Glogster EDU is a tool to create online multimedia "posters" or "scrapbooks" that can incorporate many elements into a visual area: images, text, videos, music, links, and much more. Students using Glogster will have countless ways to creatively express themselves and learn through collaboration, making it easy for you to differentiate and engage each student. Here are some examples of Glogsters as found on the homepage at Glogster EDU.
A Video Glog
A Mathematics Glog
The EDU community offered by Glogster was developed to deter inappropriate content and contact with users not welcome in your classrooms' electronic community. This provides classes advertising-free glogs and easy teacher monitoring of student work. Students can comment and interact within a "gated community" with education-friendly options for collaboration and learning.
Glogster Features:
online multimedia presentations - with text,
photos,
videos,
graphics,
sounds,
drawings,
data attachments
Templates avaialble;
or create your own
printable
embed into blogs, websites or wiki's
Classroom ideas:
Create a class glog together to sample the tools.
Preview as you work or return later to complete and publish your Glog
Add ready-made graphics, images from files on your computer or by URL on the web, links (hyperlinked from text or other objects), text boxes or bubbles, backgrounds ("walls"), animated graphics, recorded audio,
embedded video from SchoolTube or TeacherTube, uploaded media file, and much more.
You can also "grab" video or audio from your computer's webcam and mike.
When you are finished exploring, decide whether the glog is readu to be published or wheter it remains a sample form.
Next have students individually or in pairs create the own Glogsters.
Work with "friends" (classmates) in the Glogster EDU area or via URL and other social networking tools.
All Glogs are accessible via the teacher dashboardwhen using the premium account.
What can you do with your free teacher account? You can embed a glog in your class wiki or blog, as a landing page for all of your important links.
Below is a screenshot of the Glogster embedding feature.
Feature that allows embedding
Redefinition
Technology allows for creation of new tasks, previously inconceivable
Students create a visual essay, or scientific report with many of the glogster functions used to present the piece. However Glogs may also be viewed collaborateively in order to learn from each other.
Modification
Technology allows for significant task redesign
Students"create" a whole-class glog together using an interactive whiteboard. The Glog is a collaborative space for information to be accessed and shared.
Augmentation
Technology acts as a direct tool substitute, with functional improvement.
Digital scrapbooks using images
from the public domain and video and audio clips from a time in history can be used to augment a lesson which would otherwise have used books.
Substitution
Technology acts as a direct tool substitute, with no functional change.
Personal reflections in images and text; this substitutes writing a reflection on paper and drawing a picture.
Below is an example of a Glogster I created in a previous University assignment.
The incorporation of digital video in the classroom not only helps students engage more deeply with the subject matter but it allows them to recall the information they've learned for longer.
I have focused primarily on YouTube as a digital video tool in the classroom. YouTube is a video sharing website that allows users to upload, view, and share videos, and it makes use of AdobeFlash Video and HTML5 technology to display a wide variety of user-generated and corporate media video. Available content includes video clips, TV clips, music videos, and amateur content such as video blogging, short original videos, and educational videos. YouTube has new features available with the new version and versions coming soon including:
YouTube Creator Studio
Audio Library sound effects
60 FPS video.
Fan Funding
Creator Credits
Fan-submitted subtitles
Moving from annotations to cards
Make a slideshow
Edit your video
In order to ensure that only appropriate content is accessed:
Check out the teachers channel on YouTube. It starts with a ten-step tutorial on how to use YouTube in your classroom, with many more tips available if you join the YouTube Teachers Community and sign up for the e-newsletter. Teachers and students can upload videos here or create playlists from those already available, which range from Khan Academy’s explanation of the Cuban Missile Crisis to a rap about the Krebs cycle.
Try the YouTube education channel. It allows users to search within it for videos on a wide range of academic subjects. Most of the content is aimed at university-level students, but may be accessible for younger ones, too.
