Fakebook, a versatile tool

The leading role social networks are gaining at the moment is obvious as well as that students are devoting a large amount of their time to them. Without attempting to enter into a debate on their benefits and risks, sometimes a social alarm is created in view of certain cases of ciberbullying and/or grooming, but it is less usual to hear about the positive aspects that these Internet sites can provide. In the educational context we cannot support these networks, but we have to face the reality and educate students to use them responsibly.

Design interactive activities with LIM

The LIM tool (Libros Interactivos Multimedia [Multimedia Interactive Books]) permits the creation of educational material in the form of an interactive book, using a simple environment and achieving attractive results. LIM, which offers free use and distribution - provided that its free use and authorship is respected - integrates an activity editor  (Edilim), a visualizer and a file in XML format where the properties of the book and the pages which make it up are defined. 

Bring video into the classroom!

Video is an excellent didactic resource which can be used in may ways in the classroom. In an eTwinning project it can serve among other things to introduce yourself to your project partners, show how the activities are developing, document the work process and the forming of groups, disseminate information about typical aspects of each country...

Create avatars with Oddcast PhotoFace

Avatars, digital characters that anyone can create and personalize, are a great resources for introducing students to the use of TICs and their application to learning. Their potential is even greater when it comes to learning foreign languages, as they offer the possibility of practising comprehension and oral expression while at the same time avoding the students’ fear of speaking in public.

Oddcast PhotoFace is a tool which converts images into three dimensional avatars. The initial photograph can be one of those offered by the application, one from other servers like Google, Flickr and Photobucket, or a photograph of ourselves which we have in the computer or take with the webcam. It can also have any format, provided that it is smaller than 6MB.

Our avatar can be a faithful representation of reality, if we decide to produce it with one of our own unedited photos, but Oddcast PhotoFace offers different possibilities to animate it, modify its characteristics and facial expressions, simulate ageing, create caricatures and add accessories.

The voice that accompanies the image can also be added in different ways: by writing the text, using pre-recorded sounds, using the microphone or dialling a telephone number. So an activity developed with this tool can be adapted to different objectives and curricular subjects.

Oddcast PhotoFace can be used without registering, you just access the web and create the avatar which once made can be shared via the url of the Internet site where it can be found, e-mail, Facebook, or embed it in other sites using the embed code.

Below you can see the presentation of one of the participants in the project My Diary Routine- "The movie", in which Spanish pupils used Oddcast PhotoFace to introduce themselves. They found the tutorial on this tool, created by another teacher, very useful; it may also be of great use to you if you decide to use Oddcast PhotoFace.

Another tool with similar characteristics and commonly used to introduce the participants in an eTwinning project is Voki.

In this case we can only use the images offered by this tool, although it does permit us to personalize the avatar with different accessories. The rest of the process of creation and publication is as simple as using Oddcast PhotoFace. On the Voki web you can also find and/or share educational activities with other teachers using this tool.

In the project Don’t get caught in the Net the Vokis have allowed the students to exchange knowledge and opinions about different topics in the activity the good and bad things that Internet has given us.

Let your imagination fly and create your own avatars!