SymbalooEDU is a tool intended to help educators improve their offerings to students. It was created as a companion application to the original Symbaloo visual bookmarking and sharing tool. The application acts as a personal learning environment. Educators can create a library of relevant resources and organize them in a single location. SymbalooEDU also allows educators to encourage student to student interaction in an online setting. The system works by allowing the user to quickly add a resource in the form of a tile on the user’s web mix (their grid of tiles). The SymbalooEDU web mix can be shared with others, which makes it a capable tool for educators. Students and teachers can add URLs or even add a link to a completed project. SymbalooEDU also encourages students to practice communicating and browsing online. The system is very easy to learn and can be applied to almost any type of learning situation.

Visit www.symbalooedu.com

SymbalooEDU was created as a variation of the original Symbaloo. Symbaloo was founded in March of 2007. Today, the team consists of less than ten individuals, including Klaas Lameijer, Steven Jongeneel and Koen Dantuma. The company currently maintains two headquarters, one in California and a European headquarters in Delft.

SymbalooEDU gives educators a simple tool that has many purposes. Just like the original Symbaloo, users can organize visual bookmarks. This simple task makes it much easier to create an effective compilation of resources sorted the way the educator feels is most beneficial to the student. The system is also very convenient and allows anyone to add resources or links to projects quickly. SymbalooEDU may sound like a basic tool but this also makes it flexible and allows the user to apply it to many learning situations.

SymbalooEDU is attractive partially because of its visual aspect. The application is laid out like a grid, with color icons (called tiles) within each space. These are links the resources the user provided and can be sorted however the user sees fit. A search box at the top of the grid allows users to quickly search for specific resources or add them to their Symbaloo web mix.

A new user can click the gold “Sign Up Free” button found near the center of the homepage to begin registration. The following page contains the registration form. The form is relatively short, asking for a name, email address and password. Two check boxes are positioned at the bottom of the form. One must be selected to agree to Symbaloo’s terms and conditions and privacy policy. The other allows the user to sign up for email updates form Symbaloo. This box must be checked to opt in (which is a nice change of pace compared to the websites that require the user to check the box to opt out).

SymbalooEDU offers users four memberships to choose form. The first is a free account intended for individual use. This membership allows the user to share and mange their web mixes and offers forum support with no branding options. The next step up is the Teacher membership intended for teacher and class use. This account costs around $35 per year or around $25 per year when the user signs up for two years of use. The Teacher membership allows up to 50 users, a text name applied, customizable content and webinar training. The Librarian membership is intended for school libraries and costs the same as the Teacher membership. The School plan is intended for use inside schools and allows the user to select how many users per year they pay for. The cost is around $1 for one year per user or around 70 cents per user per year when signing up for two years. This membership also enables all branding features, including school logos and custom links.

Any educator could appreciate SymbalooEDU. Even entire schools can sign up for the application. The system is easy to use and effective in a number of environments. SymbalooEDU allows educators to compile resources in a way their students can easily access.

• Add resources to the SymbalooEDU web mix
• Sort each resource using the application’s tile system
• Search for resources and add them easily
• Share the web mix with students or other educators
• Allow students to post their completed projects to a web mix

Visit www.symbalooedu.com

SymbalooEDU video