Peer Review

Glogster

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Reviewed:: Jan 24, 2016 by Teacher Education

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Ratings

Overall Rating:

Content Quality:

Effectiveness:

Ease of Use:

Overview:: Glogster is a web tool and mobile app that allows users to create free interactive posters, or Glogs. A "Glog", short for "graphics blog", is an interactive multimedia image. Glogster empowers educators and students with the technology to create online multimedia posters - with text, photos, videos, graphics, sounds, drawings, data attachments and more. Glogster is an online presentation tool. The name glogster is a combination of Graphics and blog (blog is a combination of web and log/journal). On the Glogster page, the company gives several examples for how it can be used – from science experiment and research reports to field trip summaries and historical narratives. The cost is $39/ year for Elementary, $95/year for Secondary, and $390 a year for faculty (as of 1/11/2016). You can also try a paid license with a 7 day free trial. The website contains a library of completed glogs that are organized by content area and genre/topic. Glogster is also available as an iPad app from the App store. The app is free but will require an account to be able to create glogs.
Type of Material:: Presentation
Recommended Uses:: • Group projects (both in and outside class) in a variety of subject area classrooms • Individual projects (both in and outside class) in a variety of subject area classrooms • Could be useful in presentation and speech assignments • Could be used in extra-curricular/ after-school programs • Could be used as an alternative to written papers or exams.
Technical Requirements:: internet access or download iPad app; if used at a school, the IT department may need to unblock glogster for users.
Identify Major Learning Goals:: According to Glogster: • Develop presentation skills • Improve engagement with content material • Increase digital literacy • Encourage creativity Also – • Practice and hone online source evaluation skills • Develop succinct presentations that provide an argument with supporting material • Creatively display information • Determine most useful evidence for presentations
Target Student Population:: Glogster is appropriate at a variety of levels from elementary school to college. It would also be appropriate for professional development.
Prerequisite Knowledge or Skills:: Students should be able to navigate the internet responsibly and differentiate between reliable and unreliable sources. Students should be able to access multimedia files and copy and paste sharing information.

Content Quality

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Strengths:: Users utilize 21st century skills to develop a digitized presentation. Templates are available for a variety of contents, grade levels, and curricular standards. A online library of completed glogs guide users in how the tool might be used. Glogster has the potential to provide a variety of types of information including visual, textual, and auditory information.
Concerns:: • Instructors will need to identify clear learning objectives in their discipline and for their assignment.

Potential Effectiveness as a Teaching Tool

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Strengths:: • Glogster can easily be integrated into new and existing assignments. • One page presentations are efficient ways of presenting material and force students to choose their information carefully and thoughtfully. • Presenting all of the information on one page forces the student to identify and clarify relationships between the media and information they choose to present.
Concerns:: • Learning objectives are presented on the site but could be expanded to use educational language from the student perspective. • While technical requirements are outlined clearly in one of the user manuals, it would be beneficial to also have an outline of prerequisite knowledge.

Ease of Use for Both Students and Faculty

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Strengths:: • Glogster is of high design quality. Not only is the app and the website designed well, but the tool also provides a wide variety of high quality graphics to be used in student presentations. • In October of 2015, Glogster announced it was now fully functional on android devices as well as ipad and iphone. • Templates make designing a glog interactive and engaging. • Clear instructions help users to create glogs and make them accessible at the institution.
Concerns:: None

Other Issues and Comments:: Good tool for using 21st century skills within content tasks. One issue is that when viewing samples it requests permission to store information on user's device (may use Flash settings).
Creative Commons: