“Glogging” in the 21st Century

Leslie KeithITEC 7445Dr. MooreNovember 11, 2013Emerging Technology

What is Glogster EDU?

• Glogster EDU is a new expressive multimedia technology for students to utilize in the classroom through glogs. A glog is an online multimedia presentation that incorporates texts, photos, graphics, sounds, drawings, and more. It encourages students to develop independence, differentiation, and protects with a privacy setting for teachers and students alike.

• The main benefits, as stated by Glogster EDU, are as follows: enable standards mastery, promote digital literacy, promote problem solving, demonstrate understanding of curriculum objectives, fulfill UDL principles, enhance formative/summative assessments, and promote differentiation.

• Glogster EDU in 90 Seconds

How Does This Technology Support the Vision for Technology Use in our School?•Daniell Middle School follows the Cobb

County Technology Plan which states “Technology, as an integral part of curriculum, instruction, assessment and learning, prepares students to succeed in a global community. Our students will be equipped with twenty-first century technology skills to demonstrate, apply and communicate their learning. College and career ready graduates must have these skills.”

• http://www.cobbk12.org/centraloffice/instructionaltechnology/TechPlan/2012_2015_CCSD_District_Technology_Plan.pdf

How Does This Technology Support the Vision for Technology Use in our School Cont’d?• Daniell Middle School’s vision includes promoting

student efficacy, improving differentiation, improving instructional environment, and increasing CRCT scores.

• Glogster EDU supports this vision through the key benefits of the program. It encourages problem solving skills, creates fun learning environments and opportunities, and increases participation of students in the classroom.

• Student efficacy and increased instructional environment are promoted through students enjoying the finished product of their work, being engaged while learning, and working in various collaboration groups.

How Does This Technology Support the Vision for Technology Use in our School Cont’d?•Glogster can be accessed at any time and

through creation, students are gaining mastery of the standards they work with on their products.

Evaluation of How Well GlogsterEDU Supports Daniell Middle’s Vision for Technology Use.

• Daniell Middle School has about 1,000 students and is a Title II school. About 15% of these students are students with a disability, 6% are English Language Learners, and about 35% are economically disadvantaged.

• While the school strives to develop higher order and critical thinking skills through engaged learning, there is a need to promote more student efficacy and differentiation.

• Glogster EDU promotes differentiation through all subject matter and topics along with promoting student efficacy and ownership of their product.

Objectives•Increase student mastery of both

technology and Georgia Performance Standards in the classroom.

•Increase and promote student digital literacy through the use of technology as an instructional tool.

•Expand on formative and summative assessments in the general classroom.

•Increase the use of differentiation as a tool of multimedia design.

Key Benefits

•Each student can access all glogs at school and home (if able).

•YouTube videos can be implemented to promote understanding of content for teachers and students.

•Teachers have access to an easy form of differentiation to use in the classroom.

•Students can reread and watch items on glogs several times for reinforcement.

•Glogster EDU teaches students understanding of digital literacy.

Target Population

•Glogster EDU can be utilized for any grade, but upper elementary school (3rd -5th grade) through high school aged students would benefit the most from the technology.

•A 1:1 technology ratio would be ideal to implement Glogster in the classroom; however, students could create glogs in partners or groups of three if necessary.

•Glogster EDU requires access to the internet from school and/or home.

Technology Equipment and Software

•The technology must be purchased via the school or district for use in the classroom.

•Students and teachers must have access to either desktop or laptop computers with internet connectivity to create their glogs.

•Students need headphones to listen to audio or video clips included in glogs.

Technical Support

•Cobb County School District has a great Technical Support group that can provide internet or site tech support if the need arises.

•Glogster EDU has a list of Frequently Asked Questions for teachers and students to utilize when needing assistance.

•YouTube has several videos on how to use and implement various portions of Glogster in the creation of a glog. Teachers could use or share this tool to provide another technical support.

Limitations

• To access Glogster EDU from home, students must access to the internet.

• Students must access the internet via computer at school to complete the project (in class or a computer lab).

• The price for school districts may hinder schools from accessing Glogster EDU.

• Parents may not be comfortable with students posting created work on the web due to privacy.▫There are Privacy Settings for teachers to

utilize which keep students safe. ▫Students should go only by first names.

Cost of the Technology

•Glogster EDU does have a cost to purchase the product. It ranges from a “free” trial for teachers to a design for best fit. There are four basic plans available on the site, which are the most common plans purchased.▫10 students/1 teacher: $10▫30 students/1 teacher: $25▫125 students/1 teacher: $39 (most

common)▫250 students/10 teachers: $125

Cost of the Technology Cont’d

•Students need access to a technology device to implement Glogster EDU. Computer or laptop are the best choices, but if it became a financial problem, tablets could be another choice for purchase. (Schools already have at least one classroom computer along with several computer labs, so no additional technology may have to be provided).

Potential Funding Sources

•Cobb County has various funds available for schools to implement new means of technology and support.

•Daniell could provide funding as a means of helping students and increasing school efficacy through school funds.

•Teachers could utilize DonorsChoose.org to seek funds for an individual teacher/class through a teacher proposal.

•Many grants are available to help implement various forms of technology available to schools.

Additional Potential Funding Sources

•Daniell could seek a grant available through various companies that seek to provide technology in schools.

•Individual teachers could purchase the package that meets their individual needs if only one specific teacher wants to utilize the technology.

•Daniell subject areas could use their subject area money to provide this technology to students.

How Can Teachers Use This Technology?•Using Glogster EDU, teachers can

reinforce content standards through authentic student created projects/glogs.

•Teachers can create glogs for students to research for tools and video resources on various topics for the classroom learning.

