The Battle of the Brain

Glogster and the 21st Century Learner

According to Brenda's Blog, Glogster is a tool that "introduces students to 3-D communication skills, requiring them to merge the left and right sides of the brain as they seek to communicate and evaluate both information and meaning."  That is exactly what I experienced this week as I sought to create an effective poster for presenting Twitter to my colleagues at our staff meeting.  I had to try and balance my creative right brain with my logical and direct left brain (usually my left brain wins the battle). 

Creation

Of course I began with my left brain in control, which resulted in my poster taking on a very linear look, with straight lines, organized columns and very little creative flair.  My poster was beginning to look like a boring mess of information that would not appeal to anyone's senses. 

While I was working away, a friend stopped by who puts my creative talents to shame.  She is also an avid Twitter user, and without really meaning to, we began discussing my poster.  She gave me a few tips and I quickly realized that I had forgotten completely to involve the left side of my brain, which is exactly why I had chosen Glogster as an exploration tool.  There was no creativity involved, and instead I was creating a dry space of direct information about Twitter. 

Since I already had the information that I wanted to share with my colleagues, I put my left brain in its place and allowed my right brain more control.  I must say this is where things became a bit messy. 

Blur

Frustration

First of all, adding a bit of creative flair took a lot of decision making.  What shape should I use to display my information, how big should it be, what angle should it be displayed at, what color should it be, where should it be placed in the large scheme of the poster, etc.  The choices in each category became a bit overwhelming.  I spent an enormous amount of time playing with the look, style and color of each aspect of the poster in which seconds became minutes, minutes became hours, and very quickly my evening was gone and I felt like it was all a bit of a blur.  Frankly, when I realized that I better head to bed, I was a bit frustrated at the fact that I had spent so much time and still was not finished.

Second of all, I came to realize exactly what McTigue and Croix (2010) were talking about when they spoke of visual literacy being a skill that had to be taught and that it was not an innate skill that 21st century learners are born with.  Apparently visual literacy is not a skill that I am strong in which serves as a roadblock when I am trying to create meaning out of a very visual tool.  It also became an important consideration for those times when I have asked my students to create posters or visuals to display their understanding.  Have I taken the time to teach them about visual literacy skills to ensure that they are not frustrated by the visual aspects of the assignment?  I don't think so.

Choices

Taking a Step Back

The next night I took a stab at my poster again, this time realizing that I could not get lost in the endless choices that were given to me.  I decided that I would give myself a time limit in order to put some pressure on when making my choices.  With this time limit in consideration, I forced myself to mainly stick to the Edu categories of choices and have very little variation in my color choices.  

Now that I had limited myself to not browsing through every possible combination of effects, I was able to get somewhere.  Still very slowly, my poster was beginning to take shape and I was starting to see the end in sight.  By the time my time limit arrived, I had to spend an extra few minutes ensuring everything could be easily read, and finally link to my resources.  I was finally finished.

Final Considerations

After exploring the tool and creating my own poster, I have to say that it was not an overly pleasant experience.  When I initially began exploring, the freedom of creating nothing, with no pressure was fine because I was not envisioning the overall poster effect.  The endless possibilities seemed inspiring and wonderful.

Once I really got into the nitty gritty of creating a poster, those endless possibilities became an overwhelming experience that pitted my left and right brain against each other rather than the "merging" of the two (Brenda's Blog).

Do I think that my experience proves that Glogster is not an effective tool for students?  Definitely not!  Do I think that my experience proves that Glogster is not an effective tool for myself?  Definitely!  As I said before, I am a very left brained type of person, colors, style and effects are just not forte. 

Would I use Glogster EDU as a frequent classroom tool?  Probably not.  Would I teach students about Glogster and allow them the opportunity to explore Glogster as an option for displaying their learning?  Definitely.  I still believe that Glogster is a user friendly tool that even my students would be able to navigate, but I think it opens up a creative venue that is not as friendly for all users.  Having the knowledge now about Glogster, opens up possibilities for creating differentiated assignments in which Glogster could be a tool that students could use to create posters to display their learning as an option. 

I think that if I were a student and were forced to use Glogster for an assignment, I would be frustrated and that would effect the overall impression of the presentation.  If I were given the option of using Glogster, I may explore the possibility, realize that it is not for me, and move onto a tool that is much more effective for my own learning.

Overall, Glogster is an effective tool for creating that visual space and allowing the creative juices of the right brain to flow while allowing the left brain to present information.  It is a tool that I can see many of my students enjoying and being able to create beautiful presentations, and a tool that I can see frustrating and turning away many of my students. 

References
 

McTigue, E., & Croix, A. (2010). Visual literacy in science. Science Scope, 33(9), 17-22.