When I first tried Glogster, at the encouragement of a
teacher-friend, I thought it would be the ideal tool to create exciting and
interactive reader’s advisory tools. In fact, I spent a bit of time this summer
creating and having my staff created a few of them in order to post them to our library’s website. As sometimes occurs,
however, time ran short and I actually changed
jobs and wasn’t able to put the created Glogs into operation before I left
the old job.
I initially chose Glogster to create my “Autobiography of a
Tech User” early in this
semester only to discover I couldn’t link to pdf’s. I was excited to try
Glogster again and looked forward to this week’s inquiry to afford me that
opportunity. I sat down, created what I thought was a pretty snazzy little Glog
as a reader’s advisory for Young Adult Dystopia novels. It took hours to complete
the process: deciding on the titles, finding images, saving them to a folder on
my computer, cropping them to an appropriate size, saving them to a file on
Glogster then finally uploading them to the actual Glog page. Links to book
trailers had a similar procedure: find them, save the link to a folder, then
link them to the text on the Glog. There just seemed to be a bunch of
extraneous steps slowing the process. Considering this tool is supposed to be
education-friendly, which I read as “child-friendly”, I don’t really understand
why there are so many steps. The easiest and most logical step of all was
linking the book images to their catalogue record, a web address that did not
require being saved to a folder before being linked. Why couldn’t the videos be
linked that same way?
I did have a moment of celebration when I was successful in
embedding the Glog into the library’s website; a process that is simply and
clearly explained on Glogster. As an extra step, I added a link in case it
wasn’t apparent that one could click on the Glog itself to see it full size
(there is a little drop down menu that shows up right on the embedded Glog that
should enable one to do that). I embedded, I tested, it all worked, I
celebrated. Sadly, I celebrated too soon. When I went to show a co-worker my
ingenious creation, the embedded Glog didn’t link to a full-sized version of
itself, but to the Glogster website where one could create a Glog. That
certainly wasn’t my intention of working on it and embedding it in my library’s
website. I thought perhaps it was a little glitch and had my co-worker try the
link only to have the same results: instead of linking to the full-sized
version of the Glog, it linked to the site where one would create a Glog.
Sporting rose-coloured glasses, I assumed again that it was simply a glitch, a
one-time, freak-of-computer-gremlins, so while talking to a teen who was in
fact signing out a dystopian novel, I showed her. Of course I was horrified
when once again it linked to the Glogster main website rather than to my own
Glog. Truly, the sole purpose I could think of to use Glogster in a library
application wasn’t working.
Finally, when I started trying to write this blog post, Glogster just gave up the ghost for me. I tried logging in, only to be told Glogster was too busy to log in. Then when I finally did log in, I got a message that "something really bad had happened" and the Glogster dashboard showed that I had two Glogs, but it wouldn't let me access either one. Honestly, if I'm going to use something for work, I need it to be a lot more dependable than it has been this past week.
So what is Glogster used for? As with Prezi, Glogster is not
mentioned in the library literature and I was left with searching education
databases for my answers. Three Heavyweights explains that
Glogster is “a mashup of graphical blog” (2011, p. 10) and when used in a
school setting, allows students to create interactive posters. According to
Berger and Trexler, “Glogster is a free poster creation tool that contains
text, images, videos, links, and audio” (2010, p. 143). They mention creativity as a drawing point
for use and I will admit that it does appeal to my creative side. They even go on to suggest a library use: as
a link to a school library account, a place to share teacher and student
resources, book reviews and author promotion, so I don’t think it was such a
stretch for me to assume I could use it for a library application. In fact, It’s My School Library suggests using
Glogster to record wish lists for future reading (2010, p. 17) reinforcing that
it was not irrational for me to assume that Glogster could have library
applications. Even Vandenbroek suggests that teacher-librarians use Glogster as
a means of reaching struggling students in association with their teacher’s
plan to assist struggling students (2010, p. 48).
Berger and Trexler also tell us that Glogs can easily be
shared: Twitter, Facebook, Blogs and other Web 2.0 options are described as
being ways of easily sharing Glogs (p. 145). However, my experience has told me
that although they can be shared easily, they cannot be easily read or used if
the option to see them in full-size only works part of the time.
I received an email
a couple of weeks ago saying that Glogster was undergoing some upgrades and
that I would find new and exciting tools when I next used it. True enough: I
found new wallpapers and icons, but I still struggled with locating what I was
looking for. Icons, wallpaper, fonts and the like are all broken down into
“themes” such as “romantic” or “Christmas” but they are not broken down into
things I would find useable: colours or types of icons. It took me 52 pages of
icons before I found one that contained an arrow. It seems to me that logically
others, too, would look for icons of a similar function: arrows, happy faces,
hearts and what have you. Without a search option, in my opinion, Glogster
hasn’t upgraded sufficiently. Until I can simply search for or easily locate
something in pages upon pages of options, Glogster is not an efficient enough
tool for me to pursue professionally. And I’ll be honest: I can’t ever imagine
using Glogster for my own personal use.
Ultimately, Glogster receives a low score for library use
from me. Perhaps this is one of those tools that should remain in the realm of
education and not venture beyond it.
I've delayed posting due to all the issues I've had. At the time of posting this, I'm still having difficulty accessing Glogster. I will work on it and post images as soon as it allows.
I've delayed posting due to all the issues I've had. At the time of posting this, I'm still having difficulty accessing Glogster. I will work on it and post images as soon as it allows.
Read What I Read:
Berger, P. & Trexler, S. (2010). Choosing Web 2.0 Tools for Learning and Teaching in a Digital World. Santa Barbara, Calif.: Libraries Unlimited.
Going Beyond
Loch Ness Monster. (2010). School Library
Monthly, 26(8), 6 – 8.Berger, P. & Trexler, S. (2010). Choosing Web 2.0 Tools for Learning and Teaching in a Digital World. Santa Barbara, Calif.: Libraries Unlimited.
It’s My School
Library. (2010). School Librarian’s
Workshop, 31(1), 17.
Three
Heavyweights (2011). Internet@Schools,
18(1), 10.
Vandenbroek, A.
(2010). RtI: The Librarian’s Fairy Tale? Library
Media Connection, 29(2), 48 – 50.
I feel your pain! Glogster was challenging for me as well!! :oP Check out my Glogster post.
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