr.
When I stumble across a gem of a find like this I feel like I want to shout it out from the highest mountain. I would love to hear from you if this excites you as much as it did me, and if not well that's o.k. too....I am easily impressed :)
In the past months I have eagerly signed up for all sorts of Web 2.0 tools. I have started 2 different blogs - just to experiment with the range on offer. I have subscribed to a range of RSS feeds in my various fields of interest and I am fast loosing track of where everything is...not to mention trying to remember user names and passwords!!!
Through a friend of a friend of a friend I came across a video tutorial that I would love to be able to insert in here, unfortunately I am still to navigate the rules and expectations on using other peoples work and so I will err on the side of caution. It is however entitled Welcome to my PLE! This video showed a student using a Personal Learning Environment tool called SYMBALOO. When I showed it to my son (10yrs) and my students (12yrs) the first thing they said was "What is that Mum/Miss and how can I start using it?" For scatter brains like myself it appears to answer a lot of my problems as I learn new skills and try to use new tools faster than I can acquire them!!! It allows me to create a small visual reminder and link to all the cool tools, websites and blogs that I am discovering as I scoot through the web. I haven't been using it for long and as usual the children learn faster than the adults. Son has already created his Webmix and added a dozen tiles with their own unique picture etc. I tried to create ONE unique tile and it won't do what it should...grrrr.
When I stumble across a gem of a find like this I feel like I want to shout it out from the highest mountain. I would love to hear from you if this excites you as much as it did me, and if not well that's o.k. too....I am easily impressed :)
We are so thankful to hear praise like this about Symbaloo. Our team works hard and supporters with words like this makes all the hard work worth it. Thank you Mrs Ski.
ReplyDeleteWe just launched SymbalooEDU.com a few months ago and have more instructional videos as we as a Symbaloo teacher certification program as well. For a limited time we are also offering branded version for school use if you would liek one for your class. Please reach out to us if we can help you with anything and thanks again for your support!
Daniela Bolzmann
@danielabolzmann
edu at symbaloo dot com