Interact-the Journal 10.2
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interact INFORMATION FOR THE COMPUTER CLASSROOM
RESOURCES
COMPUTER EASTER EGGS
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The Eggs documented here vary from version to version. Go to www.eeggs.com to access an even more exhaustive list of fun Eggs.
Program Eggs Adobe Photoshop •
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Electric Cat - Press and hold Ctrl + Alt and click on the eye on the tool bar. Merlin Lives - Press and hold Ctrl + Alt and click on the arrow on the layers box and choose “palette options”.
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Word •
Excel •
Excel 97 Flight Sim - In a new worksheet, press F5. Type X97:L97 and press enter, press the Tab key once. Press and hold the Ctrl + Shift keys and click the Chart Wizard toolbar button. Note that you must have Direct draw installed for this Flight Sim with Credits to work.To fly, press your hold right to go forward/faster forward, or press and hold the left to go backwards or to slow down.
Adobe Acrobat Reader •
Select the Help menu, select About Plugins, select Acrobat Forms, hold down Control and press the ‘Credits’ button. Listen to ‘Woof’, and you should see the paw of a dog appear. The Credits button should say ‘Woof’.
mountain scene should appear with butterflies fluttering about.You can pin them with the left mouse button and knock them down with the alt+left mouse button, if you pin enough butterflies the alien swoops across, you can’t pin him but you can knock him out of the sky. Friendly Alien in InDesign CS - Under ‘File’,‘Print Presets’ choose ‘Define...’ Choose the ‘New’ button and name the preset ‘Friendly Alien’ and then click ‘OK’. Under ‘File’, ‘Print Presets’ choose ‘Friendly Alien’. Click in the bottom left ‘Page Preview’ box Feet Stripe - Choose “Stroke Styles” from the stroke palette. Select “New”. Select “Dash” for line type. Name the stripe “Feet”. Choose OK
Typing Exercise - Open a new word document. Type “=rand(200,99)” (without the quotes). Press enter. Wait a few second and see. Try typing after “=rand” any variation from (1,1) to (200,99)to see different results; the first number being the repetition and second the number of times in a row.
Message in About Box - Go to the help menu. Click on About Microsoft Powerpoint. Press Ctrl - Alt - Shift and hold.Triple click on horizontal divider in About box.
Click “help” then click “about InDesign”.A screen should come up showing version details and some legal stuff.Type “butterfly” (no spaces, no return)A
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Programmer’s Head - Warp to the last level; type idclip, run through the daemons face and shoot the head to win the last level in an alternate way.
Search Engine Google Answer to Life the Universe and Everything - Log on to internet. Visit www.google.com. Enter in search “answer to life the universe and everything” (no quotes and all lower case). The first outcome will show Google’s calculator, informing you the answer is 42.
Operating System Eggs Windows NT •
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Cow Jokes - Start a new game, visit the cows on the eastern part of town. Click on a cow a couple times until something happens, repeat the process and you will get something else, then will repeat thereafter.
Warcraft 2: •
Hidden Song - Press enter, type in “disco”, and press enter again.
i INFORMATION SERVICES FOR THE COMPUTER CLASSROOM
ADVERTISING
InterActive Books has been an independent supplier of support materi-
Advertising material is accepted as inserts only. Publisher reserves the
als to computer classrooms in Australia and New Zealand since 1995
right to refuse materials that do not match journal policy.
Various Volcanoes - Right-click on the desktop, click properties, then click on the settings tab, Choose 3-D text as the screen saver, and click on settings. In the Text box type “volcano” and click ok.
•
CONTRIBUTIONS
T/F 03 9754 6543
Relevant contributions are welcome, but no fee is paid for any
www.computercoordinator.com.au
article published.Text to be submitted in soft copy. Contributions
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acknowledged.
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ISSN 1445-6737
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Hidden Music - Press Win logo key and R.Then it will open Run.Type in “Media” (without quotation marks). It will generate a folder of Windows sounds and hidden midi music.
Windows XP • •
To instantly win a game of solitaire, simply press Alt + Shift + 2. Candy Cane Pipes - Go to Display Properties. Click the Screen saver tab then Click 3D Pipes. Click Settings. Click Textured. Click Choose Texture. Click Cancel. Click OK on the Screen Save Setup. Now The Pipes should be Candy Cane Coloured! - www.eeggs.com
RACT E T
E IV
ABN 91 976 732 427
and talk.
