Putting your Best Face Forward- Using Avatars

Putting your Best Face Forward- Using avatars

I uploaded the following post to our school’s TechConnect blog. It was spurred by the wave of avatar creations for ALL students across grade levels due to the participation of each class in the Egypt VoiceThread.

What is an avatar?

An avatar is a computer user’s representation of himself or herself. We need to be careful when representing ourselves in any form online. You do not want to use a photograph of yourself, that might identify you to others how you look, how old you are or where you live. You also do not want to name your avatar with your full name. First names are defining without being revealing, unless you have a very unique first name.

There are many different ways how you could create you own avatar. You will use them when you write on a blog, in a VoiceThread (digital storybook), or participate in a chat or discussion forum.

You can create an image on the computer using a drawing or illustration of yourself, use clip art or take a digital picture of an object, such as a guitar, football, that you identify with. Be creative.

Here are some examples of great avatars:

Before introducing the concept of an avatar to the kids, I ask each student to share something about themselves that most of the class did not know. We heard that one girl liked rodents, one had her own pet raccoon, another owned 5 turtles, etc. After each student shared a tidbit, I asked if a stranger would know who in this class had something to do with a raccoon? No! Do we (in the class) know, which student likes raccoons? Yes! It seemed to make sense to them now to use a representation, such as a picture of something else, to allow friends to identify them, but not strangers. In come the avatars…

I asked my Twitter network (thank you @murcha, @technoteach, @tmcgrath, @metaweb20, @karlyb) for more elementary school website that allow an easy and appropriate creation of avatars. The following links were suggested, but after a closer (remember I teach elementary students) I chose not to use them for the following reasons:

• WeeWorld- Ads with inappropriate and suggestive images and text. Once you choose a body part, eye color and head shape you are confronted with a Adam & Eve style leaves in appropriate places. I can just imagine the gasping among the students! You can create the avatar without having to register.
• Voki - Also with ads, geared towards the older crowd. Talking avatar, which would not work when needed in VoiceThread
• Portrait Illustration Maker- Google Ads on the side, which always make me nervous with the elementary crowd. Otherwise looks OK, except too outgoing links take you too streaming RSS feed. No control or idea what will be displayed if students happen to end up on the page.

In the end, I ended up suggesting to the students to use KidPix to create a portrait of themselves or to use Build Your Wild Self website, from the New York Zoo and Aquarium.

Once students had created their “wild self”, they saved it > as a Wild Desktop > then right clicked >Save Image As> and we had a copy of the avatar. Kids LOVED it. It was a lot of fun, in addition to learning animal facts from the different body parts they chose.

There is also a Avatar-Maker in Kerpoof. Children do need to register (no e-mail address required) There is no “save as” option in Kerpoof, but if you have a screen capture tool like Jing, you have a work around.

Student vs. Teacher created Media

While listening to the Technology Shopping cart podcast I heard Wes Fryer say:

I am a catalyst for creative engagement and collaborative learning [...] Students creating media and then students collaborating.

I fully agree with Wes that we don’t see students do this nearly enough in the traditional school system. They are still mostly the passive recipient of teacher created content and lectures. Even when students are supposed to “create”, it is often a directed and restricted creation. “First you need to do this, then that, then ….”. It goes back to allowing students time to “play”, which I wrote about in a post las month. They need that time to be creative.

What motivates anyone to create?

My personal experience is that I simply enjoy the process of creating. Let that be designing a website, writing a blog post, or knitting a sweater. Other reasons for creating “something” are financial benefits, the need or enjoyment of the final product.

So how can we motivate students to C R E A T E ? How do we motivate teachers to allow students to create?

I am looking around in my own elementary school and am observing the following:

The teachers who have caught the “tech bug” and are using tools to showcase student’s work. They are finding these tech tools useful for personal use as well. Ex. Taking digital images to document an activity, scanning in of students’ artwork, uploading photos to classroom blogs, having students type in a story or report in word or directly into the blog.

Some of the teachers have taken the next step and are using the available tools (hardware and web- based) to manipulate their own content, present curriculum related material found on the web, and students’ work to mash up and to CREATE new materials. They are are using them for reviews, personalization, and content delivery infused with technology. Ex. PowerPoint presentations with images, audio and video; Jeopardy style games; document cameras; teacher created lectures delivery through podcasts, using digital images taken from/by students to create new teacher presentation, etc.

