Must See Monday #11 - Avatara

Yes, I know it is Tuesday, and I know I normally do Twitter stuff, but I just found this site and was completely busy yesterday; first day really back at my home school in two weeks, so plenty of work to catch up on.  A lot of people on Twitter that I follow talk about creating an avatar, or a computer image of yourself.  Sites like Voki give you the ability to create a talking head that you can create an image of yourself.  No offense, we have plenty of talking heads out there!

Avatara is a little different.  It is a full body, 3D avatar of yourself.  You can easily link the 3D image to Facebook, MySpace, Blogger, and Wordpress among others on the list.  Joining is as easy as an email address, password, and security code.  You get the option to choose from a blank avatar, pre-made, or upload a photo of yourself, but photo specifications are very specific.  Image must be 104800 Bytes in size, which I did not have handy, so I just used the blank options.

It is rather funny sorting through the different faces and features.  You can easily organize by male, female, and ....creature, which is not for me.  You can choose facial features, body features, and even an animation.  I felt like I was making an avatar for Tiger Woods Golf when I used to play it.  The one I created does not look exactly like me, but I think if I uploaded a proper picture it would be rather neat.  Avatara has one of Barack Obama that is very close to the real thing.

Visit Avatara and make a 3D rendering of yourself.  What about your students?  Could you see them using this?  Be a great way to create a virtual yearbook of students at a school.  Maybe in the future this is what yearbooks will be.  That is if they are not obsolete because of Facebook.

Here is mine...kind of funny!


Click here to view my Avatar!

Twitter Tuesday #9 - Top 20+ From the Weekend.

What a busy weekend.  Not really for me, but on Twitter.  I got a lot of great resources as well as articles about the "NCLB 2.0" as it is being called, or The Obama's Administration plan for Education.

1.) I am working on a Wiki for Facebook in Education and was shared a blog post by Tomorrow's Tech in Today's Schools about using a Facebook Template as part of a project in Power Point.  I know we hate Power Point, but it completely changes how it is used.  Check it out.  Great idea!

2.) Education Reform Policy Articles and Links:

• A Blueprint for Reform - Official Publication
• Education Week - Administration Unveils ESEA Renewal Blueprint
• The Big Idea - It's Bad Education Policy - L.A.Times
• From the Christian Science Monitor - 5 Key Changes to NCLB proposed by Obama
• Reform of NCLB Starts in Iowa

3.) A collection of Online Videos, Lessons, Games, and Quizzes: NeoK12

4.) From Shelly Terrell, a great video and resource for explaining the purpose of a PLN and Networking.  Also the creation of a Wiki about Networking.  Worth visiting if contemplating working to create your own PLN.

5.) From a YouTube search, a great list of Smart Notebook Video Tutorials

6.) A new craze are inforgraphics.  Here is 35 Great Social Media Infographics and The State of the Internet video.

7.) Two Reasons for Teaching Facebook in Schools.  I am contemplating a video of some kind with my students about value and safety of Facebook.  This might come in handy.

8.) iPod Touch/iPhone Apps for students.  Pretty nice list.

9.) Larry Ferlazzo wants to help a Blogger and Twitterer reach a larger Audience.  Nominate a Blog or Twitterer HERE.

10.) ZuiTube - Great videos for kids.

11.) KySTE attendees who are on Twitter.  Supporting my fellow Kentuckians on the Twitterverse and others.

12.) Educators Sharing Resources on Diigo - A GREAT group to join.

13.) Evaluating Websites - A great list of references.

14.) U.S. to Roll out Major Broadband Policy  - From Yahoo!  You can also visit Broadband.gov

15.) Google Earth in Education Resources

16.) TxtBlaster - Similiar to my post about texting students using your email.  This is online.

17.) Amazing Web 2.0 Projects - A Book!!  PDF

18.) In case you have not seen this, Teachers on Twitter - A Wiki.  Browse by subject matter.  Also a list of educators who share resources.

19.) ScribbleMaps - Draw on Google Maps - Interesting.

20.) 92 Videos That Will Make You Go: Huh, Whoa, Wow, Ahhh and Ha-Ha - Great list...must find time to look at them.

And finally, a picture is worth 1000 words.  Here is how so many in education feel today with the changes to education policy.  Where does responsibilty for failing schools REALLY fall??

Must See Monday #10 - TypeWith.Me

At the KySTE conference I attended last week I was introduced to TypeWithMe by Jeremy Renner during his session on his 10 Favorite Web Tools.  During the conference we used TypeWithMe to introduce ourselves to him and each other.  I had not seen this website before.  It reminded me of TodaysMeet, only better options.

What I like about TypeWithMe is that the typing is real time.  As you type in the text, it will appear on the screen...from anyone.  Currently it is limited to 16 participants in the room at the same time, but for AP classes, this would be a useful tool.  If necessary you could have two rooms for larger classes.  Every person in the room can also choose a color (8 choices) that will be the background of their text.  It is really useful in seeing who is typing and when.

