Glogster and Comic Master

Glogster

This is a poster creation tool for the classroom. It allows you to combine text, pictures, graphics, video, and audio into an interactive poster.

To put it simply, a glog is an interactive poster.

The site itself is relatively easy to navigate although the downside is that it isn’t free. (details are here)

As a school-wide tool, the benefit would be huge. The creation of interactive posters moves away from the mundane task of a teacher and student creating a poster. It could spark more creativity and interest in the students. It also acts as a technological tool and ICT work which aids the development of students computer literacy.

Students can create their own free personal accounts, but they will have to have an email address. Teachers are unable to view these accounts without the student providing them with the necessary information.

 

 

An interactive glog is a wonderful way for students to share their knowledge and can be used across the curriculum. Glogs can be used for book reports, math, science, social studies, language arts, poetry, and public service announcements – almost anything you can think of.

Final glogs can be hosted on Glogster or teachers can embed them into a blog, wiki or another web site. By sharing their glogs with class members and family, students communicate with a wider audience.

Comic Master

To build on my previous post on Storyboard that, Comic Master is a more advanced graphic novel platform for older class groups. Students can design their own multi-page story with interesting backgrounds, characters, props, and customized text. Stories can be saved and printed out. And its free.

Thought and speech bubbles, props, special effects, and caption boxes are easily added with a simple click-and-drag.

Although options for characters and backgrounds are limited, it is a fun site that quickly lets you put together an original comic book or graphic novel. Both popular genres are a fun way to entice reluctant readers into creative writing.

You will need to create an account so you can save and reload your comic for editing. An email account is needed.

 

Students can create original stories or use Comic Master to show what they learned on any topic across the curriculum.

• Re-tell a story to show comprehension.
• Expand a story by writing an alternate ending or additional scene.
• Write a short story using figurative language such as similes, metaphors, alliteration etc.
• Write a brief story using new vocabulary words.

Here’s a good tutorial