Glogster

http://catnei.edu.glogster.com/glog-of-tech/

This week I made a Glogster. Previously I'd never explored the tool and the only time I'd ever seen one was when I looked at another elearner's Blog: http://heidislearningspace.blogspot.com/
What is Glogster? And does it have a place in the classroom?
Glogster is a website which enables you to create multimedia posters online. Pictures, videos, text, graphics and music can be added with a surprisingly large amount of flexibility. The posters can be kept private or shared with a global audience. I was so excited! I could see so much opportunity for this site in education! It even has an EDU section especially for educators.
It's free, it's possibilities are vast, it enables creators to be creative, it could be used as a way of presenting information or as an assessment task. My Glogster is above, I created mine to be about technology and education, because I thought that would be appropriate. But to see the potential of Glogster I've included some Glogsters made by others and found on the Glogster data base (see below).



While it does have a lot of good points, there are some cons. Another elearner was frustrated by it and believed it didn't suit his learning style (see http://hamishbowden1.blogspot.com/2011/08/glogster.html) but also pointed out that it is very easy to spend a lot of time on the aesthetics without much regard to creating content. For this reason I believe that their use should be limited and not a regular activity to be done in every lesson. It could be an activity reserved for those who are early finishes or as a motivating tool or reward (eg. "If we get all this work done today, next lesson we will spend creating Glogsters about the novel we are studying"). It could be used as an assignment task for art, IT or even English. For English units that feature poetry, films or novels a Glogster could be created about a theme central to the literature to help consolidate learning as to what a theme is and also to begin analysing texts.
Presenting Glogster about topics to the class could also be a way of incoparating Glogsters into learning. In some instances Glogster could replace OHT sheets, Powerpoints or whiteboard use and accompany a learning manager as the main presenational tool.
When creating a Glogster it is still important to consider copyright issues and privacy issues. All works should be correctly attributed to their creators/owners and text should not be copied en mass. Privacy is an important issue as once these Glogsters have been shared they are public access and can be re shared through other sites by random people: as have two of the Glogsters on this Blog. Names, addresses, schools, photos and even birthdays should not be shared publicly on applications such as Glogster and this needs to be considered when creating public Glogsters.

Photobucket

The advantage of using Photobucket is that it is so easy to convert photos in whatever you want. Html? Check. Direct link? Check. Want to email it? Sure!
It's so easy to share what you've created using Photobucket. But it is not faultless. It was noticeably slower to load than Picnik and in comparison to Picnik there did seem to be less editing options. Realistically, both sites could support learning in similar ways - they are very similar. I did like Picnik's privacy options though. Using them both in conjunction to get the desired effect is plausible, but complicated and would take a lot of effort. I did find Photobucket user friendly and as it was the second of the two editors that I tried I believe that the over all result was better on Photobucket.

Flickr and Picnik

As you can see, these images are very different to the originals! And the options on Picnik were vast! Unfortunately a lot were restricted to those who paid, but it was a reasonable membership fee ( I even considered joining). What you get for free, however, is a quality website that allows you to upload photos and edit them using extremely simplistic and easy to operate tools. It was so user friendly that I was even creating using the "advanced" option by the end. You could probably even guess what order I edited these photos in - I was certainly a lot more confident by the third!

The site was fast to load and offered some great options. But was it educational? Or could it be used in a way that was? I see its potential existing for lower grade levels and high school English, art and even drama. Photographs can convey many messages, sometimes hidden. If students wanted to create something relating to a theme I think this would be a great place to start. I really surprised myself by seeing value in this activity, especially seeing how damn time consuming it was!

Flickr, Photobucket and Picnik

Today I explored online photo editing. It's great because it is free (or at least has free versions) and a fun way to engage visually with a topic. I've actually used Photobucket before when I was a lot younger, but either I've forgot what I used to know or it's changed quite a bit because it seemed nearly as unfamiliar as Picnik and Flickr. Either way I used all in an attempt to convey different emotions using the same photo as a base. I'm not hugely artistic, so I just tried to use different effects and experiment. I picked three photos. One of a church that I took in New Caledonia, one of an Emu in A.C.T and one of two toys from home. The originals can be seen above. I'm going to upload those edited on Picnik through Flickr on a separate post and those edited on PhotoBucket on a separate post.

More on YouTube: SWOT

YouTube is an online video clip data base, with content that is largely user generated. Clips can be searched for, found and/or uploaded by a user. But is it appropriate to use as a learning tool in Australian classrooms? Well, I approached this question with my vision blurred by negativity (I had my black hat on).
Many schools filter access to websites and YouTube is on the "no viewing list" at some schools. Though it could be argued that it is counterproductive to restrict students' access to YouTube. I myself wonder why schools block some websites that students most probably have free access to at home - shouldn't schools be educating youth about the Internet instead of dictating its usage? I'm beginning to realize just how complex the topic of elearning is. The safety of learners is a primary concern for a lot of schools and no one wants to risk exposing them to inappropriate material - which can be done with the click of a button on the Internet. Not to mention the possibility of allowing "bad guys" contact with students - which could pose a significant risk in some situations and is every parents worst nightmare. Lawful practises also need to be considered and I'm exploring the legal ramifications (and loopholes) that the Internet presents.
One case that caught my attention was "Porn Day". Because YouTube relies on user generated content it can be susceptible to abuse. On the 20th of May 2009 a large, organised group of users uploaded a very large amount of pornographic and explicit material without declaring it and attaching tags such as "Jonas Brothers". See http://arstechnica.com/web/news/2009/05/4chan-ebaumsworld-carpet-bombing-youtube-with-porn-videos.ars
YouTube users as young as 12 accessed explicit material by pure accident.
This was just one incident and possibly represents a worse case scenario. To get a wider view of YouTube's potential as a learning tool I conducted a SWOT analysis (with help), seen below.