Here is a sample page so you can see it in action.

You can easily pre-enter text for people when they come in the room (Questions, Links, Quotes, etc) that will help get the typing started.  There is also a chat window to the bottom right where you could have a whole other conversation.  It allows you to import a Word, PDF, or RTF file as well.  You can also export what you are typing to Word, PDF, HTML, Plain Text, and others.  would be great for posting to the web so students could view the conversation later.  The final option is a Time Slider which will allow you to scan through the conversation at the time it was occurring.  A great way to log your conversation as well, especially if you are looking for something that was said at a certain time.

So how could you use this in your classroom?
1.) Provided to me by Russ Goerend - Have students type one sentence at a time to create a story.
2.) Use as a supplment to lecture for students to ask questions
3.) Have students use during a movie to ask questions or share their thoughts about it
4.) While reading novels/books in class let students type questions or discuss the book live while reading so they don't forget as they read
5.) Use during a guest speaker to remember responses as well as questions and students thoughts.

What ideas do you have?

Twitter Tweecap - March 2nd Edition

Another dose of all things that I received via Twitter.  Some interesting stuff.  One thing I have realized is that I picked a great time to start blogging and Tweeting because there is so much going on with Education!

1.) Fun Facts from the RtTT (Race to The Top) Applications - This is an interesting look at the applications submitted by the states.  Is it a good thing that Kentucky is not on the list?

2.) Looking for a resource to share with your staff about the expectations of teachers in the 21st Century?  Here is a great list of the 21 Things for 21st Century Educators!

3.) For all of us using Blogger, they now have a highly customizable templates designer.

4.) Teaching Geometry with Google Sketch Up - Yeah, I got a bad grade in Geometry, but for those of you that didn't, maybe you can understand this more than me.

5.) From the iLearn Technology Blog - WeboWord

6.) Merit Pay, Teacher Pay, and Value Added Measures - YouTube Video

7.) Top Members on Twitter in Educational Technology

8.) From the Teacher Tech Blog - 50 Web 2.0 Tools Your Students Wish You Would Use - It will link you to a Google Site.  Interesting Stuff.

9.) 50 Best Blogs for Education Leaders

10.) From the Educational Technology Guy - Free Educational Technology Journals and Resources.

11.) Get the Exact Time and know if how much off your computer or iPhone is.

12.) Using Technology to Transform Schools - Remarks by Arne Duncan

13.) Funny Video - Facebook Manners shared by Russel Tarr

There were some others I found on Twitter.  Some of them I shared on my Articles page.  It was rather busy, so I did not get to look through all my PLN was saying very much this week.  Will be another busy week.  State High School Basketball Tournament.  No one does it like Kentucky!

A Few New Web 2.0 Tools

A great way to create online Photo Books is through Picaboo.  It is a software that requires you to download it, but it offers a great way to create photo album on your computer with a lot of great features.  There are tons of tools for your photo book that allow you to customize how it looks.  You can add backgrounds, custom layouts, text boxes so you can label your photos.  You can also organize your photos to create a story flow so that your pictures go in sequential order.  There are also several other tools that could be used for a personal or school projects.

You could easily have your students use Picaboo to do a biography project in your class over an author, scientist, historical figure, etc.  Would be a great way to present information to the class, especially with the ability to add text and put in sequential order.  I suggest that you download and try it out yourself to see if there can be an educational application in your classroom.

Preceden is a simple timeline creation tool.  It is free to use.  It would be ideal if you wanted to do the events from a major world war because it would be easy to track different battles.  It would be great in WWII because you could show all the different campaigns on one timeline because of how they are color coded.  It is really difficult for students to understand that multiple events happen in history at the same time and textbooks do a horrible job of conveying this a lot of the time.  Preceden would be a great way to follow events.

On a completed timeline a description of the events is listed below the actual timeline.  Each of those events has a "go to" link that will take you to it on the timeline.  You can also print the descriptions of each event allowing a student to turn in a paper if need be.  You can see a sample of a timeline here.  It is the timeline of Preceden.

Headmagnet is a Flashcard creation tool unlike any others you will see.  I could give a description and tell you about it, but there is no reason to reinvent the wheel.  Richard Byrne of Free Technology 4 Teachers does a great job of explaining what this site can do as well as providing a video.  I highly suggest that you subscribe to his blog if you have not already.

KeepVid allows you to take the streaming video from sites like YouTube and download them.  This works great because you can download the files as a Flash file and then easily upload them to a site like Prezi.  You can add a Toolbar link so that when watching the video, it will start to download.  It is a great feature to use in schools because of all the other problems with YouTube.  It would be a way to keep those videos you love and show in class without all the distractions that come from YouTube.