Reflection: Group 3 Technologies - Glogster

The third tool I investigated in the Group 3 technologies was the one that was completely new to me - Glogster EDU. I have vivid memories from when I was a primary school student, of visiting the newsagent to choose my cardboard, drawing feint lines to scribe the information in my best handwriting, glueing pictures on the cardboard, and carting these precious rolled up posters to and from school. Well, Glogster it seems is an amazing alternative to all of that! Students can operate in the current digital world, easily design their own online poster, make links to information and resources across the world wide web, and easily share their poster with their teacher and classmates in a secure environment. Another advantage that appeals to me is that, as a teacher, I can easily monitor student's progress on their posters. I started my own Glog, which inevitably has become a series of Glogs. I found the tool easy to use and a lot of fun. Though for someone who enjoys creating, it certainly can use up a lot of your time!

I have completed a PMI for using Glogster in the classroom

I have some thoughts about how Glogster could be used in eLearning.

Reflections:

My learning: I really love discovering new, interesting online applications, and I was really impressed with Glogster. I found it really easy to get started, and I think students would as well. To begin with, the limitation of having only one set size poster to work within frustrated me, but it dawned on me that was the idea - this was a poster, an online version of the good ol' cardboard version. In the end, I think this helps. It forces one to work within these limitations, select the most important and relevant information, and design the elements so that they are interesting for the viewer. I think this will also make Glogster more accessible for learners, especially the younger ones. The fact that they only have a set area to fill with their information gives them some boundaries, while still allowing them to be creative about how they fill that space.

Potential applications in eLearning: Glogster is an online poster presentation application. Of course, it could be used for learners to create posters in an online space. However, I can see other potential applications beyond that obvious one. I can see applications for Glogster in the classroom for learners to create their own glogs, as well as for me to present learning and information using Glogs. Some examples of potential applications for Glogs in eLearning are: 

Example 1: Learners each choose a different current environmental issue to research. They create a Glog to educate others about the global and local impact, and the actions that people can take to help. The learners' Glog is to include information/video/audio sourced from elsewhere. In addition, learners are to create their own video/audio further detailing to local impact of the issue and what we each can do. All learners' Glogs are then collated on the class website as a comprehensive presentation to the school community of contemporary environmental issues.

Example 2: Student homework is set on Glogs. The teacher creates one Glog per week, and each homework 'poster' would contain a video clip on a topical issue, comprehension questions based on the video clip, a link to set Maths Online activities, and a  or worksheets held in Google documents. Learners are graded on their homework (using the stars rating system in Glogster), and a star rating of three or less instructs learners to revisit the homework and resubmit.

Potential benefits for my learners: Employing a poster presentation is often a welcome change for learners from the typical paper and ink written task. Using Glogster and creating online posters may make it even more interesting and exciting for learners. Additionally, making use of online spaces allows teacher the opportunity to connect learners with sources of information outside the classroom, the school, and the community.

Furthermore, learning experiences using Glogster have the potential to engage learners in higher order thinking. To demonstrate this potential I refer to one of the examples I provided in my previous post on Glogster.  Learners each choose a different current environmental issue to research. They create a Glog to educate others about the global and local impact, and the actions that people can take to help. The learners' Glog is to include information/video/audio sourced from elsewhere. In addition, learners are to create their own video/audio further detailing the local impact of the issue and what we each can do. All learners' Glogs are then collated on the school website as a comprehensive presentation to the school community of contemporary environmental issues.