Avatar Introduces Anti-Plagiarism Tutorial

UC San Diego Libraries created an online, interactive anti-plagiarism tutorial. An avatar welcomes readers and introduces the tutorial. This avatar's eyes then follows the mouse. This is a good way to capture the attention of students, while offering a short but valuable lesson.

The library lists other classes and workshops, as well as a list of library subject-specialists for faculty to work with on targeted library/research instruction.

South Park Avatars

Years ago, my daughter created South Park characters that represented each member of the family. Mom had a coffee cup in hand. Her big brother had a beer mug. All-in-all, she did a great job creating us. At the time, she couldn't digitally move the images. But now you can create an avatar (representation of yourself) on the SP Studio and move then to your blog or other places.

AudioPal - widget adds audio to your site

Add another layer of communication to your website, blog, or other web 2.0 tool with AudioPal. To order, you need to first call and add your voice by phone. Enter a passcode. Preview (listen). Then type in your e-mail address so you will get AudioPal e-mail with with link for your voice message. Could be useful for school or library websites or blogs. Could be used for an opening greeting or regular messages.

Features include:

• Record and use your OWN voice
• Select from a number of voices (TTS)
• Playback controls
• Update your audio anytime
• Free
  

AudioPal is a companion to SitePal, which lets you add talking avatars.

MadMen Avatars

As project manager for a bunch of online web 2.0 courses, I get to welcome new students and learn all sorts of new cool tools that they discover. Today, I was introduced to MadMen avatars. What a kick!

Once you select your avatar, outfit, accessories, and background, you then pick which view you want: face (for Twitter and Facebook), top half of avatar (Facebook and iPhones), or full screen for your monitor wallpaper. All the while you are making your avatar, music is playing. The music is fun at first, but is now driving me nuts! Enjoy!

My first VOKI, GingerMan

Here is my first Voki character, GingerMan. It is an avatar that can speak using text to speech or you can record a message for your avatar to say. In this case, GingerMan welcomes teachers to the online web 2.0 course Classroom Learning 2.0. There are all sorts of options for representations of yourself, from holiday characters, historical figures, cartoons, cats, dogs, and more. there are a number of voice options, including male or female. Also different languages. Lots of background options. Check it out. Make different avatars for different occasions. this is designed for young people, but on the Internet who knows if you are a dog?

Top 10 Web 2.0 Tools for Young Learners - T.H.E. Journal

T.H.E. Journal carried an article on the "Top 10 Web 2.0 Tools for Young Learners" in its February 2009 online issue. Author Chris Riedel's article covered an interview with educational technology consultant Gail Lovely, who presented her Top 10 Tools list at the FETC 2009 Conference in Orlando, FL. Gail's list of young learner tools included:

1. WIKIS (3 examples): wetpaint, pbwiki, wikispaces
   
2. Blogs (4 examples): Blogger, Class Blogmeister, 21 Classes, Gaggle
   
3. VoiceThread - voice and image.
   
4. Glogster - interactive posters.
   
5. Skype - communication. video window.
   
6. Animoto (education version) - mini music videos for kids.
   
7. YackPack - Yackety-yack! Voice-driven communication.
   
8. Create a Graph - easy visualizations of data.
   
9. Voki - design fun avatars.
   
10. Kerpoof - create movies, scenes.

In her presentation, Gail pointed out that the list is not as important as what teachers will do with the tools. She showed how teachers were using these with their students. Check it out!

CITATION: Chris Riedel, "Top 10 Web 2.0 Tools for Young Learners," T.H.E. Journal, 2/2/2009, http://www.thejournal.com/articles/23898

Andy the Avatar - Signs

Signing Avatar - Sign Language and ELL Enhancer - 'Andy' the avatar talks with his hands. He is a 3D animation, displaying a distinct personality and natural facial expressions that help him interpret words and phrases for hearing-disabled viewers on their computer screens. The National Science Foundation helped in the development of this avatar. See www.signingavatar.com/ or a Science Daily article about the Signing Avatar.

Here is a signed-story demo called "The Forest."

ALA announcement on READ T-Shirts for avatars

I signed up to get ALA News so I'd get their announcement on the Yahoo! Avatar READ t-shirts. It appeared first on their list of lots of news. That was cool.

But what I also learned from the ALA announcement was that there is an ALA site for the general public called "I Love Libraries." I'm sure its been around for some time, but I just learned about it! It was also a clever way to direct readers to their public site, with fun links and donation opportunities. Another link on this page is "Careers in Libraries." Another link is "Librarians on YouTube." ALA is really getting hip! What a perception changer... hummm.

Virtual "READ" T-shirts for Librarian Avatars

Now, thanks to the new "READ" T-shirts for Yahoo! avatars, you will know just what to wear for summer 2.0 fun!

Members of the California School Library Association and their friends who are participating or planning to participate in the free, online course, School Library Learning 2.0 have a special T-shirt for Yahoo! Avatars that promotes literacy and reading. Here is where to find the stylish "READ" T-Shirt.

• Go to http://avatars.yahoo.com/


• Select the tab marked "extras"


• Click on "issues and causes."

The first T-shirt choice is a "READ" T-shirt for male and female avatars. Thanks go to Amanda at Yahoo! Avatars and Rachel at ALA Graphics for making magic T-shirts happen!

School Library Learning 2.0 - June 1 Start Date

At long last! School Library Learning 2.0 starts tomorrow, Friday, June 1. It runs 6/1-9/1/2007, although about 35 "test drivers" and "early birds" have already finished or are working their way through the online "summer 2.0 fun" course.

"Virtual cheering" is a key part of the experience. School Library Learning 2.0 is the one and only learning 2.0 program designed especially for California K-12 Curriculum Connections. California will soon have the largest number of librarian AVATARS in the world. Mid-summer, we can encourage all our teacher-librarian avatars to model a very special T-shirt to promote reading. Stay tuned!

Another cool thing about School Library Learning 2.0 is that participants can also get academic credit (2 units) -- a practical incentive for those working their way up the teacher pay-scale. The link to Fresno Pacific University's Continuing Education registration site is in the "ABOUT" section.

WEEK 5: SecondLife's InfoIsland

CLA PR Roundtable members got an e-mail invitation for a tour of Second Life and the librarian hangout, InfoIsland. A tour was scheduled for Saturday from 11am-noon, so after visiting the YMCA for some much-needed exercise, I retrieved my Second Life name (CyberLibrarian Wrangler) from a file that I had created months ago when first exploring the site. Back then, I read about Second Life, but this time I downloaded the software.
Thanks to the time it took me to dig out my earlier information, download the software, and clean my daughter's bathroom, I missed the tour by UCDavis Instructional Librarian, Bernadette. So, I toured on my own, learned to move (jump, forward/back, sideways, and sit.) A handful of other avatars were exploring InfoIsland, but we didn't introduce ourselves or chat/IM -- next time, maybe. Most likely, they were other librarians.

I had about half an hour or so to tour before getting bumped from my home computer. Here are the locations I visited: SirsiDynix auditorium, OCLC search central, and SecondLifeLibrary by Alliance. I saw but didn't visit Tech Soup. I'm ready for a tour by a fellow librarian.

Oh, yes... I also added the InfoIsland.org blog to my feeds.
The next day, I toured some more, took a snapshot (see above), and sent myself a postcard photo from the SecondLife Library's Business Reference on floor three.

The following evening, I toured and experimented with chatting. So much is so new on Second Life. It feels like the early days of the Internet (remember before browsers?)