I have been playing with EdShelf, an online tool that helps teachers organize lists of apps and other resources they use into webmixes. It is free and so far has been easy to use. Basically, you create a collection (or more than one) and add the tools to it. Each tool is in the database with a brief video, reviews, and pricing info. One feature that is especially nice is that if you choose to print the list, it automatically adds QR codes to link to the website for each tool. You can embed your collections on websites to share with students, parents, and other educators.
Unfortunately, the embed code they provide doesn’t work well with Google sites. Google is pretty particular about what kind of embed codes they allow. There is a workaround, though. What you need to do is to insert the entire webpage into a frame on your Google site. Just follow these steps.
- Log into EdShelf.com.
- Find your name on the right side, click it, and select the webmix you want to include.
- When the webmix page opens, select and copy the url.
- Log into your Google site and click where you want to embed the webmix.
- Choose Insert from the menu at the upper left.
- Choose More Gadgets, then Include gadget (iFrame). Click Select.
- Paste the url to your webmix in the box marked URL to content, adjust your other settings, and click OK.
I have never used edshelf before. How do you find your teachers like it. How does it compare with http://www.symbaloo.com/ ?
None of my teachers have started using it yet. I myself have only used it for a little bit, but I think it is quite different from symbaloo. Symbaloo allows you to organize links to different websites, but edshelf is focused more on organizing tools. Those tools may be websites like http://www.prezi.com or http://www.voicethread.com, but they can also be computer software applications or tablet apps.
I see two main reasons to use edshelf. First, you can show people, including parents, what tools you are using in your classroom. This can be especially helpful in the elementary grades when students want to tell parents about what they are doing in school but don’t remember what the name of a particular application or website is, but seeing your webmix can also be an inspiration for other teachers. Second, teachers can review the tools on the edshelf site, whether they have them in a collection or not, making edshelf a collaborative resource you can use when you want to expand your teaching toolkit. Obviously, the more people who use it in this way, the more valuable it will become.