Scaffolding Success: Growing with GlogsterEDU

Interested?  "What do you want to create next?" I inquire. "A glog, glog!!" they all shout.  Glogster EDU is a wonderful site that allows educators and students to create online multi-media posters. It's a creative digital outlet that increases student engagement. Interactive Glogs can include text, graphics, images, links, audio, video, and more! We’ve found success this year with GlogsterEDU through the scaffolding process.  So, here's the story of how we all became GlogsterEDU Ambassadors this school year! 

innovative?  Since the EDU version was developed we dove in head first!  It's one of my favorite learning tools for SO many reasons.  Personally, I'm drawn by the creative element of the online poster concept.  Educationally, I can't express how motivating glog creation is for even my most difficult to reach students.

Last school year I took a different approach with most of the projects my students created. Each of them made their own product and few were collaborative in nature. The students tech skills grew, but they were missing some elements. Our favorite glogs from last year were part of our Backyard Birds Unit. Student groups wrote and performed an original reader’s theater together for Mr. Durren's class is Virginia that we connected with through the distance learning lab in the high school. Yet, their glogs were made and presented on their own.

This school year, a new approach was attempted in hopes that the students would not only benefit from the necessary components of communication that come from working on a collaborative project, but that they’d be able to learn tips, tricks, and skills from each other along the way. @ktenkely calls it viral learning when kids learn quickly from each other!  While working on a group project, it became more about the process than solely the finished product.

This Year's Stages of Growth…
Multi-media Book Reports - Why not create them with an online poster "board"?

Thanksgiving Reader's Theater - A way to display the characters and their final production!

Arctic Animal Adventure and Vote - Multi-step cross-curricular project that was one of this year's favorites!

Favorite Tech Tools 4 My Student Teacher - Easy way to share favorite links to inspire others and make them easily accessible!

Collaborative Olympic Research - Designing glogs together with Skype's screen share feature made awesome collab reports!

What is a Community? Adventure - Need a way to organize a global project and catch other educator's attention - use a glog!

Sign-Language Thank You "Card" - Looking for that special way to show your appreciation?

Summer Workshop Poster - Make your workshop poster interactive to encourage attendees and give all the "attachments" a home!

Candy Corn Contest - One reading group developed their own glog-creation contest for a book extension project!

Pond Life Interactive Reports - Our most-interactive glogs yet - a memorable project that involved learning lots of tech skills along the way. 

Our Final Project:


Basic Version Thoughts...

GRAPHICS - There's such a variety, so we try to focus on making sure that our graphics make sense with our glog's purpose.  My students "hunt" for the animated ones - I don't blame them!  Natalie came up with a great idea for using the same graphic multiple times for bullets when listing items. 

TEXT - We've learned this year how to choose what kind of text will best suit the need.  For example, bubbles = "quotes" to correlate with photos, titles = short text and labels, and stickers = lengthier text such as facts.

IMAGE - Since we now have a shared folder at our district, this has opened up a whole new world for my students.  For their final project, they not only had access to copy-right free images we located together, but to every other group's photos and videos that they'd taken down at the school pond.
VIDEO - Utilizing our digital cameras to create their own videos are so engaging.  It allows the students to be creators offline and problem solve as they take each others' video for a specific project.   
SOUND - We've used the iPod and uploaded clips, but we'll be exploring the GRAB feature more.
WALL - It can be such an understatement or the main feature of a glog.  Students take on how they use the "background" is always interesting and shows their personal style. 

Premium Version Thoughts…

DRAW - My primary students LOVE this feature.  Yet, I've used it to create quick arrows and circles as well.  A super-useable feature for any glogger!

DATA - We used it for our notes page for our pond project.  It could really be used to "attach" about anything to a glog.  My only thinking is that if you want others to know that the little bitty paper clip is there and that there's important information available use some text and/or graphics to nake it more known.

CLASS CREATION - We'll be utilzing this more next year, but I'd value it extremely if my students were older.

PROJECT CREATION - Initially, I thought that this would deter from their own creativity.  Yet, for some of my students, this will be the starting point that they need to succeed.  I'll be exploring the use of creating templates more.
ASSESSMENT OPTION - What a nice element to have.  It's wonderful how the developers at GlogsterEDU left it open-ended so that teacher can choose formative or summative assessment options.  Just be sure to have your students check their messages so they receive their grades and comments from the teacher.

Other Option Thoughts...

FRAMES/PLAYERS - Some utilize this feature consistently, while other students like it simple.  The frames and players add just that extra little decorative touch to videos, sound clips, and images!

