Using Glogster

Well, after having my classes use Glogster, I have discovered a few good tips.
1. Have a partner in crime to help you--your media specialist would work well. It helps to have 2 people to "help" students get set up and help them along the way

2. Have the students work in pairs. I did this, and it worked well. This way you only have 15 students logging in. The first time we tried to have everyone, it slowed everything way down--it took forever to load in 1 picture

3. Make sure you go through how to save with students. I know they think they know how to do all, but I had a few people lose their work, because they did not go through the saving steps

4. Be willing to take the time to set up accounts for students. It takes time at the beginning, but it was well worth it.

5. Assign an additional task with it, this way you are making sure students are really learning the information. For me, they had to do a summary paper as well.

6. Be comfortable that it is a learning process--be willing to have pitfalls along the way. Not everything works perfect all the time

The good news is that we are sharing our posters in class this week, and they look great. Overall, the students seemed to like using this. At this point in the year, it was great to pull out a new tool to grab their attention. They were on task for all class periods in the media center, and best of all could use this at home as well. I would recommend trying this, but like everything else, don't overuse. This was perfect time of year to get something new and exciting for students to use.After surveying my first few classes, most students liked the change and were poitive about the experience---as you know, you can't please them all :)