Glogster

=**"Postering"**= After signing up for Glogster, you can make a poster at your own discretion—also known as a **Glog.** The system takes you immediately to an interface, which gives you simple directions for creating a poster. You have the option of inserting clipart, a saved image, text, a video or sound clip, or editing the background of the poster.
 * [|Glogster]** is a versatile web forum through which one can design a “poster” centered around themselves, or a specific subject. The created posters can be embedded easily, in anything from Wikis to **Myspa****ce**. Glogster’s tagline is “poster yourself.”

Each of the options has a large cache of image and text styles to choose from, making some creativity available. The user can also edit the size of whatever figure they insert.

After choosing whether to preview or not, the user has the option to publish their finished poster or not. You can publish as one of three things; a “Glog Gift,” a similarly-fashioned “Glog Greeting,” or “Classic Glog,” which just uploads straight to the Glog archives. Then the Glog is finished, and the user has the option to embed it anywhere they wish, or just leave it to be found by the public. [|Here] is a link to my profile on Glogster. A poster I created can be located at the bottom.

media type="custom" key="3942395" Glogster is fun to use, certainly. It allows for great creativity, as well as interaction with other users. It can be used to emote whatever you’re feeling, and being a free service makes it all the more pleasant.

It has its downsides, however, pertaining in particular to individuality. For one thing, although Glogster has room for great creativity, it has a certain “trademarked” style. That is to say, if you were to see a regular poster and a Glogster poster and not notified as to which was which, you would be able to successfully guess which was the Glogster poster. Thus, anyone who knows of Glogster will know that it’s where you made the poster; Glogster is not the place to go if you really, really desire having a poster that looks completely your own, no matter how much they might tell you it is.

On the subject of the classroom use, Glogster can be an excellent tool. If the teacher is willing to play along, then the students can create glorious posters involving the topic they’re studying, with great diversity among themselves. It’s lots more fun for the students than writing a report, and it’s a lot easier on the eyes for the teacher. Thus, teachers have the right to present students with options that conform to their individuality; visual learners can now be included in class assignments. Bearing this in mind, mandating Glogster for a class project could be troublesome, for while classes may have some visual learners, it is doubtful that the whole class will enjoy the project; in fact, many may disdain it. Also, unless your class is primarily 14-year-old girls, I'd give Glogster no small consideration; the site's interface panders HEAVILY to that demographic. Be prepared for glitter in abundance.

=**Glogster EDU**= Also available is Glogster EDU, an option available on Glogster specialized for teachers and their classes. They are allowed to sign up on Glogster EDU, registering up to 200 students for passwords, and allowing mass classwork on Glogster.

Glogster EDU includes options for the classroom that would be otherwise unavailable on classic Glogster; Glogster EDU limits them to viewing and commenting on Glogs only within their group, to filter out inappropriate content. Teachers also get a 5-star rating scale on each of the children's Glogs, with which they can give a brief grade (perhaps to elaborate on the grade at a later date).

=**References**= -"[|Frequently Asked Questions | Glogster]." __Glogster - Poster Yourself__. 29 May 2009 .

-"[|Glogster brings glitter graphic blogging to the masses | Webware - CNET]." __Technology News - CNET News__. 29 May 2009 .