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Monday, November 3, 2008

Glogster

I first learned about Glogster a while ago but didn't share it because it is one of those sites with a great tool but also a lot of user generated content that would not be appropriate for k-12 students to see or read. Thankfully, like so many other Web 2.0 tools, Glogster has come out with an education version of their tool that filters through the content more effectively and provides a safer learning environment for students.

So what does Glogster allow you to do? Basically, you can create your own online "poster" using images, text, video clips and audio files. They refer to these creations as "glogs", which I'm guessing is a take-off on blogs (maybe graphical blogs?) but that's just a guess. In a sense, a glog is like a single webpage but I think it also helps to imagine it as an electronic or online multimedia poster. There is a social networking element to this site in that users can create a profile and share their creations with others. I've included a sample glog below to give you an idea of what one of these might look like. Glogster has all the capabilities that you would expect as far as being able to embed your finished product and share it with others. The possibilities are endless with this and it would be very easy to incorporate into an existing website or Wiki.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Glogster could have a great impact on teaching and learning within the classroom. So many students enjoy doing art work. But sometimes teachers who don't have poster boards available do have computers with Internet connectivity.

Thanks for sharing.

Stein Brunvand said...

Good point Andrew. And from an environmental standpoint, it would be nice to have kids create some artifacts of their learning that didn't require so much paper.

S. Kennedy said...

Did you actually figure out how to do this? I have student accounts but am not clear on how to have students start using them. There are no instructions and I haven't been successful so far.

Stein Brunvand said...

I created a few student accounts just to test this all out. Once I verified my e-mail address they sent me the student usernames and passwords. The passwords are completely random and impossible to remember but that will make them more secure I suppose. I logged in with one of the student accounts and there was a button on my profile page that said "Create a New Glog". Once I clicked on that I was taken to a new screen that provided me with many different editing options for my new Glog. I then saved it and had the option to share it as a link or embed it somewhere. Have you been able to get that far with a student account?

Neil Stephenson said...

Great to see another teacher using Glogster. My students are in the middle of project where they're using Glogster to create a multi-media timeline for events in Canadian history.So far they are really enjoying it. You can read more here: http://thinkinginmind.blogspot.com/2009/03/creating-historical-timelines-with.html

Stein Brunvand said...

I love the idea of using Glogster to create timelines Neil. It really gives students the opportunity to present their information in a very creative way.