At our school we use avatars as a replica of the student creating them. The students use online names when they create online sites such as a blog or sites, and they never put photos of themselves on their own sites - hence an avatar. One can use avatars for various purposes such as uploading a profile picture to ta Google Drive profile, a Google classroom profile, and a blog or website profile etc.
Why use www.cartoonify.de?
The learners love creating avatars. I rather like this site, cartoonify.de, as no login or registering is required and the students can download their avatars in three sizes to their downloads folder. We always use the smallest size, 250 X 250 pixels.
Examples of the created avatars
Here are a few examples of the avatars made by the learners:
This is a post I wrote about using Weeworld to make avatarsfor the SchoolNet blog in 2015 but it is still relevant in 2018. My classes have joined the 2018 blogging challenge so we are busy with making avatars. My plan is for different classes to make different avatars.
Getting started with Weeworld
Weeworld can be accessed at http://www.weeworld.com/. Young students enjoy using this type of avatar-making applications.
When students open Weeworld they’ll see a lot of adverts on the page. This is a good opportunity to teach Grade 1s and 2s about the dangers of advertising and clicking on anything that sparkles and moves. They will need to click on the big, green play button.
They are taken to a scene with a figure that needs to be dressed and created. I always tell the students to create someone who looks like them!
As they work through all the options a dressed figure starts to emerge. You’ll notice that there is a Save button at the bottom.
I let them stop at the point where their avatar is created and we take a clear screengrab of their avatar. Note that if one clicks on the Save button it takes the students through a registration process. If kids are under 13, they need a parent's permission to register. As it is unlikely that we’ll never use the application again I don’t go this step.
Examples of Grade 1 WeeMees
YouTube tutorial on how to use Weeworld
This YouTube tutorial will take you through how to use Wee world.
Uses in the classroom
The main way that we use it in the younger classrooms is for teaching basic ICT skills.
The students like to talk about their creations and what they are wearing so this application is useful for oral purposes.
One could get them to make up an oral story about the little Weemee they have created and share it with the class.
This is a post I wrote about using BeFunky to make avatars for the SchoolNet blog in January 2016 but it is still relevant in 2018. My classes have joined the 2018 blogging challenge so we are busy with making avatars. My plan is for different classes to make different avatars.
Today we look at Be Funky. BeFunky is a picture-editor app for Web platforms and mobile devices. Best is - no registration is requiredJust take your picture, add some crazy effects, and share it online.This avatar creator requires actual photos. Before the lesson starts make sure that you have taken a portrait photo of each student and that these are uploaded to a place where they can access them easily.
Getting started with BeFunky 1. Open Be Funky Be Funky can be accessed at https://www.befunky.com/create/. When students open BeFunky they’ll see the landing page that asks you to upload a photo.
2. Upload a photo You'll notice that you can upload from different places. In my case the photos were stored in a shared folder in Google Drive.
3. Use Artsy to cartoonify your photos
You'll notice all sorts of icons at the side but the one I used with the class was the ARTSY one in the very left column which has a flower icon as shown in the diagram below.
The ARTSY section gives so many great options. My class oohed and aahed as they tried them out. Some are paid options but there is a lot of free stuff as well.
4. Save your image
As you explore all the items you can easily save your choices. All you do is click on the Save icon and download to wherever you would like it. For my students I wanted the pictures saved in the same folder with their name and a number next to it.
Examples of BeFunky images
The class had a lot of fun creating avatars in this lesson. Some of them told me they went home and showed their parents how to create avatars.
YouTube tutorial on how to use BeFunky This YouTube tutorial will take you through how to use all the different features of BeFunky.
Uses in the classroom
The main way that I use avatar creation in the younger classrooms is for teaching basic ICT skills. I usually don't use photos for this.
With the older classes we create avatars to use on various online sites and applications that we use in class, for example: such as Gmail. Edmodo, Classroom etc. where one wants a profile picture to be more cartoonlike.
This is a post I wrote about using the Lego Minimizer to make avatars for the SchoolNet blog in January 2016 but it is still relevant in 2018. My classes have joined the 2018 blogging challenge so we are busy with making avatars. My plan is for different classes to make different avatars.
Grade 1 students enjoy using today's avatar known as The Reasonably Clever Mini-Miser. It can be found at http://www.reasonablyclever.com/mm2/mini2.swf. This site does not require login or registration which is perfect for younger students. It requires building up a lego figure to what you’d like it to be.
How to get started
How it works is that you use arrow buttons to scroll through the different options to customize the lego figure. There is a good selection of body parts and colours to choose from as you go along. There is also a selection of backgrounds for the final image to give it context. Once the figure is created one would need to do a printscreen to save the image
Examples
The Grade 1s loved using this application when we worked with it during a lesson. They chatted away as they worked telling each other stories about their lego figures.
A YouTube tutorial on how to use the application
This tutorial will show you how to use this application step by step.
