Tag Archives: SymbalooEDU

Flip This Classroom!

Essentially, a flipped classroom is just how it sounds! Instead of spending classroom time lecturing and time outside of the classroom doing homework and answering questions, the time inside the classroom is spent engaging in discussions and problem solving, and the time outside the classroom is spent listening to lectures and other materials that may typically be presented during class.

Although this is a relatively new concept, the benefits of flipping classrooms are already emerging. One of the main reasons they are proving to be such an effective way to teach is because of all the free great web-based resources available to you! From tools that help organize web-resources for your class (like SymbalooEDU) to tools to supplement your lectures and add a different view (like TED, Khan Academy, or SnagFilms), the internet is full of these resources and new ones are being developed daily!

Check out the infographic below to learn more about the science behind the Flipped Classroom- what they are, how they work, and how they can impact how your students learn! And be sure to follow our blog every week-we are always on the lookout for the next best web-based tools and love sharing them with you!

Flipped Classroom

Created by Knewton and Column Five Media

 

Create a Webmix to get everything you want whenever you want it!

One of our favorite things to blog about is free new web-based tools that are perfect for higher education (can you tell??). During the school year, it may be difficult to find the time to really check out these free tools and explore how you can use them in your classrooms. So, the summer is the perfect time to take advantage of extra time and look into these tools and see how they can help you in the fall! These next few blog posts will be new free tools we have found that we think you might enjoy, so be sure to follow us the next several weeks for new ideas!

Today, we’re going to talk about SymbalooEDU. This free tool is a “personal learning environment” where students and educators can organize all the websites, information, and other internet items they use the most or want to bookmark in the same place. Your personal learning environment consists of several “webmixes”. Each webmix contains 64 tiles where users can add websites, videos, blogs, and whatever they want the tile to link to.SymbalooEDU is the perfect solution to help students stay organize and manage their time in the most efficient manner. They can create webmixes for each class, for their personal interests, and more. In a single online environment, they have everything they use the most organized at their fingertips!

Keep on the lookout for the SymbalooEDU mobile app which is anticipated to be released soon, and it will shortly collaborate with GlogsterEDU, which will allow users to embed their glogs in their webmixes!