I have been spending some time the past couple of days learning about the version of Glogster developed for education. It really is a great product – flexible and easy to learn to use.<\/p>\n
I have spent considerable time attempting to understand are the security features of the service. I think that educators and parents may be overly sensitive regarding this topic, but security is certainly an issue that must be understood when students work online. Glogsters describes the educational version as security conscious. Teachers enroll students and can easily watch over what students create. Only the teacher can make student products public and may decide to limit access to members of the class.<\/p>\n
This sounded good to me, but as I explored I thought I was having difficulty figuring out how to use the security settings. I created a teacher account and also enrolled myself as a student. Because Glogster requires a “gibberish” username for students (a security measure), I was having difficulty remember the student “username” I had been assigned. In dealing with this issue, I copied the URL for the site I had created as a student and discovered that even though the site was designated as incomplete and was not shared by me in my other role as teacher, the site was fully accessible (see this demo<\/a>). I understand that there would be little change of guessing the username of the student and finding such a site, but there is still the possibility that the student could be the “weak” link in the security scheme. What if the student decides to share a project he\/she is working on with friends by sharing the URL?<\/p>\n I would not be afraid to have students use Glogster, but I think it is worth noting that student products are quite accessible.<\/p>\n