Voki: Put some swag in your lesson presentation!

There are many websites out there that allow you to create a speaking avatar that can then be embedded or linked on a website or blog.  My preferred website for this is Voki.  Voki highlights these 4  features offered by their website.

1. Motivate students to participate
2. Improve message comprehension
3. Introduce technology in a fun way 
4. Utilize Voki as an effective language tool 

It can also be translated into 25 different languages if you are working with ESL students. A few things that make Voki unique is that you don't even need to create an account to make an avatar. If you want to save your work you will need to create a free account. I can tell you from my personal experience that my students (who are in high school) loved these avatars.  They would always ask me to replay them in class even after weeks had passed.  I post them to my moodle site in the main page or embed them in a specific lesson. Here are a few examples of how I used them. I also plan on having an AI student create one today when I tutor him.

Summer Tutoring

I had the privilege this summer to tutor a student with Autism  with the hopes of enhancing his technological skills. I know we are always told that students in this digital age know all about technology because they use Facebook and have an iPod. While those are great tools and fun to use, they are very elementary when it comes to the skills and knowledge students need to be successful in our ever changing digital world. I have found that a vast majority of the students I have taught during my 6 year career to be very unprepared when it comes to the digital skills they will need to be successful after high school. The first goal I wanted to accomplish was to get him accustomed to manipulating digital files. Pretty basic stuff like searching for, downloading, and uploading pictures and music. I used the site We Video, which allows the user to make videos online with their video editor. It functions and feels a lot like the older iMovie from Apple. I had him create a very short video about anything he wanted to keep his interest level high. He chose to make his movie about Transformers; I will be posting the finished project soon. We grabbed some Transformer theme music to add to the movie from YouTube by using YouTube - MP3. I have also used Make It Mp3 in that past. Those are the best YouTube to mp3 sites I have found. Practice and Enjoy!!

Make custom animated banners for Moodle, Websites, or Blogs

Want to make your Moodle, Blog, or website banner stand out to your students? This is my preferred method to have custom animated banners and pictures. Follow these simple steps to create a banner similar to the one above. 

1. Use Keynote, PowerPoint, or any other program that allows you to insert a picture and type over it. Design how you want it to look with text and pictures.

2. If using a Mac cut out that picture by pushing Command+Shift+4 all at the same time. This will give you a cursor and allow you to select the part of the screen you want to make into a picture. If you are using a PC try this link from Lifehacker.

3. Now that you have your picture go to Lunapic. Upload your picture and then play around with all the 100's of effects they offer. Once you find one you like download your custom animated gif and upload it to your website, moodle, or blog. 

4. Sometimes a site won't read your gif image. In that case I like to use Use.com to host my picture. This allows me to get the HTML of the picture and post it on my website.  Below is another example from one of my co-taught classes. 

Visual Bookmarks ANYWHERE!!

If you are not using Symbaloo shame on you!  The days of sifting through endless bookmark lists on your browser should be over. Symbaloo is a web based visual bookmark tool that allows you to access your bookmarks from any computer in the world. Best of all you can have multiple screens or "mixes" as they call them. Put any bookmark wherever you want it, upload your own picture cover, and even share it with friends. I have created a webmix that should be very helpful for teachers at Greenville but should also help any one else who wants a one stop place for the best of web 2.0 sites. So go to Symbaloo and subscribe to my webmix by using this URL

http://www.symbaloo.com/shared/AAAABuvrEXcAA42ACoeoNw==

My First Post

I know the end of the school year seems to be a weird time to start a teaching blog but this is about the first time all year I have finally been able to breathe.  I would first like to thank Richard Byrne for keeping me informed on all the latest technology and inspiring me to share my knowledge and experiences when it comes to teaching. If you do not follow him at his blog you are truly missing out.  The second person who has greatly inspired me to become a better educator is Matinga Ragatz. I had the great fortune of working with her for a summer to develop a social studies blended learning model for GRPS. Matinga was teacher of the year in Michigan for 2010-2011; I ran into  her at MACUL this year and she is now working on starting schools in Africa. Worst case scenario this blog will be a way for me document my experiences and growth as a teacher for myself. I hope to use it as a way to share my lessons and technology ideas with my colleagues  at Greenville. But perhaps, just perhaps some other teachers out there may find it useful and informational to better help them improve their educational delivery. Only time will tell!!!!