Monday, August 31, 2015

WooHoo Symbaloo!





Welcome to a new school year!!

So, I've been far (Casper, Wyoming) and near (Lake ECMECC) this summer providing training and participating in training.  I've put on just over 4,000 miles! Each and every time I go I have the privilege of meeting new people, sharing the fantastic things we do in Pine City and learning new things!

One of the biggest takeaways this summer was from the Fergus Falls Google Summit last weekend.  Symbaloo!  

Symbaloo is a visual bookmarking tool that makes it simple and fun to organize the best of the web. You have all your favorite websites at your fingertips. With an account you can access your bookmarks from everywhere with any device and share your online resources with others.

I immediately thought that it would be nice to have something like this for our staff!  A place for links that are frequently used that can all be found in ONE place!  Seems SO logical!  I've started something for our staff ... it may seem busy at first glance but once you realize there's some logic to it (upper right corner is most frequently used) ... I hope you will enjoy it.

Here's how to try it:

1.  Click on this link:  https://www.symbaloo.com/mix/pcpsstaff

​2.  You do not have to sign up for an account so just close that window by clicking on the x.  (You may decide you want to try it ...  I'm happy to help.)  Imagine this at a grade level or for a unit ... all your links in one visual bookmark page that you can update and automagically update for all of the users!! 

3.  Now once you've got it showing on your screen and have decided you love it you can set it up to be your go to for when you open a new tab by going to the "hamburger button" (the three horizontal bars in the upper right corner of your Chrome browser), choose settings, and under "on startup" choose the button that says "open a specific set of pages" click on set pages then paste the above URL in the ​add new page - click OK and you're set.

If you need help, let me know and I can walk you through it.  AND if you think there's a link that should be added that many people might need let me know that too!