Glogster – graphic blog posters

Presenting Glogster, a great web 2.0 style tool that is free to use, intuitive and highly creative.  What is it? Basically a multimedia poster maker that allows the addition of images, text, shapes and colour with audio and video. How to use? Have an idea for your poster (sketch it out if you need to) but then collect multimedia, links to web sites and even sounds and You Tube video addresses. The interface is simple and lets you add what you need and then resize and drag around the workspace as you see fit. Once happy with your design, you publish and get a link or embed code for broadcasting via a blog or web site. Having recently taught a unit of GCSE Graphics based around Photoshop, I look at this and see the potential for a full on WEb 2.0 approach. Yes it allows online comment and feedback and some aspects of the social networking web. I would suggest some improvements though – what about comment moderation (Blogger has had this for years) and even the option to disassociate from social networks? These minor changes would make Glogster highly usable in UK schools.

Clustr Maps for visitor logging

Clustr.com offer free web maps that work with MySpace as well as websites and some blogs. The world map displays red dots as to where visitors are situated with size of dot representing no. of visitors. A visual statistics tool that has a kid-friendly option too. Click here for an example map.

Using Internet forums to debate and challenge

Unfortunately, “chatrooms” and the like are all to easily abused when we try to use them in the classroom; remote debates can descend into social conversations (at best) or chaotic abuse. As students use social networking site for over 50% of the online time, they have the computer literacy skills in abundance and just need to apply it to something educational.

What about using the Forums, Talk back, Talking point or Have your Say of respected and carefully monitored sites like that of news.bbc.co.uk? Posts are not guaranteed to make it to an international audience but when they are the payback is immense. For an example, check out this news articleentitled “What do you think of modern art?” of May, 2005. My entry appears approx. 2/3 down!

Discontinuation – back soon…

Too busy at a new job (Assistant Headteacher) to add to posts, so will not be adding any here for a while. On a plus, I have started two as part of the new job – one as a year in the life type blog to chart changes and the other as the template for news stories (quite good actually – inline html on a web page using a plain white blogger!).

Whatsitallabout…. Alfeeee

This is my first entry as I set up my Blog.
Why do I Blog? The reasons for doing this relate to my career – as a tutor, I have lots of (welcome) holidays at the end of half and full terms. Students tend to carry on with coursework during these holidays and I direct them to my web space. However, I have come to realise that, unless I give them my phone number, they can’t keep current with advice or latest info. I intend to attempt to set up an RSS feed to a podcast to do this. I haven’t done it before but it can’t be that hard can it?