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New @Glogster.edu
I’m a huge fan of Glogster.edu.
I regularly use their multimedia posters/collages to create the interfaces for my growing number of large wikis. I am currently using Glogster.edu with our students to create front doors for their online museums of world history. I’ve seen Glogster.edu used very effectively to enhance book reviews, biographical projects, timelining, student portfolios, and lots of other classroom projects.
But when I talk up the program at conferences, I sometimes hear comments about students happening upon inappropriate content on the site’s diverse library of glogs and that some of the images were a little dark for young learners.
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Those worries are now over. Our friends at Glogster have been listening.
Your 20th century cardboard poster-type projects can live new, safe, happier interactive lives online. Glogster.edu now offers teachers a virtual classroom which might include up to 200 students.
And Glogster.edu is developing new partnerships. (Don’t you love it when your favorite new tools play nice together?)
Jim Dachos, one of our good friends at Glogster.edu, recently announced a series of project improvements and the promise of many more down the road.
I asked Jim to summarize the current and coming improvements:
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Safety and Privacy:
- Created new domain edu.glogster.com and logo to highlight our commitment to education
- Eliminated all links to Glogster.com
- Provided instructions in FAQ to allow Glogster.edu while blocking glogster.com
- Discontinued partnership with TinyPic curtailing inappropriate images in the Glog creation tool
- Eliminated all links to YouTube and other web-based sites to discourage non-sanctioned student migration to the internet.
- Rewrote our Terms of Use guidelines to provide additional safeguards, user protection, and privacy
- Removed all inappropriate graphics including Emo and Punk categories in their entirety and added new Toys and Vinyl graphics more suitable for an educational setting
- Streamlined and provided additional security for teacher registration procedures and policies to further insure privacy of teacher/student information
- Established new safeguards to ensure that all student Glogs remain private unless teachers release them to the public domain
Partnerships:
- Initiated partnership with School Tube to facilitate safe integration of videos on edu.glogster.com homepage and in the Glog creation tool setting
- Established partnerships with PBworks and Voicethread to improve interfacing capabilities and enhance user experiences. Full integration due soon. (Jim suggested another very popular school partner may get onboard very soon.)
Editorial and Educational Enhancements:
- Rewrote the entire web page, enhanced FAQ information, provided additional site information and guidance
- Enhanced the Profile Section to encourage collaboration between teacher and students and eliminate non-educational information
- Discontinued all links to contests and emails from Glogster.com
- Published educational and technical affiliations to demonstrate Glogster EDU’s commitment to community and building educationally sound partnerships
- Distributed survey to all Glogster EDU educators and students asking for feedback and suggestions for additional enhancements to the format, platform, and integration of Glogster EDU. Results of the survey will be analyzed and utilized to shape future Glogster EDU enhancements.
Changes coming in November and December:
- Graphics: New School Graphics Category with functional and school related graphics.
- Teacher Resource Library: Library of Educational Glogs with lesson planning, correlation to standards, rubrics, and assessment strategies. Resources will be organized to assist educators in the following arenas:
- Teacher Administration – Blogs, Wikis, and Web Pages, – illustrate how teachers may use Glogster to make these more fun, more interactive/creative and multi-media
- Teacher Lessons – demonstrate how teachers may facilitate instructional activities using Glogster generated outcomes
- Student Projects – show how students are fulfilling requirements with "Creative Expression of Knowledge and Skills" projects
- Partner Page and Ambassador Page on edu.glogster.com – Opportunities for additional and continued associations with Glogster EDU educators and productive relationships with creative educational platforms. We will continue to encourage the participation and feedback from our educational community. We have a number of partnerships in the pipeline awaiting final outcomes.
- Glogster EDU 3.0 – Totally enhanced platform with exciting new tools, expanded capabilities, and additional teacher controls.
We have much to look forward to in the Glogsterphere!
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About Joyce Valenza
Joyce is an Assistant Professor of Teaching at Rutgers University School of Information and Communication, a technology writer, speaker, blogger and learner. Follow her on Twitter: @joycevalenza
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