The next natural step should now be “student creating media”. The one that Wes Fryer is talking about. Allowing students to learn through their own creations is still not widely acceptable (especially not when high stakes testing is looming). But isn’t that the way we learn?What creation is more desirable (student or teacher)? Is one above the other in hierarchy or just a stepping stone to the next level? What is the value of teacher created material?

If teacher created material for their students is the stepping stool for student created media, that it has its value! Then we need to motivate teachers to create, create, create for their students? Maybe that will help them see the value of the PROCESS of creating in their own learning.

We Have Come a Long Way

We have come a long way…

As we started the school year “computers”, as a resource, was taken away and replaced by Tech Connect. This meant for teachers that for half and hour a week they would not be dropping their students off at the computer lab and scurry away. It meant for teachers that they would have an additional half an hour a week taken up specifically for technology planning time. We, as the Technology Integration Facilitators, would NOT be teaching a computer class, but help plan, advise, facilitate, coach, assist and co-teach lessons that were rich with technology integration. We knew that some teachers would not be happy about this change in “the way we do things around here”. Some were even “angry” about more being dumped on them.

After the initial technology issues, outside of our control, such as connectivity and illness, We have come a long way…

A teachers who had one of the least experience and was afraid of working with computers and technology made a conscious decision and effort to come to workshops I offered, come for one-on-one sessions, integrate tech tools for private use, and experiment on her own.. she has done AMAZING things with and for her Kindergarten kids.

We have come a long way…

Another teacher who has has never been afraid of technology and has an easy time in “figuring” things out on her own told me that it finally clicked in her head. That she finally sees what “integration” is about. To see her students engaged and even her more “difficult” boys be involved, focused and showing their best work is what helped her in the process that we are on the right path. Demonstrating to her how all the separated pieces of tools can fit nicely together with iGoogle, where ALL her e-mail accounts come together, interesting blog post just magically appear on the page, a to-do list, that helps her stay on task, etc. has gotten her excited about diving into the read/write web. She has created a “blogger” job as part of the job list that rotate daily in her Kindergarten class (Thanks to Melanie Holtsman for the idea) , and she is using one AlphaSmart Neo as one of the tools in her writing station during center time.

We have come a long way…

Another grade level who has been particularly challenged with technology has taken taken a big leap of faith and has written their own lesson plan given us technology coaches and the drama teacher ideas how they would envision our involvement and help in the project. There is true integration and collaboration on the horizon for these teachers and students with research and information skills, presentation and recording tools, assistive technology for struggling learners and readers, peer collaboration and editing.

We have come a long way…

Across grade levels, we are diving into a school-wide VoiceThread story that will utilize our collective knowledge and demonstrate student learning of our year long Egypt study. Teachers are having their students create avatars to represent their online identity, speaking to them about staying safe and protecting them while in an online environment. They are plugging microphones and headsets into jack, like they have done it their entire lives I am very excited about this project. You can follow along as it unfolds over the next few months.

[voicethread b=7626]

We have come a long way…

… and have a long way to go…

Of course there are teachers who are not cheering for the express train of technology adoption and classroom integration that is zooming ahead. The further that train gets away from them, the less they will have to think about it.

Of course there are also teachers who are not jumping on the bandwagon They are content in watching the parade go by and even cheer everybody else on who is riding it, but they prefer to stay in their comfortable spot on the sidelines.

In a conversation with Kim Cofino, a question about attitude from a technology coordinator towards these late adopters came up. My thoughts were:

I do distinguish between two different kinds of late adopters. The willing and the ones that are not. I understand late adopters who are afraid or who did not have an opportunity to adopt early. I love to work with them and move baby steps ahead. I get very frustrated with the late adopters who are in the cateogory of “late adopter” because they choose not to learn, because they are simply cruising along, planning on getting out of teaching, close to retirement, lazy, procrastinators, etc., .

I am not frustrated because they are late adopters of the technology…,

… I am frustrated because I expect professionalism from the people I work with.

Food for thought…

Think about how far you and your teachers in your school have come? Think about the different “late adopters” that are out there. Let me know,