The "thing" I've decided to talk about is Glogster. I think it's a great tool for people in school, though some folks do run into blocks on their school internet. However, I'd hate to see it limited just to students using it for book talks. (Even though that's what I did with the Glog I made. More on that in a bit.)
Glogster, if you don't know, is kind of like an animated blog/bulletin board combo. You come up with a theme or main idea, then you add pictures, video, portions of songs, words, etc. You can create a background, come up with different icons and texts to use within items, embed links. I really feel like there are scads of options, limited only to the user's imagination.
While Glogster is free--users earn G points to use towards tools within the program--I've used the EDU version. I signed up, using my UNO e-mail address, acting as a teacher. Although I have no teacher's certificate, I consider myself a teacher when acting in the librarian role. (Yeah, it's a stretch, I know; but it was actually suggested by an instructor of mine.) The EDU version, if you sign up as a single teacher, is free and has what I would call mid-range options. That is, there are more things available than to non-EDU users, but not as many options as those for paying customers. There are four paid options available on the EDU side, in addition to the free version.
I learned about Glogster when I was taking my Teaching and Learning in a Digital Environment (TLDE) class at UNO in the Spring of 2011. Basically, the whole class was focused on learning and using Web 2.0 tools. It was a blast! I'd seen a few people use Glogster, but I hadn't had a need for it at the time. Then, this past fall, I was taking a Children's Literature class, and we had to create a project for a book talk. I'm not 100% sure, but I think I was the only one using Glogster... there were a lot of Animotos and Prezis, which I'd also learned about in TLDE. But I had so much fun creating my Glog, and I know my instructor really got a kick out of it.
Here's just a picture of the Glog:
However, I feel you'd be doing yourself a favor if you clicked on the link below and actually did some exploring within the Glog. You'll get a much better idea of what Glogging is all about!
My First Glog
I'm getting the impression that since I've yet to wrap my head around Pinterest, I think it might explode if I tried to grok Glogster. (But all in a good way ;-)
ReplyDeleteBTW: I clicked the link to look at your glog and got a mostly blank page that did say "Finished private". Might there be a setting you need to change to make it public?
Hmmm... I went in and looked around--there's no way to change it from saying "Finished Private." I mean, I can change it to "Unfinished", but the "private" has to stay. I think this is because of the nature of my account. From what I can tell, it just means I'm the only one who has access to make changes. I'd ask that you go in and try messing around on there again. (I tried it by logging out and going in as a visitor, and it still worked.)
ReplyDeleteA tip: on Glogster, when there's a hot link, a bright pink circle is "drawn" around the item when you hover over it with your mouse. So there may be some items on there that do not contain links--they won't get that pink circle. The things that do have links get the circle. Please let me know how it goes for you.
Thanks so much!
tt
p.s. I'm fully confident you would excel at using Glogster. I'd bet it's mostly a matter of not having a NEED for it at this time. =D