Developing Our Online Identity Developing our own unique identity is an important part of being online and which is not always appreciated when we first start setting up our online accounts. Personal connection is important for interacting online.The better others can visualise you as a real person the more likely they will be to want to connect and network with you. Branding Having the one online identity across all accounts makes it easier for others to connect and relate to you.When starting out we often feel nervous about using our own identity but there are many long term benefits. It’s amazing how often we network with people using sites like Twitter, and the username is so unusual that it can take months to realise “Oh that’s really John from John’s Blog and I love reading his blog.”
Sharing Our Human Side Giving people a glimpse of our human side, warts and all, is important - this makes us human as opposed to a machine. Show people that we have a sense of humour, that stuff upsets us, that something exciting has happened….. Help others connect with you.
Windows Vista
Games Diablo
InDesign CS3 •
Doom 2:
Powerpoint •
avatar move
Vol 10, No. 2, April 2009 Since 2000, $7.95
IN
An Easter Egg is a term that refers to an undocumented feature or novelty that is in a program that the makers of that program placed in the program for additional fun and credits. Easter Eggs are in no way destructive to any software or hardware within the computer and are usually meant for something unique and fun.
Make your
M
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B
OOKS
Build Our Identity Using Variety Text can convey feelings, emotions and to some extent personality but won’t help others build the visual picture of what we look like. A photo means others can visualise what we look like to some extent. Twitter can give others a much deeper insight into our personality, deeper than blog posts;, because we tend to express more sides of our emotions and our interactions with others can be synchronous. A voice to go with a photo helps further to create the mental image. But video is even better as it adds an entirely different dimension again - it helps complete the image.
Avatars in the Classroom? A virtual representation of a teacher, commonly known as an avatar, can outperform a teacher any day. It can pay unwavering attention to every student in the class; show most spectacular actions while concealing any personal lapse, like getting angry; and can detect the slightest movement, hint of confusion, and improvement in performance of each student simultaneously. Most people may think of avatars as too primitive to show such details. But avatars can now be built that look just like you the teacher, gestures like you, even touches like you. And the technology can be transmitted over a network. The prevailing wisdom in teaching, as in just about every form of social interaction, is that face-to-face contact is the gold standard, trumping all forms of mediated interactions. But as virtual reality moves from games into rigorous scientific applications, it is inevitable that there will be some rethinking of the importance of physical location. Petrol and travel can be an expense and a nuisance, but perhaps more importantly, a teacher’s avatar has powers that just don’t exist in physical space. Research by Benjamin S. Bloom in the 1980s and subsequent studies have demonstrated that students who receive one-on-one instruction learn at least in an order of magnitude better than do students in traditional classrooms.Virtual reality makes it possible for one teacher to give one-on-one instruction to many students at the same time. The use of the Web to personalise messages to different recipients has received ample discussion, most notably in the area of advertising; users are familiar with spam messages that appear to be from one of our colleagues. cont PAGE 3..
INSIDE • Educational uses for avatars • How to create your own avatar • Make your avatar speak • Hidden Easter Eggs • Finding Teachers on Twitter • Tips from Teachers • Getting out of our comfort zone • Hard Copy • and more
TEACHER RESOURCES
STRATEGY AVATARS IN THE CLASSROOM? cont ..
7 Ways to Find Teachers on Twitter Not a day should go by that we don’t learn something from our colleagues. An excellent way of keeping the learning coming is to utilise the Twitter network. Some people’s teacher network has climbed to 1000+ Twitter users. As the size of the network increases so to do our learning opportunities increase.
Links:
twitter4teachers.pbwiki.com •
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spreadsheets.google. com/ccc?key=pM_ ZE5BS0SgqDabnhl8Z2aA&hl=en twitterforteachers.wetpaint.com www.c4lpt.co.uk
on Twitter. Each entry is accompanied by a short summary about the Twitter user. Many international users and a very large contingent of Australian teachers
Having a Twitter network is a great way to learn about new resources for teaching. A Twitter network is also a great place to exchange ideas about teaching. If you are a Twitter user looking to expand your network of teaching colleagues here are seven ways to find other teachers on Twitter.
5.Twitter search is located at the top of the Twitter page and is a search link. Users of Twitter can try searching for key words commonly used in educational technology. Then follow the Twitter users who are writing messages containing those key terms.
1.The Twitter 4 Teachers PB Wiki was started by US ICT specialist Gina Hartman.This wiki is organised content teaching area so that visitors can connect with Twitter users who teach the same subject(s).
