Tech Tools

Learning, Implementing, and enjoying Glogster!

Over the last few months I've been learning a great deal about various technology tools in my TIE300 course.  Some I liked and thought I might definitely use them again, others not so much.  For my course I was asked to choose three to learn, implement and reflect on there uses in the classroom.
My first choice is Glogster. 

What's a Glogster?

Glogster is an on-line multimedia poster tech tool.  Glogster allows teacher's to create private, safe virtual classrooms with safe logins and passwords.  They are able to design curriculum based projects where students can collaborate on projects and yet work on them independently at any time.  Glogster provides students a platform to express their ideas, artistic creations and display their knowledge with text, photos, videos, graphics, drawings and data attachments.  It provides an adaptable and innovative learning environment for students to independently express themselves regardless of their learning styles.  I believe this site allows students imagination and creativity to lead their learning.

Is Glogster difficult or not?

Initially I found Glogster to be a little confusing, there was very     little instructions.  But after playing around on it, after awhile I found it to be quite easy to use.  On the other hand, I found the embedding process was quite difficult and confusing.  Again there was little if any instructions on how to embed my Glogster to my blog.  I basically had to do it with the trial and error process.
As you can see I finally got it to embed but I couldn't resize it once it was there (due to my inexperience).  But it's there!

How to Use it in the Classroom.

As an example of a Glogster and it's use in the classroom, I designed a "Theme" bulletin board poster.  This virtual poster allows the teacher to post each week's theme, for parents to view what their children are learning each week.  The teacher is able to post the learning concepts, poems, songs, and activities relating to the theme of the week.  It also can have a home/school connection section to inform parents of activities to be done at home.  This could be very beneficial for those parents who don't have the opportunity to visit the school much but want to remain engaged parents.
I believe this interactive multi-media tool will be quite beneficial in the classroom.

http://carlarwilliams8.edu.glogster.com/the-five-senses-glog/