Blogs and Education

Testing a Web2 App: Glogster

Glogster is a website which allows students and teachers to create their own posters and post each one of them online for friends and other students to see. Glogster has features such as text, images, videos, audio, graphics, drawings, data attachments and much more. You can be as technical as you want with your poster and achieve great, creative results. Having tested out Glogster, as you can see in my other blog posts, I believe that it could be very successful for use in an educational context. When considering Glogster for a university context it has many advantages; it allows students to ‘add’ each other and view what other students are creating about similar subjects. It is also very useful for teachers and lecturers. For example, they can post information about their next lesson to the students in order to give the students a better understanding. Other advantages include; a means of revision, and a way for lecturers and students to contact each other and exchange documents. Glogster can be used very professionally and Universities could benefit from such a website. I believe that Glogster is suitable in an educational context, as long as the students can be sensible with it and use it effectively.

Voki

I have been testing out Voki and this is what I have done so far. I found this application unique and an interesting way to learn about different languages. Having used this app in French lessons in school, I know how successful it has been with pupils in school.

Glogster

Scratch: My Jumping Frog

Twitter - Pros and Cons

Twitter is a very popular social networking site which allows you to set up an account and make posts. Your friends and family or anyone could potentially see what you are posting on Twitter in the same way you can find what other people have posted. Twitter is used daily worldwide, celebrities use it to communicate with their fans and general public use it to communicate with their friends.

Advantages of Twitter

•  Enables you to contact your family and friends – If you have friends that you don’t see often, or family that lives far away, you can keep in contact with them.
• You can keep up-to-date with your favourite celebrities – Almost every celebrity has their own twitter account. They will make posts regularly which allows their fans to find out information such as; where they will be performing next, when their next song is coming out, etc.
• Allows the police to send out public messages to their area – Not only is Twitter a place for celebrities but also the police. The police use it in order to inform the public of any important information.

Disadvantages of Twitter

• Risk of unwanted attention – With the ability to hide behind a username, you wouldn't know for certain whom you were really talking to. There is also a risk of stalkers.
•  Cyber-bullying
• Beginning of the end of face-to-face interaction
• Risk of cyber-bullying – Twitter escalates arguments and disagreements between children and teenagers.
• Unable to retract what you have posted – If you post something offensive, it will be there forever, you cannot get it back.

Wordle: Llangyfelach School