Sourced from http://www.teachthought.com/technology/how-to-youtube-your-classroom/
10 Characteristics of a “YouTube’d” Classroom
1. Passive Consumption
Passive consumption is important to YouTube’s success. Being digital— via the Google-based search engine, YouTube puts more media in your lap than you could ever hope to consume. Here, users’ roles are simple: surf the channel, and enjoy the show.
Possibility for Teachers: Make processes and procedure as simple and transparent as possible. This is not to suggest that instruction should occur below a learner’sZone of Proximal Development, but rather that often procedural knowledge and murky processes can cloud what’s most important in a lesson. While an absolutely backwards idea in the learning process, passivity works wonders for digital media consumption. In the classroom, during critical input experiences keep processes and procedure free from “debris,” learner-centered, and content-focused.
2. Active Selection
While largely passive, there is opportunity on YouTube for active participation, including forming video responses or video annotation. This seems to counter the idea of passivity, but the role of interaction here is limited in intensity and duration.
Possibility for Teachers: Model decision-making with learners. Give them “voice and choice,” and hold them accountable for the power and responsibility that comes with choice.
3. Assisted Discovery
“Suggested Videos” change everything. Imagine every time you read a poem, based on some prescient mathematical algorithm another poem—similar in content, structure, or some other important way—materialized before your eyes, functioning as a kind of socially-suggested anthology. Game changing!
Possibility for Teachers:consider thematic instruction, where learning is anchored by a theme (“What is Design?”), rather than a handful of standards, the end-of-the-unit assessment, or worse, simply a genre.
4. Interdependence
Google-owned YouTube is friendly with twitter, Facebook, Google+, blogging, and all forms of electronic media. This kind of seamless integration allows an impressive convergence with all other “internet parts.” Genius.
Possibility for teachers: Consider interdependence of the entire school and/or district at every opportunity: how might the school improvement plan “talk” to standards-based grading in your classroom? How can the school website support communication with parents? Think of linking as much as possible. Also try cross-content units (e.g., merging Social Students with English as you study the relationship between Literature and Revolution)
5. Diversity
There is a huge diversity of content on YouTube—from informal, user-made coverage of important social events to informative, educational or entertaining content
Possibility for Teachers: Consider “mashing” content that might not suggest such mashing. The concept is sound: for students accustomed to extraordinary and often inane diversity, mimicking that strategically in the classroom can spark new ways of seeing old content.
6. Brevity
While there are feature-length films available, the sweet spot of YouTube lies in quick bursts of videos that allow users to continue self-actuating their own experience.
Possibility for Teachers: Move to persistent, streaming “lessons.” Leverage the mini-lesson. Use project and mini-projects. Encourage intellectual stamina and endurance not through duration, but anchoring themes and projects that persist.
7. Selective Social Interaction
There are plenty of ways YouTube users can socially interact, but compared to other electronic media platforms, the YouTube experience can be as anonymous or transparent as the user defines.
Possibility for Teachers: Offer choices to publish work consistently, but not simply for the sake of publishing because it sounds “21st century.” Rather, allow students to understand the nuts and bolts of publishing. Why publish? To which audience? Through which media form? Distributed through which media channel? And most importantly, why? Offer optional group work with authentic reasons for collaboration—and opportunities for learners to move between class members and groups based on their expertise, interest, etc. Self-paced. Self-selected.
8. Non-traditional
In a thumbing of the nose to the status quo, YouTube is a haven for whimsical, non-traditional content.
Possibility for Teachers: As with YouTube, when the content is king and haughty formality is secondary, users feel empowered to engage. Give them what they need, and get out of their way even when you may not see the immediate “rigor” of an idea.
9. Humor
People like to laugh, and YouTube makes discovering, sharing, and commenting on funny videos simple.