•Teacher use of Glogster EDU helps students learn digital literacy procedures from the ISTE NETS-S.

•Videos and tutorials can be placed on glogs for students to view for remediation and extension work.

How Does This Technology Promote Specific Learning Goals?• Teachers can pose higher order thinking

questions to be answered by students through the creation of glogs using videos, audio, and information. This is a wonderful tool for self expression and detail to be expressed by a student.

• Glogs can be published on the internet to be shared with other teachers/students.

• Glogs can be used as formative and summative assessments in the classroom throughout lessons and units.

• Teachers can guide students through learning by having them teach themselves.

Differentiation• Glogster EDU has a focus on allowing and

encouraging differentiation in the classroom.▫Learning can be differentiated easily by content.▫Students can choose topics of interest to create

their glogs on in the classroom. Teachers can assign students content standards

or topics of focus to create a glog. Glogs can be used to remediate or enrich

through the technicality and difficulty level.▫This tool allows for easy collaboration with peers,

too. Students can co-create a glog expressing both their thoughts and ideas on a topic.

▫Can be accessed anywhere internet or WiFi is available.

Differentiation cont’d• Encourages diversity in the classroom.

▫Students can express various levels of creation through blogs.

▫Students can work together to meet the needs of any student in the classroom regardless of the topic.

• Teachers and students can create glogs using glogster.▫Teachers can assign different students a topic to

view their original posts.▫Students can use differentiation by process in

choosing what type of multimedia they express their information through on their glog.

▫Students with Disabilities or English Language Learners can benefit from varied types of multimedia including still images, text, audio, and video links.

How Can This Technology Promote Communication?

•Teachers can communicate to students via Glogster EDU by posting a glog on how to use it. ▫This could be accessed easily at school or home.▫It allows tutorials to be viewed simply and

multiple times.•Glogster EDU allows glogs to be published on

the web to communicate the student’s topic to other students and teachers.

•Students could be required to view others glogs and write about what they viewed or answer various questions.

How Can This Technology Promote Communication cont’d?•Students can communicate with classmates

as they view other student’s glogs.•Teachers could link the glogs students

create to a wiki page to allow discussion online for both students and parents to view.

•Teachers can require their students to share and comment on various glogs via Edmodo in the classroom. This is simple due to students being able to upload their glogs directly to Edmodo.

Evaluation of Research

•While Glogster and Glogster EDU came about in 2007, there appears to be little true research on the sole effectiveness of it in the classroom. ▫ It is often tied to the components of specifics

such as Universal Design or differentiation.•“Writers can develop multimodal texts using

Glogster by embedding a range of modes to convey a unified message. These virtual posters can be shared with a global audience, providing important opportunities for students to critically examine their work” (Karchmer-Klein & Shinas, 2013).

Evaluation of Research

•Reaching the entended audience can be challenging. Glogster EDU has helped bridge this gap for authentic meaning of projects via multimedia glogs/posters.

•On the ASCD website, they mentioned “There is a difference between passively displaying students' work on a classroom wall and directing students' work to an authentic audience. With a glog, students' work can be either public or private, and they can put it on other websites, if desired” (Bedell, 2011).

Professional Learning/Implementation•The first step to implementation will be to

share and teach the new technology to the staff.

•Teachers will need to be trained to use Glogster EDU properly before it can become an effective tool in the classroom.▫Teachers can be trained during planning or

allotted professional development training time. Additional planning time may be used to become

proficient. Teachers can use the Quick Reference Cheat sheet

to refer to as they learn Glogster EDU.▫Teachers can view Glogster EDU to help view

training glogs about the program.

▫Teachers will learn how to use the program on all types of technology available (computer/laptop and/or tablets/iPads).

▫This professional development could be completed on the weekly training from the Instructional Technologist. This would alleviate any additional costs for

the school to pay for the training. Mentor teachers with strong backgrounds in

technology can help struggling students proceed with the new technology.

Professional Learning/Implementation cont’d

Reflections• When I chose Glogster EDU, I had only recently heard of it; I

was unsure of what it entailed. Through this assignment, I was able to learn how this technology can help provide Universal Design and differentiation, along with many other helpful tools in the classroom. It help me realize simple tools to incorporate all learning styles in the form of an engaging lesson. It will be a wonderful tool to have in the future in my classroom. I look forward to implementing Glogster EDU in my classroom as a teacher. I hope that I can encourage my colleagues and administration to want to purchase the rights to this excellent program for classroom use. It is a wonderful tool that is versatile in all core and connections courses. It will help encourage the students to grasp those important content standards through a new and “fun” learning approach.

• If students can learn to approach education in a fun and engaging way, they will want to take the constructivist learning approach: they will want to seek answers to questions posed by teachers.

Works Cited

• Bedell, J. 2011. Tech for teachers Glogster—a new way to look at the poster project. ASCD Express, 7 (2), Retrieved from: http://www.ascd.org/ascdexpress/vol7/702-bedell.aspx [Accessed: 27 Oct 2013].

• Karchmer-Klein, R. and Shinas, V. 2013. Using Glogster to support multimodal literacy. [online] Available at:

http://www.readwritethink.org/professional-development/strategy-guides/using-glogster-support-multimodal-30789.html

[Accessed: 27 Oct 2013].• Team, G. 2013. What is Glogster edu? | Glogster EDU - 21st century

multimedia tool for educators, teachers and students. [online] Available at: http://edu.glogster.com/whatis-glogster-edu [Accessed: 20 Oct 2013].

• Web 2.0 Teaching Tools. 2013. Glogster, a Web 2.0 teaching tool supporting 21st century learning skills. [online] Available at: http://www.web2teachingtools.com/glogster.html

[Accessed: 20 Oct 2013].