Virtual Me Makes Learning "Funner"

While reading some of the emails from the classblogmeister group on yahoo groups, someone listed links to useful web page gadgets. I had been checking out the ones from my colleague on Wired Librarian, and I have been testing out a few of them. Here was even more to look at.
Among some of the really cool (and age appropriate) ones was a site/application called DoppelMe.

In a matter of minutes, I was able to create an avatar in my pseudo-likeness. You can choose from a variety of expressions, hair, top clothes, bottom clothes, eye wear, shoes, hats and even facial hair... Make sure to bookmark or favorite the second page, not the first (to use with your students). The first page asks if you want to create a male or female, and the female one shows a little 'bumpy' if you catch my meaning, somewhat like a Barbie doll. The male, on the other hand, is as ambiguous as a Ken doll.

In this world where technology is not just viewed as a great learning tool, but as a place of great fear and danger, keeping a child's identity safe is necessary. I won't put pictures of my students on our blog site, but why not make avatars of ourselves and put those on?

That is just what we did. I presented my avatar to my students along with a brief (3 minute maybe) tutorial on how to use the tool. In about 10 minutes in the computer lab, each student had his or her own avatar. They were so engaged and so excited to do this, and I was very excited for them. We uploaded each to their classblogmeister page, and I think that it looks great. Feel free to check us out at http://www.classblogmeister.com/blog.php?blogger_id=93503.

I also took that avatar that I made, and I animated it using Adobe ImageReady (the predecessor to Adobe Fireworks). It took all of about 2 minutes to do it, and I put it as the title header of this blog. I hope that it brings a chuckle.

One of the coolest things this week was that I received a second blog entry recommendation. It concerns the work of an author that we are reading, and I think I might use it. It is nice that my students feel empowered enough to suggest new blog assignments. Even though it is homework, I really think that they view it in a very different way than more conventional assignments. I know that's how I feel about them.