Possibility for Teachers: We are quickly becoming a media-centered society. Across all content areas—especially those that don’t seem to suggest it—work in media forms that are funny, satiric, ironic, or self-effacing (students love that). Below is a video to promote teamwork
10. Cultural Hyperbole
When you’ve got billions of videos, it should be no surprise that YouTube benefits from both diverseand spectacularcontent. It is the extreme that catches our eye, whether by topic (e.g., violence, humor, romance), or the context (e.g., watching a video with 500,000,000+ views). uts, and secrets of your curriculum. Where is there spectacle? What would be interesting to laypersons? What is often misunderstood? Think Mythbusters.
Conclusion
There can be a case made to keep your class as far away from YouTube as possible. It’s a cesspool of the non-academic, inane, immature, overly-brief cultural reflections. Keep in mind though that you’re not going to change that—or learner’s opinions of it—by ignoring it. It’s simply a (possibly circus) mirror for society. If you want to challenge YouTube, do so with high-levels of learning that promote self-awareness, meaningful collaboration, and cognitive growth.
SAMR Model Digital video in the classroom
Redefinition
Technology allows for creation of new tasks, previously inconceivable
A classroom is asked to create a documentary video answering a focus question and uploading it to YouTube.
Students learn content and skills in support of important concepts as they pursue the challenge of creating a professional quality video.
Modification
Technology allows for significant task redesign
Student tasks, assessments or information may be presented in YouTube videos.
Students are asked to use still images or clips to make their own movie using YouTube Video editor
Augmentation
Technology acts as a direct tool substitute, with functional improvement.
Digital videos are incorporated into the overall design of student work, allowing for curriculum links with using ICTs
Students access YouTube videos as a means of practically learning methods or processes through viewing tutorials.
Substitution
Technology acts as a direct tool substitute, with no functional change.
Text books and other such reference material give way to sources such as YouTube, with resources available which are almost inexhaustible.
MobaPhoto enables you to resize your photos and/or create HTML image galleries that you can upload to your website. In addition to gallery output, the program also offers basic photo editing to adjust colors, remove red-eye effects and crop your pictures, as well as a batch image renaming tool. MobaPhoto is a portable application and does not require installation.
My audio file is made up of sounds from the rainforest in Cameroon. I had an interesting time with the PodOmatic site. There seems to be a lot of ways that you can do the same thing. I also found it a bit tricky to embedd into Blogger as I didn't realise that the player wouldn't be shown until the post was published. A bit scary! I can see the benefits of students using an application such as Podomatic as when familiar with the ins and outs of it, it really would be an interesting, informative and fun way to present knowledge and understanding of various topics to the class. They could present essays, songs, poems - the list is neverending! An innovative way to get students to engage with the curriculum through to the use of a podcast program.
In today’s society we are immersed in various convenient ways to engage with information and video is by far one of the most popular. The views of videos uploaded on YouTube alone can attest to this. With the ability to transmit information to others through visual and audio mediums provides opportunities for sharing knowledge to a vast audience.
Personally, I love engaging with
technological mediums and tend towards completing assignments that include the
use of some sort of visual engagement element before those that don't. This could also be true of
the children that we teach, as so many people today react positively to digital video.
With clever manipulation of tools teachers can provide engaging
lesson hooks and activities made from the most simple images, audio files and films. In addition to this our students are able to provide their input via the form of digital
video as well.
Imagine a classroom where students are eager to have their assessment
started! – With the stimulation provided by interacting with technological
tools such as digital video when learning, we provide our students with a positive and creative
environment where they feel capable and willing to present their work to
teachers, parents and fellow students.
While the outcomes in terms of creativity may vary from
student to student, I believe it is the chance to apply their knowledge and
understanding of a topic in a creative way that is the key. (Not to mention,
enjoyable for the teacher marking it!)
I have provided an example of a video that I made as a pre
service teacher in my first year of study. The presentation was initially made via Windows Movie Maker 2.6. I have since uploaded this on to YouTube as I find this platform easier to access and utilise. Our assessment was
based on our manipulation of the tools and images to make a video that showed
our engagement with the course about arts education and curriculum and
reflected on our own personal experiences within the arts.
