Part I.

I have created a second story using Glogster (see details about Glogster in Part II below). This second story is a poster which acts as an interactive timeline where images are trying to tell the story of my father, Randy, who underwent a triple bypass surgery yesterday. At 64 years old and no prior knowledge of any underlying heart issues, we were extremely shocked to learn that his heart had no fewer than 5 significant coronary blockages. Thinking back in time, my father had no visible symptoms, and my mom simply describes that over the past month he “kind of slowed down and had trouble walking” whereas before my dad would snowshoe for 2 to 3 hours everyday. In this exercise, I attempt to show in pictures the path to an uncertain future for heart patients such as my dad. The content is mostly mine – I shot the pictures of my father and the YouTube video is a video of my family as well celebrating a birthday. The diagram of the heart is the actual angiogram which we received 4 days ago of my father’s heart. Other images, such as doctors operating and the red heart on yellow background were retrieved doing a CreativeCommons Flikr advanced search.

I am unsure if I have in fact met the criteria for this project, however, I feel that Glogster is a tool which students could use to tell a story. Like PowerPoint, I feel students should use Glogster not to “spell out every word” of the story (boring…yaaawwn) but to spark interest, questions, emotion, and dialogue. I feel that visual tools like Glogster and PowerPoint have limitations on their usage. They can turn a good story into a visual feast, but the audience may carry away a very different message if the author is not part of the actual presentation itself. Technology such as Glogster won’t save a story from being inherently boring. It is the author’s job to be interesting, and use Glogster to help give an audience visual stimulus.

Part II.

The story I first chose to tell relates to a course I teach – Biology 12 – and specifically synaptic transmission and the working of neurons (part of the Nervous System). This constellation of concepts, revolving around how a nerve cell works to how electrical impulses are propagated and then transferred from a neuron to the next cell, is a challenge for many learners to visualize.

When I approached CogDogRoo I was looking for a tool which would allow students to gather artifacts and somehow represent their knowledge of this topic effectively. Such a tool would need to be able to show a myriad of visuals while still supporting text and/or audio so students could support and explain their creative efforts. I believe I have found a tool which allows students ways to gather and to show their knowledge in diverse ways – Glogster.

Glogster is a freeware website which allows users to create “mashups, … the mixing of any number of digital media sources” (Lamb, 2007). This website allows learners to quickly set up an account, and then create a new “glog” which is like a  poster and a blog wrapped into a neat package, as its interactivity allows an audience to glean a true story from the imagery and text within the poster. Students create a display of what they know, including images, videos, text, hyperlinks, audio, data, and more. Integrated with both Facebook and Google, a “glog” can be quickly shared and integrated into other social media.

As an example, I created a glog called “The Neuron”:

I utilized an advanced search of Flikr to find images which were Creative Commons licensed and also found a valuable video from the Khan Academy on synaptic transmission (through YouTube – also integrated from within the Glogster site) which could be seamlessly integrated into my poster (complete with flashy border!). Upon finishing my glog, Glogster invited me to be a member of the growing movement known as the “folksonomy” where I could add relevant tags to help others quickly find my creation and add then further mix / remix it into something I am sure I did not intend.

As I built my poster, I envisioned students being given the freedom to create a glog themselves, using this software to represent what they have learned within our unit on the Nervous System. The process of building this digital poster would help students extend their knowledge of neurons, as I learned a few things about neurons and new imaging processes to capture images of neurons in action as I build my glog.  I envision a process where students develop their poster in stages, meeting clear criteria for content through a rubric, which in turn would be used to offer formative feedback from peers, their teacher, and self. The end goal would be a “Glogster Art Show” where students could present their creations en masse to the group and comment and rate others’ creations directly on the Glogster site.

Alexander, B. (2008). Web 2.0 and emergent multiliteracies. Theory into practice, 47(2), 150-160.

Lamb, B. (2007). Dr. Mashup; or, why educators should learn to stop worrying and love the remix. Educause review, 42(4), 12.