6. Look at who others follow and who others send “@” messages to. One of the ways that is easy to build up a network is to look at who the ‘popular’ people follow
“Twitter is like an ever-expanding conversation. The more people you follow, the more you learn.” 2. Educators on Twitter is a Google Docs Spreadsheet of teachers that are currently active on Twitter.The list is constantly growing as new additions are added almost daily - quite a few Australians are listed here.
and follow them. If someone you currently follow sends an ‘@’ reply that appears in your Twitter stream, check out who that ‘@’ message was sent to. Chances are good that the recipient of that message is also interested in the same topics you’re interested in.
3. Twitter for Teachers is a wiki with the purpose of educating teachers about the use of Twitter as an educational tool and as a professional development tool.Visitors may consider following the contributors to the wiki. The creator has also produced a video demonstrating how to use Twitter, Delicious, and Google Reader and can be used to find more Twitter users of interest to the viewer. 4.The founder of the Centre for Learning & Performance Technologies, has compiled a list of nearly 800 educators
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7. Start engaging conversations.There are a couple of ways to do this. One way is to start a conversation around a resource that you’ve discovered. Another way to start a conversation is to pose a question or problem that you would like help solving. People are generally willing to offer feedback. If someone sends you an ‘@’ message try to acknowledge it people seem to appreciate acknowledgement. Note that you may not always be able to do this because of time lapse. - www.fretech4teachers.com
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Do you Twitter? Imagine a 20 minute lesson where all the students microblog throughout the teacher’s presentation as it is being presented. Outsiders and visitors are invited in to comment at the same time. Sure enough, someone will need to act as a ‘rudder’ to control the input and to keep the conversation on track. But imagine if the discussion was displayed on an overhead electronic whiteboard or with a projector. The chatcast is then dumped in to a wiki.The class then organises the wiki comments clarifying what was said; answering questions (student to student as well as teacher to student, and also utilising any other resource that can contribute to the topic); summarising the big ideas; reframing the discussion in terms of what needs further explanation and where to next. Imagine the possibilities in the classroom .....
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In a virtual classroom, the teacher can tailor not simply a message, but their identity. The avatars can now be developed with such a level of sophistication that they can determine what the student is doing and consequently redraw themselves to match the student’s behaviour.A sort of mimicry. A number of psychological studies have demonstrated what is called the ‘chameleon effect’ which is when one person nonverbally mimics another, displaying similar posture and gestures, and so he maximises his social influence. Mimickers are seen as more likable and more persuasive than nonmimickers. In a number of laboratory studies of behaviors including head movements and handshakes in virtual reality, it can be demonstrated that if a teacher practices virtual nonverbal mimicry - that is, if she receives the students’ nonverbal actions and then transforms her nonverbal behavior to resemble the
“The word avatar comes from a Hindu word for a god taking mortal form on Earth.” students’ motions - there are three results. First, the students rarely are conscious of the mimicry. Second, they nonetheless pay more attention to the teacher.That is, they direct their gaze more at mimicking teachers than they do at teachers who are behaving more normally. Third, students are influenced more by mimicking teachers - more likely to follow their instructions and to agree with what they say in a lesson. This, of course, can’t be done in front of a class of 20 or more children. But in a virtual classroom, an avatar can seamlessly and automatically create 20 different versions, which simultaneously mimic each student. Without the teacher having to pay any attention to their actions, let alone to type commands on a keyboard, the computer adjusts gestures and other behaviors to imitate each student’s gestures and behaviour. In effect, a single teacher can psychologically reduce the size of the class. The virtual classroom, too, can be tailored for each student. It is believed that classooms have a sweet spot - the location varies from room to room but is often front and centre, a few metres away from the teacher. Students randomly assigned to sweet spots in real-world classrooms do about 10 points better on tests than do students sitting elsewhere in the room. Of course, in the physical world, only one student can sit in the sweet spot. But because virtual rooms are drawn separately for each user, every single student’s avatar can be sitting in the sweet spot - and will see classmates’ avatars sitting in other locations. It can be demonstrated that putting multiple students simultaneously in the virtual sweet spot substantially increases the learning of the group. The digital transformations of virtual classrooms can increase students’ learning at all levels.
RESOURCES
Avatars - are they really worth all the effort? Avatars can be a fun part of developing an online identity, but there is so little time in the classroom, are they worth the time? This article is about exploring the different ways of creating an avatar for children to use online.