The Movie Maker 2.6 is a straightforward and simple to use program that allows you to make your own movies. With the real time editing capabilities of this tool you can remove the scenes from the movie that you don't want or need so that it becomes interesting. With this tool it is easier; to make changes in your movie by editing some shots, drag and drop certain clips in your movie, transfer the movie into a CD, share your movie on web etc.
YouTube also is a straightforward tool to assist with the creation or editing of videos. As YouTube is available to everyone, not just Windows users I find this to be the better option to familiarise yourself within the editing process. Also, I discovered recently that you can make slideshow presentations with the YouTube Upload funtion - in this section you have the choice to Record with your Webcam, to Create a photo slideshow, to Broadcast on Google+ and to create videos. This is an altogether creative area and simple to use. You may use images from your own albums or you can upload them from elsewhere.
Weebly is what is known as a WYSIWYG (What You See Is
What You Get) website builder. This means that you build the entire website with the tools provided and what you
see when you are building, is what the site will actually look like once it has
been published. Other web creators (such as Google sites) need the builder to
flip back and forth between editing mode and preview mode to see how your
website will actually look after publishing.
Weebly is a user friendly, drag and drop website builder.
This means you can literally drag certain elements (such as a video or an image)
into your screen when you are building your website. This drag and drop process
takes away the necessity to understand how to apply code which opens the web
design process to a much larger group of people and classrooms certainly fall
into this category.
Screenshot from Weebly 'build' page
Weebly is available with basic tools for free with the
option to upgrade for a fee if more tools are desired.
The team from Weebly
have kept web design relatively stress free with a moderate number of tools
which are all capable of producing an attractive and functional website.
In addition
to the Web building tools Weebly provide a broad range of templates
which then allow you to build a professional looking website.
Screen shot from Weebly template page
Weebly also provides access to their HTML / CSS editor so that modifications
to the website design can be accessed by those people who feel capable and
comfortable to do so.
Below is a YouTube video which is a guide to creating your own website using Weebly:
Reflection 2 - Week 3: (Wikis, Websites and Blogs)
Group tools 1 - Websites (Weebly)
Weebly
is ideal for creating classroom websites, student e-portfolios, and websites
for classroom tasks or assessment pieces. The use of the drag & drop
website editor is relatively straightforward to use, and appropriate for use
with students of all ages. Weebly facilitates students in their ability to
express their creativity using various multimedia features, all within a safe and
monitored environment.
Technical aspects of Weebly
Weebly website creator has a number of features that enable the students to feel comfortable and confident through to the simplicity of the interface and tools. The following list has been adapted from the Weebly website http://education.weebly.com/
Easy, Drag & Drop Website Editor:Videos, pictures, maps, and text are added by simply dragging them to your website.
A Managed, Protected Environment for Students With Weebly, you can password protect all your students' websites with one click.
Powerful Multimedia Features: Add pictures, videos, audio players (upgrade version), documents, maps, and photo galleries easily by dragging and dropping. Use Weebly's unbranded audio and video players so that you and your students do not need to venture out to YouTube or similar services to add high quality audio & video to your sites.
Flexible Blogging Features: Post class updates, homework assignments, and news for parents using blogging features. Blogs are also great for students to express their thoughts and receive comments from others.Weebly supports an unlimited number of blogs within your website, with full comment moderation features allowing an open, moderated, or closed conversation
70+ Beautiful Designs (or Customize Your Own) Weeblt offers dozens of beautiful designs to choose from and add more regularly.You can completely customize the template of your site, or build your own with HTML & CSS, right in the Weebly editor.
My experience with Weebly
Screen shot from my Weebly site
I felt that the best way to properly explore this web creator was to create a site for myself. This way I was able to fully understand the process and tools used personally to fully identify their strenghts and weaknesses.
Weebly can be used as a tool for project based learning:
“Designing your curriculum around project based learning is a dynamic way of engaging learners and ofcultivating their powers of imagination, creativity and enquiry"Sir Ken Robinson, Learning futures patron.
