Glogster - Presentations meet Blogs

Glogster is a website that I came across a while ago, but never thought much of it.  I recently tried with my middle school classes and the results were mixed.  As a teacher I loved all of the posters that they came up with but some of the students thought it was a bit hard to use.

I asked my students to create a Glog as a way of presenting their group's scientific method posters.  One of the reasons I liked this site was that it was web based and each group has a single username and password.  This way there were no issues if someone was absent (you know, the "but my partner saved it on their account and now I can't do anything").

It is important to note that there are two version of this site the regular version and the education version.  The education version is best (in my mind) because it doesn't make the the Glogs public and searchable as the regular version does.

There are paid and free components of the educational version and while I like all of the components of the paid versions, I didn't think I would use it enough to make it worth it (I'll probably only use it 2 or 3 times a year).  As I become more familiar with it I might find more uses for it.  When you sign up for an educators account you do get a trial of the full version to see what it's like.  Overall I would say paid or free, I still think this is a great alternative to the regular paper and marker posters or power point presentations that we are used to.

Have you tried it?  What do you think?

Sites for the Tech Savy

One of the technology teachers at my school shared this site with me and I wanted to pass it on to you.  It has a list of great Web 2.0 sites that you can use in your classroom.  I have tried a number of them and will be writing my reviews of them in the coming days.

I hope these help you and please share any others that you have come across!