Week 5 - Glogster Reflection

What is it?

Glogster is an online multimedia poster tool with text, graphics, images, sound, video and much more. It enables learners to creatively showcase their ICT skills and knowledge as related to a specific topic.   

How can it be used in the classroom?

Glogster gives these examples

 

Source: http://edu.glogster.com/what-is-glogster-edu/

 







This video describes how a Year 4 teacher used Glogster in her classroom to facilitate learning. Learners were able to find, save and identify images and text relating to the states they were researching. They used Glogster with a written assignment "passport" task and Google Earth to drop pins at the location of their chosen state and include a link to their glogster. Students were given a stamp for each state they "visited" based on what they had learnt about that state. Information about each state was documented in the learners passports. 

When creating a Glog I chose the topic of Weather. I have embedded my Glog below.

 

 
I used a PMI analysis to critically analyse this software tool.

Pluses	Minuses	Implications
Fun and interactive way to learn	Requires high speed internet	May not be readily available to all learners outside of the classroom
Can enhance learners’ multimedia skills	Is prone to freezing and glitches (from my experience)	Lengthy process due to recurrent errors in the software
Can be used collaboratively	Has a limited subscription	Learners do not receive free access to this software for very long hence it is expensive for schools to purchase. However the software allows the teacher to get a subscription for each member of class
Appropriate for use across both primary and secondary school	Needs supervision at all times to ensure appropriate material is added	Ensure learners understand the code of conduct for online use
No software installation	Requires hefty download	May not be the preferred software due to its expense
Learners can create an assignment page that is like a work of art	Requires a lot of time to complete	Learners would need extra class time to complete this task.
Allows learners to be creative and express their thoughts and ideas in a different context	Has too many options and add-ons that learners may put all their effort into making it look good	Learners can lose sight of the bigger picture (focus topic)

After having to start my Glog from scratch 5 times I finally managed to save it before it froze. I was less than impressed with the software because of how unreliable it was. I hate to imagine the situation in a classroom with 30 frustrated learners all coming up to me to tell me their glogs had been wiped. In reading I saw that many reviews of Glogster state that a disadvantage is its need for high speed broadband (http://missshill.wordpress.com/2009/02/25/glogster/, http://mattfreeman2010.wikispaces.com/glogster) but even though I have good broadband it still froze.

However aside from that issue Glogster was a very fun tool to use. I could see learners being thoroughly engaged in this task however hopefully not to the extent where they lose focus on the task. 

Glogster may be the way of the future but for now I'll stick with more reliable software like Prezi or Powerpoint.