Putting myself in the position of a second-year ELA teacher in a Cobb County school one online website I would be willing to argue for is Glogster Edu. I had never heard of Glogster or Glogster for Educators until it was presented in the class, but I now have three of my own glogs, if that tells you anything. As soon as I checked out the educational glog site I was hooked and overwhelmed with possibilities for my future classroom, only to find out that Gloster is considered a “social networking site.” This means that in most school systems Gloster will be inaccessible to you and your students! So why do we have an entire class in college devoted to teaching us interesting and useful ways to use online and digital applications to engage students with high-level and interesting projects if we can’t even use them when we get to the classroom? Is it an evil plot to get our delicate pre-teacher hopes up for nothing?
One teacher argues they are “Virtual Online Posters”. They take a trip down memory lane as they remanice about their old poster makin’ days, but now we have a much cooler and more efficient ways to make posters that display what the students have learned.
Posters are a good medium for students to convey what they have learned. The author of this glog, Tony Vincent, states, “A lot of thought goes into making a poster. The poster-maker has to decide what and how much text to include. The creator also needs to decide what images to use and their placement. Layout, colors, and theme are important considerations when designing a poster.” Not only do the students have to use creativity and thinking skills but they also feel a since of accomplishment because their work can be published for everyone to see. I mean they have their own personal website to show off. In my opinion this makes the kids become more invested in their work.
Secondly, consider this glogster project concerning the topic environmental heroes. This one specifically is obviously about Jane Goodall, but how much more interesting is this as opposed to the everyday research paper these students are used to writing? Not only are projects like this more enjoyable to the students, but they are also beneficial to teachers. They provide an opportunity to see the student’s creativity, and they are also a lot less boring to grade! I mean, am I right?
Another example of a useful way to use Gloster Edu is in this 1st grade glog. 1st graders like things that are visual and interesting, which is what this glog site provides. It’s also a useful and easy to use tools for parents to keep in touch with what their children are doing at school. The page is easy to navigate and pretty self-explanatory.
Teachers even make glogs with useful resources for other teachers to have access to like this glog about different web tools. What a fun way to share interesting classroom activities, technologies, and strategies all on one single page! What if every teacher created a glog like this with websites and tools they have found to be helpful in the past. This would be a tremendous tool for beginning teachers and even older teachers who may be a little out of the “technology loop.”
LET’S HERE IT FOR THE GLOG!!!!
dcrovitz Said:
on November 3, 2009 at 5:10 pm
Fairly convincing in an effort to articulate the benefits of the site as a resource…I’d expect that edu.glogster.com will eventually become accessible from schools….