This week I researched the Web 2.0 tool named Glogster. This is a poster making site that lets you be as creative as you want making online posters. The purpose is to create dynamic, and motivating poster to display on your wiki or website. The site includes graphics, opportunities for text, hypertext, images, video, audio, and creative, colorful backgrounds.
I think this site has the potential to be fabulous. It does have a steep learning curve to it. When you first go to the site, it lets you create a beautiful poster all gussied up and wonderful. When you press save and publish, it brings you to the registration page and erases your “draft.” I know I was not the only one who did this, because several people put it on the blog roll they have on their site. Once you get past this point and get ready to recreate the poster you had before, you realize that you need to buy the deluxe version in order to have all the same gadgets. This is only $99.00 per year, and worth it for all the potential uses in the classroom, but a letdown nonetheless.
I was excited to include video and audio on these. It would be great to create a poster page with all sorts of information relative to the topic. Research links, informational videos, podcasts, pictures, and even kid-friendly directions for their projects. Students can visit these poster sites and explore creatively on their own. Students could create posters as their final project for a summative assessment. They could use this site to create book review posters. Other students would love to explore other children’s work. The possibilities are endless, if you can deal with a few loops of frustration.
For example, I decided while I was playing around that I would put some sound into my poster. I used their “grabbing” software and it was extremely easy to use! The recording came out sounding nice, but I couldn’t for the life of me get the sound into the poster. It just kept coming up with the default harp-like sound. You can supposedly upload through a file made in garage band, but this would add difficult step for the typical third grader to do. Well, difficult even for an adult. I created a file in garage band, uploaded it without a hitch but it still won’t insert into the Glog. Hmm. I wonder what the hold up is? Hopefully I can work out this kink soon.
Here is the link to the Glog I created for a poetry assignment. I envision students doing audio recordings of the poem(s) that inspired them to write and then a video recording of themselves reciting their poem. We could put these Glogs on our Blog and students can comment on each other’s work. I think this would very much motivate the students to expand their creativity in poetry. And if anyone has any insight into adding sound, please let me know!
**p.s. I tried the sound again just five short hours later when I awoke in the morning and lo and behold it worked! I did nothing differently, so no answers there, but it worked! Click on the arrow on the old phonograph to see!**
http://roberla0.glogster.com/poetry/
This is a tool that I would like to explore.The poster is intriguing and catches my attention. I like the moving arrows and the audio. Also, I think students would have fun creating a poster of their own. Definitely one to add to the list. I think this could also be used in the business world. It would be a great way for companies to advertise online.
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