www.buildyourwildself.com
A Web 2.0 tool that I thought was fun and could see my students having a great time creating with is www.buildyourwildself.com. On this website, you are able to build an avatar of yourself. It is easy to use and you can create as many as you’d like. This website is powered by the Wildlife Conservation Society. The colors are vivid and the avatar illustrations are beautiful and kid-friendly. After creating your avatar, you can send it to a friend, put it on your desktop, or use it to represent yourself in other interactive arenas.
Last month, my students created websites. I suggested to one group that they create an image or avatar to walk their viewers through the website. I wish I had known about this site prior to that conversation. If I had, I would’ve told them to use this site to create their avatars! They would’ve had a blast creating and the result would have been phenomenal. When we explore Glogs, I will have my students create an avatar using this site to include in their Glogs.
Another cool tool that this site provides is a write-up about your avatar based on the elements you choose to create it. For instance, my avatar’s name is FlyTye, the Atoo-bird and she has a palm cockatoo crest. According to the site, this crest helps her communicate and a raised crest can signal to other birds that she’s a friend. Each write-up is positive and would be a great benefit to a student’s self-esteem and self-perception.
Students can also print their avatars and use them as posters or to create other artwork. This website encourages imagination and gives a little insight into animal life through the write-ups of each character. There are also links to the New York Zoos and Aquariums from this site.
References
Wildlife Conservation Society Staff. (2009). Retrieved on October 18, 2009 from http://www.buildyourwildself.com
No comments:
Post a Comment