Reflection on digital tools group 3

Powerpoint, Prezi and Glogster

Ah, finally a technology I had prior experience with - Powerpoint.  A nice simple, user friendly technology that I had used before when giving presentations.  I had always used it in the past instead of palm cards - it was a way to ensure that you covered the key material and gave the audience an idea of what was coming next.  The storyboard feature was new to me and I can see how that would be very useful when preparing a powerpoint presentation.  However, I still believe that powerpoint is predominantly a replacement for palm cards - a useful tool but nothing particularly exciting for the audience (your students).

I thought Prezi was great.  Where powerpoint just allows the presenter to list key points, Prezi allows the presenter to hone in on the details of each point.  This was a fun tool to use and was very simple and straightforward - huge bonus points from me for this aspect.

I've chosen to do my analysis on Glogster and will use a SWOT analysis.  I've chosen Glogster as I believe that of the group 3 technologies, this is the one that would prove to be the most engaging for students.  My own children were enthralled watching me create my glog, and were jumping over each other to contribute ideas.  Wouldn't that be exciting in a classroom context?

Strengths

•  private forum as when you set up your glogster account you nominate the student accounts that will have access to the glog.  Only those students and the teacher have access to the glog.
• design options were bright and colourful and would be very appealing to students
• the format of being able to upload videos, images and text made for a very exciting looking presentation
• collaborative learning as students would be able to view each other's work.
• because you can link multiple images, videos etc, the glog can effectively become a storage space for information about a particular topic.

Weaknesses

• more of a hassle to get started than the other technologies.  Had to sign up using my prac school which took some time.
• Uploading images and videos was very problematic for me.  For some reason, I was able to upload some images quickly and easily, but I couldn't upload other images.  In the end, I got so frustrated, that I only uploaded two images and couldn't spend any more time trying to upload the other two.

Opportunities

• many students, particularly artistic types, would really immerse themselves in the creation of a glogster and want to make their presentation as visually appealing as possible.  Because they are engaged and motivated, they may spend more time and effort researching their topic and writing their text
• students may be as creative as they wish and may choose to make their own movies and images to upload into their glog, further enhancing their learning.

 
Threats

• because students can view each other's glogs, there is always the chance that some students may be harassed, teased or bullied because of the content or quality of their glog
• the teacher would need to be vigilant in checking student glogs to ensure content is appropriate