I logged into Glogster, and I was happy with all of the
templates I could pick! There were about 30 different templates all with
different themes and formats, and I was excited! ‘
I decided to go with a history timeline, and I figured I
could turn this into a timeline for a text. I chose Steinbeck’s The Pearl, which is a novel I teach.
Then, my excitement abruptly stopped.
I feel like Glogster doesn’t work as efficiently as it
could. There are too many buttons, and I usually like having options. There are
buttons for formatting the text box, and then there are buttons for formatting
the text. The problem is the constant clicking and double-clicking on the text
box and highlighting the text. I also found it difficult to keep all of the
text consistent. While all of my text size was at 30, all of the different
boxes were different sizes, so the text looked inconsistent.
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| The Second "Text Box Formatting Box" |
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| The First "Text Box Formatting" Box |
After deciding not to mess around with the frustrating text
anymore, I decided to upload a video. I wanted to pick a Steinbeck biography
available on YouTube. It took me a while to figure out what I actually had to
click to upload a video. I ended up with this screen!
For some reason, my video enlarged a million percent, and it
took up my whole screen! After about a 10-minute freak out, I realized that the
photo from YouTube just took up my whole Glog, so I just had to minimize it. This
also frustrated me, so I decided to add a picture. My “glog-in-progress” said
that I could “Drop Image” into a box, and I figured I could take a saved image
from my Desktop and drag it into the box. Nope. I had to delete the “Drop
Image” box and then upload my image via a randomly placed button, which I am
still unsure as to how I found it.
I think Glogster could be fun a project (mostly at-home) for
students as long as they have at least a week to first learn the tool and
complete the project. Because of all of the templates, there is wide variety of
ways to use it. It could be used for something simple like a book report or
science project, but I think it would be a great way for students to introduce
themselves. With enough time, it would give even the most “uncreative” student
a chance to thoroughly express him or herself. A really awesome glog can look
like this:
I worked for
about an hour, and as a relatively creative and tech person, this is all I
accomplished before calling it quits:
So here is your answer, just in case you haven’t figured it
out yet:
Glogster + Time = Frustration…at least for me
I appreciate the realistic blog showing a negative look at a tool. I feel like Prezi would work well to make a timeline and is easier to navigate. Then students could also work together in real time.
ReplyDeleteLike Amy, I appreciate that you were very honest about how you felt about using this tool. The final results can look fantastic like the "awesome glog" that you posted, but it sounds like it would take quite a bit of practice with Glogster before a teacher or students would get to that level of proficiency. Very good to know - especially since you mentioned in your previous post that this is a fairly expensive tool.
ReplyDeleteOn a completely different topic, I love your writing style. All of your posts are really fun to read. :)
I love this post! It is very pleasing to the eye because of all of the colorful images and videos. I also think it is great that you were honest about Glogster not necessarily being the most user friendly tool. I think that this may be a tool that could be better utilized by high school students considering it may be challenging to use.
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