Min.us: Instant document sharing

June 6, 2011Kelly TenkelyLeave a Comment2196 views

What it is: Do you ever find yourself wanting to share a file quickly and easily without relying on email to deliver it? You do? I thought so. Min.us is a great way to share files quickly and easily, it even provides file sharing options between devices! Students and teachers of all ages can use Min.us to share files. Just drag the file onto the screen and click “Start Sharing”. It could not be easier. Choose to share publicly or privately. Share using the unique URL that is generated. Easy peasy. No need for students to sign in. A built-in timeline shows all of the files that have been shared. Min.us has a desktop application that can be downloaded and placed in the task bar for sharing without opening a browser. Min.us has apps for sharing on mobile devices including the iPhone, Android, and Windows 7 with more mobile options coming.

How to integrate Min.us into the classroom: Min.us is an easy way to share documents with your students, colleagues and parents of children in your classroom. Drag and drop a document and share the link for fast, easy sharing. Include permission slips, class documents and make-up work as Min.us links in a weekly newsletter for easy access to EXACTLY the document that each family needs. No more sending emails full of attachments that get filtered or bounced back! Quickly share documents between teacher and student computers. Students can use Min.us to turn in work, teachers can use it to share documents quickly with classroom computers or share documents immediately with a computer lab full of computers.

Tips: Login to follow your documents (how many downloads, a feed of documents you have subscribed to and a full history of all of your documents).

Please leave a comment and share how you are using Min.us in your classroom!

Symbaloo EDU and Weblist: Sharing the web with students

October 26, 2010Kelly Tenkely26 Comments5613 views

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What it is: Sharing the web with students can be a challenge. Websites can often have urls that feel unending, students can copy down a url incorrectly, students type with different speeds, or characters show up in the address that they are unfamiliar with. Complicated urls can single-handedly convince teachers to ditch a wonderful web resource for something easier to manage…like a worksheet. Sharing websites with your students doesn’t have to be a challenge. Symbaloo EDU and Weblist are two of my favorite ways to quickly and easily share websites with students.

Symbaloo EDU is fabulous because it was created with educators in mind. Symbaloo lets you gather all of your favorite online tools and sites into a webmix about the topics you teach. Symbaloo web mixes can be published and shared with colleagues, students, and parents. Symbaloo can be used by students or teachers to create a personal learning environment. With Symbaloo folders can be created that contain sites and resources that are related. Symbaloo can be used year-long, just continue adding sites and resources for your students throughout the year. Everything that you have used all year-long will be in one easy place for students to access.

Weblist lets you pull together and organize content on the web. Create a list of urls centered on a theme and it is combined into one easy to navigate url. The list can be saved as a bookmark or a homepage. What I like about Weblist is the visual aspect. Each website is saved as a snapshot of that website with the website name and a description below. The visual organization is perfect for younger students who may not be able to navigate links designated by text.

How to integrate Symbaloo EDU and Weblist into your curriculum: Symbaloo can be used by students to create their own “textbooks”. As students search the web for resources based on subjects or inquiry questions, they can save what they find and create a virtual e-book of sorts. Symbaloo can also be used by students to organize all of their online work in one place. Students can add links to the slide shows, documents, videos, images, etc. that they create online. Symbaloo becomes an e-portfolio. Teachers can also use Symbaloo to create a customized “textbook” for their students complete with articles, maps, video, images, and interactive content.

Weblist is great for quickly sharing a collection of sites with students. Weblists are fast and easy to create (you don’t even have to login or register first!). Weblists are perfect for sharing a collection of sites in a computer lab setting or with colleagues. The visual interface of Weblist is perfect for students. Students can easily travel from one site to another because the web page is embedded in the Weblist, the url never changes.

Want to get really crazy? Combine Symbaloo and Weblist. Create folders for your students on Symbaloo so that there is one central url to go to. Have Symbaloo link to your various Weblists. This combines the great organization and collaboration aspect of Symbaloo with the awesome visual interface of Weblist. It is a powerhouse of learning for your students created by you. Cool!

Tips: Don’t forget that both Symbaloo and Weblist make for a great way to share online resources with your colleagues!

Please leave a comment and share how you are using Symbaloo EDU and Weblist in your classroom!

Trick.ly

June 1, 2010Kelly Tenkely11 Comments3728 views

What it is: There are several url shortening tools out there that let you shrink down a cumbersome url into something more manageable for sharing. Trick.ly is a url shortener with an added feature: it can be password protected. When you share the url, you can add a clue and a password that has to be used in order for the shared website to be accessed. You may be wondering why you would want to password protect a url in the classroom, I’m glad you asked…

How to integrate Trick.ly into the classroom: I am constantly sharing shortened url’s with my students, it makes it easy to get all my students to the same website quickly. Trick.ly adds the ability to password protect the url. This could add a layer of learning and fun to accessing websites in the classroom. Give your students a Trick.ly shortened url with a secret clue that helps students “unlock” the website. For example, if you are using National Geographic Maps website with your students, don’t just send them to the website, give them a clue that is related to the website such as “Capital of Colorado”. Students have to correctly solve the puzzle to unlock access to the game. The password “Denver” would provide students with access to the website. Create Trick.ly shortened url’s with math, geography, history, spelling, vocabulary, science, or foreign language problems built in. Make the clue to solve related to the end website that students will access. Kids enjoy solving problems, adding a puzzle to a website gives students a sense of anticipation for the activity they will be completing. Trick.ly urls take just seconds to create, they are a fast, easy way to direct your students to a website.

Tips: Trick.ly would be a great way to share websites and web pages that you create for your classroom. We have a school Facebook and Twitter account. If I wanted to share pictures I took of our school carnival, I could share them with Trick.ly, adding a layer of protection.

Please leave a comment and share how you are using Trick.ly in your classroom.