Educational use
This is a good vocabulary building exercise on the body.
It is also good for matching words with objects.
The students can make up an oral story about the figure they have created.
This is a post I wrote about using the Lego Minimizer to make avatars for the SchoolNet blog in January 2016 but it is still relevant in 2018. My classes have joined the 2018 blogging challenge so we are busy with making avatars. My plan is for different classes to make different avatars.
How to use BuiLD YouR WiLD SeLF
The way it works is you start with a human creature and then start adding animal parts. The program was created by the New York Zoos and Aquarium and a link to the New York Zoos and Aquariums can be found on the website pages.. It is a very easy site to use. No registration or logins are required. To get started enter a name, choose boy or girl, and add various body parts. One just follows the prompts and makes choices from the various options continually. You can view the names of the animals as you mouse over each part of the options offered.
Paragraphs describing the body parts of the animals chosen are informative and a species name is also generated for your creation.
When you're finished, click "Print your wild self", and then save that screen with a screen shot to save your work in your computer. Other sharing options include sending your creation to a friend by email, add as a desktop background or printing your wild self.
A tutorial from YouTube
Examples from the classroom
I have used this application in Grades 1,2 and 3. It has always been well-received. There’s something about a ‘wild self’that appeals to students.
Uses in the classroom
1. You could get your learners to write an adventure they had in their new wild body.
.2. They could create a wild self and use the information displayed at the end to understand why features they have chosen are necessary for their survival. They can write a paragraph about this.
3. Learners could write a report or create a multimedia presentation of their own various features and how the life of their created wild self is changed because of these features.
4. Learners could write a poem or story about a day in the life of the wild self created, using the new creature as a writing prompt.
Younger students especially really enjoy this application. Why not try it out sometime!
This is a post I wrote about using Bricapic to make avatars for the SchoolNet blog in 2016 but it is still relevant in 2018. My classes have joined the 2018 blogging challenge so we are busy with making avatars.
You can use avatars for various purposes such as uploading a profile picture to their Edmodo profile, Google classroom profile, Gmail profile, blog profile etc.
Today we look an interesting avatar site called Brick-A-Pic found at http://me.brickapic.com/. This is a site where you upload your image and turn it into a brick mosiac. This is a web-based site where you simply upload an image to the site and follow the prompts. Very soon you'll see your image changed into a stunning LEGO® brick mosaic. You can view your image from different angles and then you can save your image to your computer. I used this in class with very pleasing effects. Let me show you how it works.
Getting started with Brick-A-Pic
Before the lesson starts make sure that you have taken a portrait photo of each student and that these are uploaded to a place where your students can access them easily.
1. Open Brick-A-Pic and upload an image
Go to http://me.brickapic.com/. When Brick-A-Pic opens on its landing page you'll be asked to choose and upload an image. The preview box underneath will give an idea of the image. When you upload your image you'll see how it looks.
2. View your image from different angles
You can bring your image in closer or move it further away
3. View the result
I saved a close-up version and a distant version of my image.
To save your image all you do, if you are using Google Chrome, is right click on the image and save it in your chosen destination.
4. Image options
Brick-a-pic does give some save options underneath the image, which will probably come into effect if you are using a browser different to Chrome. (I am not sure how other browsers work with this site.
Examples of my student's Brick-A-Pic images
This was a simple easy-to-use site. No sign-in was needed. The class had a lot of fun creating their lego-like avatars in this lesson. We are using them on their blogs as profile pictures
Try using Brick-A-Pic. Your students will enjoy the lesson.
We are getting our blogs ready for the Edublogs Student Blogging Challenge which begins at the beginning of March. This week we are creating avatars to replicate themselves rather than adding actual photos of the learners. . I am going to use three different avatar sites this year. In the previous post we looked at Brick-a-pic which I used with Grade 7. In this post we''ll look at the two Reasonably Clever options which I used with Grades 4-6. The learners could choose which of the two they wanted to use.
1) Reasonably Clever - Classic Kid-Safe Mini-Mizer
This is the kid safe version which is found at https://goo.gl/ASO9I. It is reasonably easy to use. All you do is click on the buttons under the image to select parts that resemble yourself. We used the Windows 10 snipping tool to download the Mini-Mizers and we then uploaded them to the blogs. I found that the learners didn't stick to resemblances of themselves but rather chose quite way out designs!
Examples:
2) Reasonably Clever - Blockhead
This Blockhead version was quite a popular choice. It is found at https://goo.gl/pKZND It is also easy to use. All you do is click on the buttons next to the image to select parts that resemble oneself. We used the Windows 10 snipping tool to download the Mini-Mizers and we then uploaded them to the blogs.
Examples:
The learners really enjoyed creating these avatars.
Today we started making avatars for our Global Virtual Classroom Contest Project. These are to use in Edmodo for when the classes write to one another. The class loved this lesson. We made full length avatars as well as the face-only ones we’ll use in Edmodo