LAYERING - My students often forget about this element.  They spread everything out.  Sometimes they run short on space and I'll suggest maybe they want to "bring it forward" or "put it behind" to create less scatter and more room.

CLONING - Did you find an element you'd like to use over and over? Just clone it. This time saver is priceless! There are times that my students could re-use some of their favorites non-stop if there was an infinate cloner setting like in SMARTnotebook.

LINKING - This has been very beneficial to link all of the glogs they've designed together.  This creates only one glog to embed, plus gives room for the project to be explained to the viewers.  For an interactive lesson on a topic, the link feature would be valuable.

COLORS/FONT - Not only can you alter the basics, but the actual text sticker or title can be changed as well.  The students have adapted to the fact that sometimes they need to adjust the size of their text.  They need to be careful that all of their words are seen and that they are the correct size for the object they've chosen.

FX - I learned what this was about from Tiffany this year!  She was creating shadows and couldn't wait to share what she'd found with me.  I'm glad she did!

Next Year’s Goals...
1. Keep our glogs simpler at times - even though the tool bar offers so much, it doesn't mean that every glog needs to incorporate every aspect!
2. Center station – add to a glog like an online sticky note (wallwisher) like Aviva Dunsinger, @grade1, had her students create with their music glogs.
3. Start independent glog creation sooner for all of the ability levels- each year they are ready for more at a quicker pace.
4. Re-design my class website - embed more glogs for sub-pages to branch from.

5. Unit planning - utilize the DATA feature more for notes pages for the projects and the PROJECTS for creating templates for those learners who need more support.

6. Check out other features - Link (directly to images and videos) instead of upload, SchoolTube videos search, Sharing of Glogs, and more....

My Adventure As an Official Ambassador This Spring…

1. Confronted with Challenges – A high school teacher in our district had just signed up for the Premium version and she had questions.  This encouraged me to problem solve and figure them out.  While doing so, I learned more about the details of certain aspects of GlogsterEDU that I probably wouldn't have explored otherwise.

2. Forces one to think about Feedback – I'm a natural reflector. But, it was one of the "requirements" of becoming an ambassador and rightfully so. They are striving to contiually make improvements.  I suggested a capture feature like VoiceThread and they have it already in the GRAB feature.  I wouldn’t have known if I hadn't have asked.  Last year I didn’t have a webcam and my own mic and I don't think I've click on GRAB since!  I'm looking forward to GlogsterEDUs addition of a search feature merely for the time-saving element.  I'm hoping that they will also add a collaborative feature in the future to share creation of glogs with another student or another class.  I'm so glad that the developers live by their saying of "GlogsterEDU is YOURS!"  They listen to feedback and are constantly making it even better!

3. Summer Workshop – I'm looking forward to a mix of teaching, learning adventures, and immediate implementation of GlogsterEDU with teachers from my district.  There are teachers from PreK - 10th grade registered, so hopefully we'll have a lot to learn from each other as well.  This time I'll be conducting the workshop and that in of itself will be a learning experience, but I can't wait for this opportunity to share something I've found so beneficial. 

4. My Mini-Ambassadors – Some of my students have earned this title in my classroom.  I'm learning from them many little tricks and new elements such as bullets from a graphic, play a video in edit mode, tab opens at the top for some things, etc.
5. Education Glogster Ning Network - The educators I've connected with so far are super helpful and approachable.  They are very supportive of each other in their endeavors to promote GlogsterEDU and it's educational advantages. I look forward to learning and sharing more in this network.

IMPACT?  It was brief in reality, but it seemed almost like an eternity. We were down in the lab and all of the students had signed on their computers, followed the multi-step process of logging into GlogsterEDU, and were engaged in their assignment. Every single students was on task and independently working on their Pond Life glogs. At first I was in disbelief, but then realized how much they’ve really grown this year. The little seeds that were encouraged, taught, and watered…. were flourishing.  The gradual release approach this year worked and we all learned more through the process. 

Impressed?  Overall, I've been extremely amazed by GlogsterEDU and what they offer educationally.  Also, in terms of tech troubles, they have the most helpful and approachable support team.  Jim Dachos, @glogstereduman, has been knowlgedable, supportive, and wonderful to work with.  His customer service it top-notch.    

Would it have been easier to have them create glogs all year on their own? Maybe. Do I think they would have learned as much? Probably not. The super-friendly user interface just makes it easy to manage for ALL of my second grade students, no matter what their ability level is.  This "Glogster Queen" looks forward to creating along with my next years' learners with GlogsterEDU!