Wednesday, February 5, 2014

Gibbon: A must use tool for learning

Last night, as I was sitting in my giant, round, comfortable chair, day dreaming about my new computer and sunsets, I suddenly jolted upright because a thought dawned on me: wouldn't it be cool to have a tool that you could provide your students to allow them easy and instant access to online material? Well, I quickly scampered to my computer and started searching. I found a site called "Gibbon" and I'm excited to start using it. With Gibbon, you are given the opportunity to create "flows" which are simply streams of online articles/websites that you find. When you create a "flow", you can then add anything to it, which makes it available to your students. You would simply post the flow link on your website so the students would be able to access it. If you find a website you would like to use, simply copy and paste the website into your flow and it's instantly added. But it gets even easier: Gibbon has a Google Chrome extension which makes adding to your flow much more efficient. The Gibbon Chrome extension can be added through the Chrome store for free. As you are searching the web for articles/websites you want your students to have, simply click the Gibbon icon in your chrome browser, choose which "flow" to add it to, and it's done. That easy. You can also create your own personal "playlist" to track topics and articles that are of interest to you. This is a good way to promote learning and to keep providing your students with good reading material. It's free. It's great. Try it out. What have you got to lose? 

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