Glogster EDU: Lesson Plan

School: Language School
Course: 3rd year (15-year-old students)
Number of students: 20
Level: Pre- Intermediate
Recycled language: verb to be, have got/has got, vocabulary on personality, physical appearance and jobs, past simple and continuous, can for ability.
Time Alloted: 50 minutes.
Objective: By the end of the lesson, the students will be able to create a Glogster poster in which they make a review of a book they have read (describing the characters, talking about the main themes and making a recommendation) 

This lesson will be delivered at the end of the school year. Throughout the year, the students have chosen and read a book (from the classroom library) once a month to recommend it to their peers. The lesson will be in the computer lab.

Activation (5’)

The teacher asks the students to guess what her/his favourite book was (among the ones they have read during the year). They can ask questions about the principal character's physical appearance, his/her job, the themes of the book, the type of genre of the book, etc. 

Comprehension and Clarification (20’)

Once they have guessed what the book was, the teacher shows the students a glogster poster she/he has created about that book. The glogster includes a trailer, descriptions of the characters, themes of the book and her/his personal opinion about it. The teacher will then show them a Youtube tutorial on how to use glogster. The students will be provided with a handout which reinforces the instructions. 

Application (20’)

The teacher asks them to make groups of four people and choose a book the 4 members of the group have read. They cannot tell their peers their choice. In groups, they will create their own glogster poster and they must not include the name of the characters or the book in their glogster. The teacher will monitor the students while they are working and providing assistance when they need it. 

Reflection (10’)

The teacher will tell the students to save their work and to finish it at home, so that the following class they will share it with their classmates, who will have to guess what book was presented in the glogster.

Tutorial on how to use Glogster EDU

First of all, click on this link http://edu.glogster.com/ and click on the option GET STARTED. 

Then, a window will pop up and ask you which account type best fits you. Choose the personal option if you are going to work individually. A teacher should choose the educator option. 

Once you have chosen an option, you write your email account and password.

Step 1: Select the button - Create new Glog and a variety of ready-made templates will appear for you to choose. You can also start from a blank landscape of portrait. 

Step 2: If you select a ready-made template, you may want to delete some items by clicking on the image and clicking on the trash can. You can also drag items around to where you would like them on your page.

Step 3: The Magnet Tool is on the top of your page. It is what you need to edit your glog. It allows you to choose the images, text and videos to include in your glog.

Step 3.a: If you click 'wall', you can pick your background image from a gallery of preloaded images, add a picture of your own, or link to a background image on the web.

Step 3. b: If you click 'image', 'video', or 'sound', you have the similar options, but for images, videos and sound. Choosing 'text' lets you select from a huge number of decorative text boxes, and selecting the 'graphics' button will give you access to a choice of graphical elements to include. Just click on the element you want and it will appear on your page.

Step 4: Editing your glog. Whether it is a picture, text, graphic, sound or video, all you need do to edit it is click on the item. You will see a small menu appear above the object. Your options here are to edit, (change colors, fonts, and add hyperlinks), bring forward, set behind, clone, undo changes, and delete. If you hover over a button, you get a popup explanation of what it does.

Step 5: Save and publish. Preview your work by clicking the preview button. Once you are happy with that you are ready to save and publish, so click the save and publish button! 

Step 6: A window will pop up and you should choose save and options. From here you name your glog and assign it a category. Choose either finished or unfinished. If it is unfinished, only the teacher and that student can view it. If it is finished, all students in your class can view it. Once you click save you get some sharing options and an embed code for a website or blog. Only teachers can make glogs public for all to view. You do this by clicking on the student account, clicking on the glog you want to make public, and selecting 'public for all' option at the bottom of the page. By default, all Glogster EDU glogs are private.

References:

Wistrom. E. (2012, November 29) Using Glogster in the Classroom. Retrieved from: https://www.brighthubeducation.com/classroom-management/57951-how-to-use-glogster-edu/

Glogster EDU

Glogster is an education technology website which allows you to create multimedia interactive posters that include text, sound, video, hyperlinks, and images. These digital posters can then be shared with classmates and teachers via email, posted on class blogs, or simply accessed through the poster's URL address. 

