Bookmarking...visually

There are probably times when you would like to share a set of hyperlinks. However, sometimes these can be pretty dull visually...a list..., and often the URL does not provide information about what the follower of a particular link will find or be able to do. Enter Symbaloo (which was recommended to me by John S Oliver, sometime ago, but this is the first opportunity I have had to follow up on it).

I must admit to being cautiously interested. Symbaloo is an online tool that enables you to make visual 'webmixes' that can be shared, organised, and downloaded. One example is this Digital Portfolios webmix from Marti Ingram.  Marti has put together a collection of links to content research sites, a variety of tools that could be used to develop a digital portfolio, some 'how to' support sites, and then some more general sites around digital citizenship for example. I could see how a learner might find this an accessible format with visual as well as text clues as to why they might want to access a site.

Perhaps the next step (which is maybe more exciting for me) is that learners can create and share their own Symbaloo. For example, as part of the  Technology and Education Course at CSUSM students create webmixes to meet assessment requirements (Allison - http://allison422.blogspot.com/p/symbaloo-webmix.html. You can access a whole heap more ideas of how educators are using Symbaloo (across sectors), and I also feel that it would offer a great tool for businesses too - especially in the collation of support or 'how to' resource collections.


This is Symbaloo from Team Symbaloo on Vimeo.


Image Image via CrunchBase