Strengths
User friendly
Students can watch critical points several times
Videos can be paused for note taking
Cheap, easy access to media
Access to videos from all around the world
Videos can be re watched as many times as necessary
Searing for clips is fast and easy
Clips can be creative
Weaknesses
Not all information on YouTube is reliable
YouTube is dependent on Internet connectivity
Slow downloading can be frustrating
Clips are not interactive
Not all videos to appear in a search are relevant to topic
Clips can be bias
Opportunities
Watching clips could be given as homework/revision
Helps students to become global citizens
Students could use YouTube as a way of presenting assessment
Clips could be watched as a class then discussed
Talent can be recognised through YouTube
Collaboration of information and ideas
Networking through YouTube
Students can contribute to online database
Threats
Copyright issue
Can be issues with privacy invasion
Not all videos are child friendly
Government censorship means that it isn't always accessible to learners

There are a lot of great opportunities to use YouTube constructively as a learning tool. I believe that using it as a homework or a revision task has great potential, so long as URL is given so that there are no mix ups with students watching the wrong videos. Clips would have to be reviewed by the teacher prior to showing the students or recommended to them to ensure all material was appropriate. Realistically I believe that asking students to create films is a possibility although I don't believe that YouTube has to be involved in the process - the films can simply be made and never shared. YouTube could be used for ideas and inspiration in this instance. I also think that setting clips as homework is a possibility but certain circumstances need to be considered for that to work - do all students have access to the Internet with enough downloading capacity to utilize YouTube, etc. Watching clips in class could be used as a "hook" or introduction to a topic or an interesting way to consider alternate opinions on subjects.
After considering all aspects of YouTube I certainly can see it as a valuable learning tool when used successfully and my attitudes toward it have certainly become more positive!

Wordle

Just a few thoughts on Wordles (presented in a Wordle!). It's an interesting way of displaying opinions and thoughts. In Wordles more common words appear larger than the less common words, so they display the information in an almost graph like manner with an emphasis on more common words or dominant ideologies and themes.

They're also so easy to use! I can imagine asking students to create them as an activity to express dominant themes in texts that we read in English classes or even in a statistical class in mathematics to display data collection. Alternatively I could create one to display to the class, although that is less personalized and interactive. They do require access to the internet and computors though, which may be unjustifiable to a school with limited resources. Also I doubt Wordle really encourages critical thinking, or thinking at a deep level. Certainly creating a Wordle does not require the analysis, synthesis or evaluation of its content especially considering that all that is required to create them is the copying and pasting of words.

There is certainly a place for Wordles and they are a fun, light hearted way of considering text but whether they are a valuable learning tool, well, how about making one and seeing for yourself? Available at http://www.wordle.net/

YouTube

This week I collaborated with a range of other university students, particularly "BLMers" and e-learning students, to create a YouTube clip/video about YouTube. Kingsley and I considered how visual media could be used in a classroom with a focus on YouTube.
Some of our recordings wouldn't convert to the format we needed them to be in and neither of us had video editing software so we had to have a back up plan and improvise a little when we put it all together using a Microsoft Powerpoint. Unfortunately, YouTube doesn't except any file that Powerpoints can be saved as or converted to, so while we learnt a lot from our project I can't share it with you.
I can (or should be able to) however, share a brief part of unedited video from our evaluation, as seen below:




As seen above, Kingsley and I can see merit in YouTube as an educational tool. However, it is blocked from student access by Queensland Education and therefore its practical applications in the classroom are restricted.
Some uses for YouTube in an educational context without allowing students direct access from their student accounts include:
+ Showing a clip to the whole class as a hook
+ Showing a clip to the whole class then discussing
+ Embedding YouTube into presentations (eg. PowerPoint)
+ Setting specific URL as homework/revision for students to view at their leisure
It is extremely important to understand safe, legal and ethical practises when using YouTube as an educational tool. I believe that all clips should be viewed by the learning manager before being shown to the learners. YouTube is an online data base of clips, but videos exist outside of YouTube as well. I think having learners create video presentations is a great way to get learners enthusiastic about a topic and enable them to feel empowered by the ITC. This would allow them to benefit from a multi-media tool without exposing them to some of the risks that exist through YouTube. Teachers have to understand privacy laws and seek permission if they wish to share such videos with the wider community and understand that videos (or pictures) should not be shot using privately owned cameras without prior permission. They should also be stored on EQ owned property in accordance with law.