Benefits

• It is user-friendly so that everyone manages to use it.
• Provides creative and artistic learning opportunities.
• It is flexible. You can use it for biographies, timelines, math formulas, instructional writing, experiment results, spelling plural verbs, country or state profiles, and much more. 
• It has a great visual impact that engages students more efficiently
• It offers a Glogpedia content library of over 40,000 top-quality glogs from classrooms around the world.. where you can find information and inspiration.
• Glogster could be used as a learning and teaching tool to foster higher order thinking skills.
• Grab all kinds of media from anywhere around the web using the inbuilt web browser (web picker) and simply drag & drop them onto your canvas.
• When you integrate technology into an area of education where it is not traditionally used, it instantly becomes a great motivator for students.
• It is safe and private to use with students

Drawbacks

• It's only free  for seven days for individual users. It has an annual subscription cost (although it isn't too expensive) 
• Creating a Glog can be time consuming, especially if you are new to the program. A Glogster lesson may take several days and several hours of work time
• Students could easily become distracted by the graphics & sounds instead of focusing on the main point of the project
• It requires a good internet connection
• It has no spell check.
• Video embedding, as well as some of the other features can be difficult. I would not recommend the program to teachers who lack technological skills.

Resources

Wistrom. E. (2012, November 29) Using Glogster in the Classroom. Retrieved from: https://www.brighthubeducation.com/classroom-management/57951-how-to-use-glogster-edu/

Hasbro, Inc  (2017) How Glogster works. Retrieved from: http://edu.glogster.com/

Online tools

Some online tools I want to share with you...

a. Prezi

b. Kahoot

c. Google Docs

d. Edmodo 

e. Storyrobe

Suggestions of activities to use these tools in the classroom:

a. To summarize some information the students need to study for the test, they should use this amazing tool which makes them think of the main information and key words of the text and present it in a more eye-catching and engaging way. They can make the presentation as they want, add images, create the presentation from scratch or use already made templates to do it more quickly.

b. The students do multiple choice quizzes (created by the teacher). It is a great tool for revising theory or vocabulary. They play this game by using their mobile phones to choose the answer and the one who choose the correct option more quickly gets more points. The correct answer is displayed on an overhead projector or common screen.

c. The students can work all together in a google docs to create a glossary of words they have learnt through the school year. 

d. The students should post pieces of news they find interesting and leave a question or comment to their classmates on Edmodo's wall, so that they can start online discussions.

e. Students can create their own digital stories adding images, videos and audio recordings. Then, the students will exchange their stories and retell the story they have watched to another classmate, while the teacher monitors them.

Off-line tools

These are some offline tools I have used in the past. I hope you find them useful.

1. Microsoft Word
2. CD player
3. PowerPoint 
4. Paint
5. Downloaded TV episodes

I'll mention some activities we can do using each of these tools in the language classroom:

1. Guess who: The students will write a description of any famous person, cartoon character or even one about themselves using Microsoft Word. They only are allowed to give clues: physical appearance, personality, relationships with other people, among others without saying who the person /character they are describing really is. Then, they will swap places with their classmates and try to guess who is the character/person described.

2. The students will listen to a soundtrack by using the CD player. While listening, they should get the general idea of it. After that, they will draw the visuals which can accompany the soundtrack. Finally, they can discuss the visuals they have drawn and their differences.

3. The students can create their own stories by using Powerpoint. They can add effects to their slides and pictures offered by Powerpoint. Once they have finished, they can share their story to the whole class. 

4. By using paint and an overhead projector,  the students can play Pictionary: One student is given a sentence and he/ she should draw its representation using paint. The drawing will be exposed to the rest of the class and they have to guess what sentence he/she is trying to represent (e.g. The cat is on the armchair). The student who guesses the right sentence is the one who comes to the front and draws the representation of the next.

5. The students will watch an episode projected by a beamer. They are given a while watching activity in order to make them reflect about the themes of the episode. As a follow up activity, they can be given questions about the episode to discuss in small groups. 

A bit about myself

Hello everyone! My name is Valeria Mancini. I've been studying at UTN for three years. I am working as a private teacher, but I am  looking for a job in a private institute in the afternoon.The purpose of this website is to share with you what I know about technology and some ideas we can apply to our teacher's lessons using technological applications.This subject is called ICT in ELT which means Information and Communications Technology in English for Language Teaching. Our tutor of this subject is Paula Ledesma. We are going to learn about different online and off-line technological tools we can apply to teach in our classroom with our students and how to overcome technophobia in many different ways. Using technology in the classroom will motivate our students as they are digital natives. This means they feel very comfortable by using technology because they have grown up using it.