These sorts of websites can be used in conjunction with standard teacher direct or discussion based lessons. For example I have personally designed a website to be used by students and teachers and is based on the unit of work surrounding Natural Disasters. The learning area is Technology, however through to the use of ICTs so much more is available to the students.
Keeps students developing and enhancing their 21st centruy skills.
The use of Weebly provides students with the knowledge of the value of media beyond advertising and entertainmnent.
Class blogs. Students can use blogs as an assignment or as a subject based tool. For example, science sites documenting
experiments or illustrating concepts, such as the water cycle.
Classroom/parent noticeboard. Providing information on upcoming events, rules, news and so forth.
Create e-portfolios that can act as a repository for resources, completed tasks and assignments and other information that may be relevant to tracking learning outcomes (Shaltry, C., Henriksen, D., Wu, M., & Dickson, W.,2013.)
"Visual essays;"
digital biodiversity logs (with digital pictures students take) (Teachers First, 2013).
Personal reflections in
images and text.
Picture stories on themes from various subjects
Curriculum Alignment
In accordance with the Australian Curriculum through the use of a Web 2.0 interface student ICT capabilities are supported and enhanced. In addition, student learning across all areas of the curriculum is further benifitted (ACARA, 2012). With the exploration of technology through the web design and manipulation, students develop and apply ICT knowledge, appropriate social and ethical skills (ACARA, 2012).
Image sourced from ACARA Information and communication technology (ICT) capability document.
Below is a YouTube video that discusses the advantages of Weebly in the classroom further.
This video was used as part of a workshop promoting the importance of website use in the classroom, further information regarding this workshop can be found at http://wonderfulweebly.weebly.com/
ICT for learning
With limited classroom experience I am not qualified to say what works in regards to ICT use for learning; however, what I have discovered is the added engagement that the use of Websites can produce if used properly. In order to establish this I have used a SAMR model to analyse whether Websites are a beneficial tool within the classroom.
Example of the SAMR model developed by Dr. Ruben Puentedura, Ph.D.
Redefinition
Technology allows for creation of new tasks, previously
inconceivable
A classroom is asked to create a documentary
video answering a focus question and posting it on the class website. Groups
of students research sub-topics and then collaborate to create one final
product.
Students learn content and skills in support
of important concepts as they pursue the challenge of creating a professional
quality video.
Modification
Technology allows for significant task redesign
Student tasks, assessments or information may
be presented in various ways such as Podcasts, Blogs, Vlogs, YouTube videos;
the scope for variety is abundant.
Students are asked to write an essay based on
a particular theme. An audio recording of the essay is made and then
presented in front of an audience made from school staff, parents or other stakeholders.
Augmentation
Technology acts as a direct tool substitute, with
functional improvement.
Images, digital photographs and graphics are easily
incorporated into the overall design of student work, allowing for curriculum
links with using multi-modal tools.
Students use the collaborative tools in Weebly
to peer edit essays or other student work.
Substitution
Technology acts as a direct tool substitute, with no
functional change.
Weebly substitutes the paper and pencil tools that
students are familiar with.
Text books and other such reference material
give way to sources such as Weebly.
Student work is printed rather than
handwritten. Students can save various drafts of their work and can produce
multiple copies of the finished product without using a photocopier.
References:
Australian Curriculum Assessment and Reporting Authority (ACARA),
2012.Information and communication technology (ICT) capability Retrieved from http://www.australiancurriculum.edu.au/GeneralCapabilities/information-and-communication-technology-capability/organising-elements/organising-elements
Shaltry, C., Henriksen, D., Wu, M., & Dickson, W.
(2013). Situated Learning with Online Portfolios, Classroom Websites and
Facebook. Techtrends: Linking Research And Practice To Improve Learning,57(3),
20-25.
Teachersfirst.com,.
(2013). TeachersFirst Review - Weebly. Retrieved 16 July 2014, from
http://www.teachersfirst.com/single.cfm?id=12342
