History
Glogster a. s., Inc, was founded in 2007 by Martin Santorcl, Patrik Prepsl, Roman Smola, Stanislav Šrámek and Tomáš Plojhar, with offices in Prague and Boston. They launched the first platform, Glogster.com also in 2007. This platform was initially promoted as a visual network, allowing users to express themselves via “graphic blogs” or “glogs”. However, in response to needs of educators incorporating Glogster into lessons and assignments, Glogster EDU (or edu.glogster.com) was set up alongside Glogster.com in 2009, offering a more secure and educational specific platform. Glogster EDU, has an annual subscription cost but gives educators a dashboard to provide instructions, templates and a private area for their class (es). The regular Glogster.com, the social network platform, was closed for new registrations and account access ceased in Feb 2015. After this the company focused solely on the Glogster EDU platform. There is, however, a personal type license available for single users. The platform has grown into a worldwide community in over 200 countries, with over 1.9 million teacher accounts with over 17 million student accounts who have created more than 25 million educational glogs, out of 45 million total glogs on the service. As of August 2022, Glogster has temporarily suspended services provided due to "operational reasons".Features
Online editor
Glogster's online editor allows users to arrange images, graphics, audio, video, and texts on a single page to create multimedia posters. It also provides access to 10,000 original graphic elements such as backgrounds, text boxes, frames and more. Media can be imported from around the web via URL or uploaded from users’ own files.Content library
The Glogpedia library is a constantly-growing collection of over 40,000 glogs, selected based on accuracy and presentation, and categorized into 80 subjects under 9 disciplines according to the K-12 curriculum. Glogster users can nominate glogs to be considered for inclusion in the library by clicking a button at the top of any public glog. Glogpedia content is intended for use in place of, or alongside, conventional curriculum texts, for example as interactive research material or to engage learners with a new topic. Users can also save editable copies of glogs to their own dashboards, and adapt them to their own needs.Mobile apps
iOS
Glogster released anAndroid
In early 2015, Glogster released a Glogpedia library browser application for the Android, with the announcement that full editing functionality for Android would be made available within the year. In October 2015, Glogster released an Android app for tablet devices with full editing functionality.Glogster in the classroom
Glogster EDU is used as a learning and teaching tool to foster higher order thinking skills. Creating posters or glogs allows learners to engage closely with a subject, exercising critical thinking and research skills in selecting appropriate media and creative skills in structuring and arranging the finished piece. Glogster is being used in place of traditional poster assignments and demonstrates how versatile such a poster-creation tool can be when partnered with solid teaching pedagogy and teacher creativity. The use of Glogster, motives and excites students to do their work. A study showed that the usage of the Glogster EDU educational platform develops necessary competences, such as, communication skills, creativity and intellectual curiosity, critical and systematized thinking, information and media skills, collaborative and interpersonal skills, problem identification, formulation, and solving and social responsibility.Training and certification
In 2015, Glogster launched the GATE (Global Ambassadors for Technology in Education) program, focused on offering Glogster educators training materials and certifications, as well as recruiting a small group of representatives to assist in promoting Glogster online and in their local areas.Contests, collaboration and partnerships
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