Playing with Glogster
When I'm not swimming in the turgid waters of middle school discipline as the Dean of Students, I'm wearing that other swimming cap I deal with -- Technology Integration Specialist. As I told another colleague, our students are digital natives who swim in technology with ease. They perform the backstroke, breaststroke, and crawl with the zero effort; we, on the other hand, swim as though we have a large rock tied to one foot. The trick is practice -- never stop swimming, because to stop will mean to drowned. Part of my job is exploring and experimenting with technology, so I can continue to swim with the digital natives, even if it takes me longer to swim a lap.
Today's lap involved swimming with Glogster again. I came up with this work to share. I hope people enjoy it, the actual focus was not on the content itself, but rather the experience of using the tool. Glogster allows for hours of creativity and messing around, which can be shaped into hours of educational material, if used correctly and with some teacher creativity. One of KIS's art teachers, Sarah Digges, is using it as a reflection tool in the artistic process. Often times teachers come to me asking for advice about technology and the best advice I can and do give is "Don't be afraid to jump into the deep end of the pool with those digital natives." You will find that the laughs you hear from them are not because of your inept skills, but because of their joy in sharing and learning with you.