Kid Pix One way is to create them is in Kidpix.This method has a few advantages. Most students know how to use Kid Pix and enjoy using it.And of course, selfcreated images are free of royalty complications. Also, it is difficult to create photo-realistic type of drawings in Kidpix so there is no danger of making the avatar too realistic if the child decided to do a self-portrait. However, one difficulty with KidPix is that images are difficult to resize.
Doppelme Try doppelme as www.doppelme. com. Although users are expected to register and sign in it is still possible to create an avatar without having to register. Just right-click and save the completed avatar as a gif file.
are probably almost too many options which means that students could possibly take forever to create their perfect image.
WeeMee www.weeworld.com WeeMee avatars look quite good, however, there are some options that will make teachers feel uncomfortable with the site.
Simpsonize Lego Avatars
simpsonizeme.com
Students can create ‘Lego’ Self portraits using the MiniMizer at www.reasonablyclever.com/ mm2/. Account not required.
Wildself The NewYork Zoos and Aquarium site has a nifty little avatar application. Their site allows users to build their ‘wildself’. Find it at www. buildyourwildself.com
Gimp
Although it’s a Simpson theme-based site and that could put a lot of people off (or attract a lot of others) this site may be the best of the bunch.There are only a few options, so it won’t take forever in class.There aren’t any inappropriate questions, and it is just plain fun! The idea is to upload a very clear and contrasting photo of a head shot and the site will turn it in to a Simpsonised avatar.The requirements for the photo to be uploaded are very precise and is probably the only thing that may discourage users.
Voki Gimp is free, open source, and powerful. It is a versatile graphics manipulation package. Find it at www.gimp. org
Portrait Illustration Maker Calling itself the ‘Best ‘n’ Free avatar maker for Blogs and SNS, Portrait Illustration Maker is free with no registration needed. illustmaker.abi-station.com This one is by far one of the ‘safest’ creators.There
Voki speaking avatars are lots of fun to create;educators use them to add a human element to their sites or to engage students. Their creation is very simple and safe.The only issue is that the final free version has some unobstrusive advertising at the bottom of the avatar.More details are on the centre pages of this issue of Interact. www.voki.com
CURRICULUM Ideas, thoughts, links, news, tips, hints and information for the computer classroom. If you have a great link or tip, then send it through to [email protected].
EDITORIAL
Just Too Easy www.j2e.com J2E is an educational document processor which runs in the web browser. Use for word processing and web publishing needs. eg homework, worksheets, and web site creation. Every j2e page has its own unique url. So, as well as accessing pages from any web browser, users can share them with teachers, pupils, family and friends. J2E is currently free of charge for individual users.
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tried and tested in a classroom situation, teach students the fundamentals of Science, so they reach High School ready to go, and best of all, • they are free to download. Each experiment printable: • clearly lists the resources needed, • gives step by step instructions, • includes observation prompts from Captain Curiosity, • fully explains what is going on in the experiment, and • issues Curiosity Cadet challenges to extend student’s learning and understanding. And every experiment comes with Teaching Notes which: • give background information, • explain how and why the experiment works, • assist with lesson planning, and
SuperclubsPlus Australia www.superclubsplus.com.au
This is a well-moderated online social networking environment for young Australian students, based on a successful UK model. Normally it’s $15+ per year per child, but due to corporate sponsorship it is free for a year to Australian schools until a certain number is reached.
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provide follow up questions to encourage discussions in the classroom.
Captain Curiosity Glogster
www.captaincuriosity.net Australian made site full of simple and effective science lessons that are free to download. Teaching Science in Primary schools can be difficult.Teachers often complain that experiments are difficult to organise and some teachers lack confidence in their own scientific knowledge. All of Captain Curiosity’s science experiments: • are easy and fun, • use simple, everyday objects,
www.glogster.com/ edu Glogster Education is a Web 2.0 resource where users can create their own posters. The Glogster website says that you can ‘mix graphics, photos, videos, music and text into slick Glogs.’ The Educational version is still at beta stage, but nevertheless students and teachers could have some real educational fun on the ‘normal’ site. Just less control over access.
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HARD COPY
Do avatars help us get out of our comfort zone?
