Now that I have finished my digital story, I can reflect a bit on the process. Honestly, I had so much fun creating my glogster, and I can see how it could become very addicting.
The tool itself gives you the option of adding sound, text, video and has a ton of images you can use from their site, as well as adding your own. I found that not many images on the site fit with the feel or look I was going for, so opted to use my own pictures, as well as some from creative commons. Being able to incorporate all of these at once was excellent! If I had used a different tool, I may not have been able to use youtube videos, my personal pictures, songs, images, and my own voice to share my story.
I used the Glogster Edu option, but many people use the basic Glogster feature. One feature I really liked was the fact that you can go and look through galleries that other people have shared to get some ideas for you own. BUT, having said that, it was also one of the features that worried me the most. I don’t see myself using Glogster as a form of expression for my personal life, so if I am thinking of this from a purely educational aspect, there are things about Glogster that I don’t love…and the gallery is one of them.
It is a fine line to walk as an educator…introducing kids to new tools that may contain content that is more mature than their age. Don’t get me wrong, I’m no dummy…I know that kids have access to a ton of stuff that is much worse, but the difference is…I didn’t show them how to set up a porn site. Looking through the Glogster gallery, I came across posters that had clearly been made by older high school kids. The content was drug related; how to get the best high, etc. As a teacher of Grade 7 students, some of whom have not turned 12 yet, I see this as a bit of a problem. So, bottom line…would I use Glogster in my classroom? No, not yet. I would need to do a bit more research on how to set up boundries for my students before I unleashed them on the Glogster world…even if they already know about it…