Symbaloo Revisited

Last year when Google decided to end iGoogle, I wrote a post about Symbaloo.  Thanks to a colleague of mine, I've decided to follow up on my original Symbaloo post.  I continue to use Symbaloo as my organizer of web pages.  I've continued to add frequently used sites to my Symbaloo webmix, and have added so many, that I know need 2 webmixes to contain them all.

Creating, deleting, and editing tiles and webmixes couldn't be any easier.  I've set my own children up with a webmix of approved web pages they can visit.

Then today, when going through my Feedly (because Google ended Google Reader - see a trend here??) articles, one of my colleagues and good friends at Kentucky Education Television (KET) had not only created a Symbaloo webmix for Arts Integration, but she also published it, and it is now accessible to anyone who wants to add her webmix to theirs.  With my expanded role this year leading our elementary library media specialists, this tool will be invaluable to me.

In fact, I feel inspired to create and publish a webmix of my favorite web tools for teachers and technology integration.  With a new school year starting this week, this will be on my back burner for now, but watch for my shared webmix soon!

New Year, New Goals, Updated Blog

As we grow closer and closer to Winter Break, I feel it is time to update and refresh this blog.  This blog will be completely freshened up with a new look and a new name and a new focus.  When I initially started this blog, the intention was to provide resources for the teachers in The Kenton County School District in Northern Kentucky.  Over the past 3 1/2 years, I have seen an increase of hits from folks all over the globe. I'm therefore going to change the focus of this blog from a local focus to the worldwide focus that it needs.

From my standpoint, this is going to require a name change for the blog.  However, I'm struggling to come up with a "clever" and memorable name for the blog, so I'm asking for your help.  If you have a suggestion for the new name of this blog I'd love to hear it!  I'm trying to incorporate some of the following words into the blog, but I'm not limited to these words: Ed, Technology Integration, & K-12 Education.  Unfortunately I don't have anything I can offer as a prize for the winner with the exception of my undying gratitude and collegial friendship.

I'm a big fan of Richard Byrne and his Free Technology for Teachers blog, and I wouldn't presume to duplicate what he has already created and mastered.  Instead, I want to create a conversation around how technology impacts education, how we can better use the tools we already have, and get discussion from everyday educators as to how they're using technology in the classroom.

So there you have it.  Let me hear your naming suggestions for the blog, and beginning January 2, 2013, let's really get a conversation rolling.