Week 5 - Engagement Activity 4b
Reflection on Glogster
Having never seen nor heard of a 'Glogster' prior to this engagement activity, this was yet another very new experience for me. After creating my first Glogster, I consider it to be the twenty-first century's version of the cardboard posters I used to make for project presentations in primary school. Hardcover, single-set-per-school-library encyclopedias, at that time, were the most significant source of information for young students. I remember being excited when the news agencies began selling project packets in the 1980s. These were kits consisting of information and printed images that could be glued onto cardboard posters, to complete projects on common themes such as The First Settlement. These
kits were a real treat because
everything you needed was already gathered together - you didn't have to
compete for library books, or scribble information from a reference book during your short time at the library (because reference books could not go home). Posters could be adorned with coloured pictures, rather than black and white photocopied or hand-drawn images from the same book as everyone else's.
It was not all that long ago when PCs were not even on the radar, and the internet would have been considered a space-age fantasy. I remember when my parents had a computer installed in their offices - I think it was a mainframe type setup (?) - but whatever it was, it was HUGE! From what I can remember, having been a child at the time, it consisted of several structures that were taller than me, and covered most of one floor of the office building. I got the impression it was very temperamental, as it had to be kept at a certain temperature with air conditioning, and because Mum was always paranoid about 'losing' information. This anxiety continues to haunt her, some thirty years later. This monstrosity of a 'thing' made a persistent humming sound, and due to its overall size and noise, as well as the levels of 'fuss' it created, its presence was undeniable. It took technicians weeks to install it, and to train Mum in its use.
How times and technology have changed! Within a relatively short passage of time, there would not be many businesses or homes without at least one computer. With glogster, students can now prepare and present their project posters digitally, with an abundance of information available at the click of a finger. And the results by far exceed the gooey, gluey, all-the-same cardboard project posters of the bygone era. Students are spoiled for information now, but the emphasis has changed and it is now up to them to learn to be discerning and choose the most relevant and reliable sources of information, resulting in broader learning experiences and enhanced learning outcomes.
In the Early Childhood setting, a teacher could create sets of glogsters, to engage students in the learning of early literacy and numeracy skills. For example, concepts, positional language, phonics, and numbers. The variety of 'pieces', such as videos, images, audio and text would maintain attention that might be lost through speaking alone. I think glogster would be a great collaborative tool in early primary school classes. Groups of children could combine individually sourced information, facts and examples to create a combined glogster, without the pressure of creating one on their own (though this would not be impossible). Teachers could use this type of project as an engaging tool to excite students about learning and using creativity, while sourcing and absorbing important content knowledge. In this way, the glogster is facilitating the application of the TPACK concept.
