Earlier this summer I was introduced to the educational version of Glogster. For those not familiar with the site, Glogster is marketed as a sort of graphic blog (the site’s tagline is “Poster Yourself”). It has some interesting features that also make it a unique tool for student work. The education version allows teachers to register up to 200 student accounts which are all connected to each other in a class. Students can then create an unlimited number of glogs, each of which is a one-​page interactive poster.

Glog creators can embed text, clip art, photos, video, and sound on each page. Each object can also have a live link attached to it. The pages can also be embedded into other locations such as blogs and wiki sites (see my classroom wiki as an example of this). The embedded glog is live, so any changes that are made to it at the Glogster site appear immediately wherever else you embed it.

So besides “postering themselves,” what could students do with Glogster? Here are a few ideas. I’m sure these will get you thinking about others—please share your own ideas in the comments.

1. Creating a “Choose Your Own Adventure” graphic novel. Each page would be a scene from the story with certain clickable elements that would take the viewer to a new page which continues the story.
2. Build a personal portfolio, showcasing links to scanned work, uploaded files, and online work such as blog posts and web sites.
3. Create a visual glossary for a unit or subject.
4. Write an interactive, visual book review or character study.
5. Make a clickable diagram to illustrate a concept or model a process. Links would take the user to a definition, explanation, or a closer view of that portion of the model.
6. Mock up a web site home page.
7. Develop an interactive magazine or newsletter. Each page could represent a department, feature, or activity and include pictures, video, and text linking to stories in a blog or other online publication.
8. Invent a game or puzzle which includes video, image, sound, and text elements and requires the players to interact with them to move.
9. Assemble an interactive exhibit illustrating an event or era of history in pictures and video.
10. Make a talking storybook for children using clips of narration and sound effects attached to pages and images.

Truly creative students will certainly be able to come up with many more ways of using the site, so let them loose and see what they can do.