Glogstering in Class

Glogster is simply a dynamic free tool for those teachers and students who are willing to try new presentation gadgets, rather than PPT or similar tools. It can become another element that can keep students’ attention at its peak while giving a presentation. It is indeed a better tool than a paper poster, or a bunch of pictures scattered all through the board in the classroom.

http://www.glogster.com/

For someone who has never used this particular tool, to create a Glog, it may take anyone around thirty minutes. This implies getting to know the basic components needed to insert and upload pictures, to include text boxes such as bubbles and the like, how to “grab” your own voice recorded by the page to be included on the Glog, your own video or picture, etc. Once you get to know its basic features, including background settings, etc., you are ready to start Glogstering.

In terms of potential uses in one’s class, the possibilities are endless with a good dose of creativity. I know see myself using Glogs in reading skills classes for students to create “story plot analysis” or creative summaries for the stories we get to read in class. And how about Glogstering in oral communication courses? It can be a great challenge for students to move out of the using presentation paradigm to have them use their creativity to sketch their presentations on a Glog format. Sounds like something that needs to be tried out in class!

Take a look at what I created and give me your feedback, please.

http://jonacuso.glogster.com/b-learning/

Jonathan

Universidad Latina

Costa Rica

Websearches

Websearching for educational purposes has always been a headache for the novice searcher digging through layers of information listed on one’s favorite browser. Are there any other alternatives for finding information, but Bing, Google, and Yahoo?

Making a very quick poll among my students at the university, I asked them to tell me which Web browser they favor the most. It’s not surprising to know that most of my students actually used Google as their “favorite” choice. Then, asking them to name at least two other alternatives, but Google, they simple said: Bing or Yahoo! Had they heard anything about Lycos, Excite, or Metacrawler? Of course not!

Because I am kind of old-fashioned in terms of Web searching, I still go back to those original browsers such as Lycos (http://www.lycos.com/). Lycos has been there for quite a long time, way before Google came onto the Web stage. But was interesting about it? It does filter information much more than the endless lists of links provided by the popular Web browsers. It gives you alternatives for your search in case you are using the “wrong” key words. You can also get images, video, Web-pages, and yellow pages!

If you are an old-fashioned chap like me, I am sure that you had probably used Exicte! (http://excite.com/). Excite is as old as Lycos, but different. They share similar searching principles, but Excite has a nicer way of displaying additional key words related to what you are looking for, called Are you looking for? This feature provides you with a limited list of synonyms or content-related options. Besides, it gives users a limited and more depurated search than popular alternatives.

Last but not least is Metacrawler (http://metacrawler.com/). This other “oldie” has a section for additional key words for searches as Excite. But it has a nice feature the others do not have: Your recent searches. This is great because you can see where you started and how your search evolved, in case you want to go back to pages you have not bookmarked before. Although Metacrawler does not give you a Blind Search, it tell you through which browser you are finding/filtering the information.

Students can be encouraged to use these alternative browsers, or their preferred ones. Let’s have them bear in mind that Webpages (their ownwers), such as Wikipedia, pay to be listed first in almost any search. And if students were enrolled in the English Teaching major, having in mind that they will be working with children and teenagers, I would suggest the following links:

http://kids.britannica.com/

http://kids.yahoo.com/

http://www.askkids.com/

http://www.safesearchkids.com/

http://www.noodletools.com/

I hope all this information is of good use for you all!

Jonathan

Universidad Latina

Costa Rica