Is your avatar looking like your real self or an ideal form of yourself? Do you want your avatar looking provocative or conservative? Some predicted that people in virtual worlds are likely to be freer and more flexible, and therefore are likely to be more exploratory and creative in designing their avatars.They are also likely to be more playful with avatars’ characters due to the high level of anonymity. However, from what I can tell when working with groups of teachers, this doesn’t seem to be the case. Few people have been brave and exploratory enough. Instead, most created avatars quite conservatively. One typical reason is,‘well, I’m a teacher, so I deliberately choose something plain’ or ‘we know we’re coming for study and research, I don’t want to look too weird’. In other words they adapted their look and behaviours in the virtual world exactly the same way as they do in real life.‘I’m still a teacher, so I need to look and behave like a teacher’. Another typical reason is,‘ok, we know each other, I don’t want to look geeky, I don’t want to be judged by peers’. Do you have this concern? When I created my avatar the very first time, I was being brave and made an animal looking avatar. But from time to time, I kept asking myself, ‘come on, all of your network knows you, are you really sure this is a good idea? Do you really feel comfortable sitting around with a group of human avatars?’ But here I was playing safe again. And so I told myself ‘let’s step out of the comfort zone’ - and so I remained a wild animal. After all, we are always advising kids to take risks - let’s start with me and see where it finishes. mal.com
CLASSROOM IDEAS
METHODOLOGY
Gingerbread Man the Avatar
Why use an avatar? Depends in what context an avatar
Run, run as fast as you can - Hey look! I’m the Gingerbread Man. You’ve just read your students ‘The Gingerbread Man’ and it’s time for them to work on a retell of the story. Imagine if instead of sending them back to their desks to write, students could virtually become the Gingerbread Man. Your students could then retell the story from the perspective of the Gingerbread Man or even talk in character about how he felt during the different parts of the story. This can be done in the classroom with the free Video Effects software by Logitech. This software works with six of the latest Logitech webcams and allows the user to calibrate their face to the face of an avatar. Once completed the avatar will copy the facial expressions and movement of the user. The avatar faces are downloaded from the Logitech site. The potential of this technology in the context outlined can be great fun in the classroom as well as have considerable educational benefit. A student in a Year 1 class can calibrate their face to the Gingerbread Man avatar. The student can do this independently once modelled by the teacher on how the software works and the webcam is connected to the camera. The student basically sits down at the computer and calibrates her face. Now when the student smiles, the Gingerbread Man avatar smiles. When he or she raises her eyebrows, so does the avatar. When the student speaks, the Gingerbread Man avatar moves his mouth - almost perfectly lip synced. Not only is the student completely engaged when using this technology to do the retell, he is able to click one button to take a recording of his retell. He can then share this with other students and the teacher can use it as part of the student’s digital portfolio. TheVideo Effects software offers a pretty amazing level of engagement with technology for digital students. Teachers can also use this technology with special needs students as a means of encouraging them to verbalise their thoughts and ideas. A number of Special Education Teachers in schools throughout Australia are trialling this technology for this purpose; Also, with such a large range of avatars available, the technology is perfect for engaging students in literacy activities relating to character development. Students can select an avatar and then create a concept map in Kidspiration about that character.
Link: • www.logitech.com, and look for ‘Video Effects’
Once they have invented their character, they can use theVideo Effects software to ‘become’ the character and record themselves talking in role of the character.
appears, but most people use an avatar in their online educational environment for many reasons.They can be used to: • • • • • • •
Avatars Available New avatar characters are being made available all the time and these are available for free download from the Video Effects Avatar page on the Logitech website. The current popular avatar characters include: • a shrek-like purple monster • a shark • a cat • a dinosaur • an alien • a fairytale princess • a pirate • Rudolph • the sun • a koala • a wizard • puppet avatars • vehicle avatars • a gorilla • a bull dog • Santa Claus • an elf If you’re interested in usingVideo Effects in your classroom, you will need a compatible Logitech webcam. At the time of going to press, the current compatible webcams from Logitech are: COMPATIBLE LOGITECH CAMERAS
RRP(AUD)
QuickCam Pro for Notebooks
$199.95
QuickCam Pro 9000
$199.95
QuickCam Sphere AF
$249.95
QuickCam S 7500
$129.95
TheVideo Effects software is also required and comes free with the compatible webcams. It can also be downloaded from the Logitech site. Note that the software only works with the compatible Logitech webcams.
