Do you have an online space to curate and share information? I’ve been a fan of bulb+ for years, and I’m excited to share their free teacher accounts with you today! In this blog post, I’ll share two big use cases for this free online tool for teachers. You’ll also hear how the folks at bulb have just given teachers access to free bulb+ accounts. This school year you can curate resources and create portfolios with a free bulb+ account!
Regular readers of the blog know that I often use the phrase “open-ended creation tools.” It’s a topic I talk about in my book Tasks Before Apps and an essential aspect of using digital tools in the classroom. Open-ended creation tools give teachers and students a space they can completely customize.
Free bulb+ Accounts for Teachers
bulb is a powerful, free classroom tool. It can transform the way you share information with students and families. And it can change the way students share their learning with teachers, classmates, families, and the world! Below I share a few use cases. You’ll see how a free bulb+ account can give you space to curate resources for students and create portfolios — something students can do too!
bulb+ is free for teachers, and you can use your bulb as an online space to develop and share beautiful content. You can now set up a bulb+ account for free! Here’s the full announcement. Teachers can design a space that holds all of your digital favorites in one place. With bulb, you have the option to create and customize pages with text, link, videos, files, and more. Your bulb can stay private, or you can decide to share your online space with the world!
Curating Resources with bulb
When you open up bulb for the first time, you can customize your profile and get ready to create a page. If you use this space to curate resources for students, you have a few different options. Curation is all about handpicking the best resources around a topic or idea. So you might decide to curate resources for families to help them find resources. Your page can feature the best online tutorials for their children with links they can click on.
What if students are your audience? You might create a page with video links you want them to watch before coming to class. This way they can watch a clip and come prepared for a class discussion. Alternatively, your audience could include your colleagues. You might make a bulb page full of curriculum resources that can help them prepare for an upcoming unit. As you can see in the image below, you have the option to add lots of different items to your page.
Create Portfolios with bulb
With a free bulb+ account, teachers can create personal collections. You can use bulb as a space to share professional learning plans and reflect on current practices. It’s also a space to share success stories after meeting PD goals. bulb is perfect for tracking professional development. You can also use it to showcase badges and credentials you earned too. Here’s a collection of professional development ideas using bulb!
When I think back to my time as a classroom teacher, I often wish I had saved more. I’d love to have a link or a picture of something special to look back on. You can use bulb to create a page with accomplishments and artifacts from the school year. This space might be just for you to look back on. Or you might share your bulb page during a meeting with an administrator or in an interview a new position. This page from bulb includes templates for teachers ready to share their professional learning.
College and Career Readiness
Students can use bulb too! It’s an authentic space for students to build their own portfolio. And they can apply digital citizenship skills at the same time. In addition to preparing students for college and career experiences, portfolios have a definite place in the classroom. Using portfolios to share and celebrate student work can increase student engagement. It can help students build and master future-ready skills too. Are you committed to moving beyond test scores to measure students growth and proficiency? Portfolios are a great option!
Getting Started with bulb+ Accounts
Teachers can create a totally free bulb+ account right away. This page will give you the option to create a free bulb+ account and jump in! I can’t wait to hear about all of the ways you use bulb this school year. Leave a comment or tag me on social media @classtechtips with your bulb stories!
