Glogster

Glogster is a fun way to present information in a visual way. 

Glogster offers students the chance to create a virtual poster, with various customization options, including fonts, text color, background images, and with provided clipart, as well as the ability to add video and audio files to the poster. 

I really like the multimedia aspect of glogster--how cool to be able to add a video to a poster? 

I tried the free version of glogster to create an infographic about learning disabilities.  I enjoyed the options of using clipart for the background or a picture I have taken. One thing I found frustrating was that I couldn't customize the text boxes to be any color. Each text box design came with pre-selected color options, sometimes as few as three per style, which was fairly limiting. I am still not sure if I was missing something or if you really cannot change the color of the text boxes. Coming from programs with complete customization, not being able to change something as simple as the color of the text box seems oddly rigid. 

Yet, it still has a nice, professional look to it. 

I can see students enjoying this program, using it to create a informational presentation on different topics. While this obviously has a biased slant (since it is on Glogster and they are trying to sell you something) they have an impressive list of benefits for using Glogster, with various reports and studies to back them up. While there is bias, I do think Glogster can be a useful way to engage students in becoming responsible and effective users of  information.

This would be a good medium to use for teaching information organization. It is a great way for students to visually assess how information is presented to the user or information consumer. 

Glogster is a paid subscription service. For personal use it costs $29.99 for a lifetime use. For an educator, it costs $39.99 per year for the elementary level (1 educator and 30 students) and $95 for the secondary level (1 educator, 125 students). With a faculty subscription, you can have 10 educator accounts and 250 student accounts for $399 per year. 

For my library, I think I would first buy the elementary level and try it out on a grade or two before proposing a higher monetary investment with the higher number of accounts. Part of me wonders if  Glogster is that different from the various free programs, such as Canva. But I would like to use the programs simultaneously with different classes to determine which one I prefer.