Web 2.0

As I told you in my last post, I am in a techsploration class this summer.  This week's assignment is to explore several web 2.0 tools.  I have had a great time looking at many of the suggested sites and found  Glogster, FlipSnack and Sliderocket to be the three that I enjoyed the most.  I get really excited when I think about all the ways that I can use these sites in my classroom and with my colleagues.  What I want to share with you today is my experience with Glogster.

I created a simple one as an example of what I envision using this site for with my students.  At the beginning of the year we study the author Eric Carle.  We discuss his artwork, his characters, his story lines and the author himself.  The students are usually familiar with many of his books and this helps to make them comfortable beginning that ever important task, talking about the books we read.  While using the site, I imagined myself posing the topic sentence, We Love Eric Carle, and then I recorded what I believe the typical first grade answers will be.  After 14 years in first grade, I can usually predict what they will say, but there is always one...right?

I've included a link to my simple Glog here.  My plan is to set up the Glog before the lesson with the topic in the middle and several shapes around the outer edges where I will add student comments during our class discussion.  This seems like a great way to liven up the author study wrap-up (and ditch the marker and large notebook paper).  Plus, we study several authors throughout the year so with each consecutive author we study, I could allow the students to help with the creation of the background details as well as the text.  I imagine that by the end of the year when we are studying Robert Munsch, my students will be able to create their own Glog! (perhaps with some competent and always helpful 5th grade buddies, right Mrs. Vielleux?).

I found this site easy to navigate and enjoyed "playing around" with the different tools and options that are available and there are a LOT of options.  There are different backgrounds, shapes, fonts, ways to embed video and other images as well.  I did find some of the periphery information on the site (ads, banners and messages)  to be distracting and I do worry that this could be problematic for the students when I am trying to get them to focus on the Glog itself.  Overall, this site seems like a great way to capture the attention of my first graders and get them excited about the author and technology at the same time!

All this talk about these ideas to try in the classroom has me ready excited to go back to school and try them out!