• • • • • • • • • •
Speak in a different voice Model alternative behaviours Introduce variety in email postings Include ‘more’ people in chat sessions Demonstrate the value and uses of role play Distance ourselves from a teaching role at times Differentiate between teaching and assessment roles Explore the comments from learners in an objective manner Provide meaningful scenarios and examples to create realism Represent good practice online and dispaly appropriate role models Discuss experiences, good and bad, to guide new learners Create a theme for the graphic illustrations in materials Provide the consistency of ‘voice’ and style’ in the learning activities, and Allow students to present their writing assignment to fellow classmates. Present information and instruction to students, teachers, and parents. Explain and instruct. Make learning so much more fun.
HOW-TO
Get your avatar speaking A talking avatar can really bring your website to life - and what better way to get across an important announcement to the school community than using an animated speaking avatar
Links: • www.voki.com
on the school website. It’s free and very simple with www.voki.com
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Firstly, go to www.voki.com and we suggest registering and getting your password confirmation sent immediately to the nominated email address. Registration is free and so is the generation and use of a speaking avatar that you create at voki. You don’t have to log in to get started, so if you prefer, just select the ‘Get Started’ button on the front screen and you will be taken to the avatar customisation site. If you did register and login, select the ‘Create’ button at the top of the page to end up at the same customisation site. Either way, we recommend getting away from this initial screen as quickly as possible, as the Sitepal beckoning advertisement on the right hand side starts to annoy. (“Please type your message in the text box and let me say it”). Sitepal, by the way, has many more features particularly suitable for the business sector in helping businesses get more customers, direct them to more activity, and encourage them to purchase a product or service from the website. Sitepal incurs a regular subscription fee to implement. The final step in all of these customisation work is to select a background for the avatar. Backgrounds can follow a theme such as travel, outdoors, holidays or whatever.The background could also be animated, just like the character of the avatar itself. Or, you could upload and display a background that you have developed yourself. Once you are happy with the background, select ‘Done’. Another piece of customisation that can be done at this point is to select the player options that appear at the bottom of the avatar box.The options here are really only colour options. Note that the avatar doesn’t automatically start speaking when the web page is open. If you want this happen you need to select the Scene Setting box(circled) and select the radio button so that the audio starts immediately when the avatar loads on the website. When all the settings have been set and your have tested the final product, select ‘Done’.
The first step is to customise your character.The first box refers to the type of character - and there are many to choose from. Cartoon characters, dogs, cats, anime, edgy types and on and on they go. Users can further refine the character by gender, head shape, hair style, and mouth shape.The traditional sketch artist has really been put out of business here with all of these customised options. The lower panel underneath the graphic allows users to further tweek the shape of various facial features as well as adjust the colour of the eyes, mouth, skin and hair. Users are truly only limited by their own imagination. Once all of the options have been exhausted, select ‘Done’ at the bottom of the right hand panel.
Back at the initial screen, select ‘Publish’ to generate the different source codes for the various online options. By viewing the different drop down options under ‘Embed in .... Choose a Destination” you can see the available online options that Voki can generate code for - MySpace, Javascript, Blogger, Wordpress, and more, as well as the normal webpage. Once the destination and size of image is selected, some code will be generated.This code can be selected and pasted into the required location - on the school web page or wherever - and the avatar, as designed, will appear in the selected location.
Go to www.computercoordinator.com.au/Current Issue to see our Interact Editor avatar in action.
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Once the character has been selected and the look, clothing and accessories have been customised, it is time to insert the talking message. In the ‘Give it a Voice’ box there are four options.The telephone option is not available in Australia or New Zealand - but the other three are. The ‘Text to Speech’ button allows the user to type a message - maximum of 80 characters. Press play to hear back the audio. Other options here are to select an accent, select voice type, as well as select a special effect such as ‘squeaky’,‘dimwit’, and more. Other options for entering the message are to allow the website to accept and record your voice message live, or even to upload an audio file from your own computer. File types that can be uploaded include .mp3 and .wav types. Select ‘Done’ once everything is finalised.
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The saved avatar can be updated on the Voki site, and once resaved, this will update the avatar at the online location that it was pasted in - so repasting the code onto your website after edits is not required. More avatars can be created and saved at Voki. Note that the ‘Send to a Friend’ function certainly sends an email to your friend, but only to advise them that they have a message waiting to be read on Voki. Certainly a way to promote Voki, but not really in the true spirit of sending information to a friend. The only downside with the Voki generation of an avatar is the inability to upload your own character, image or photo to appear as the avatar character. Presumably the extensive customisation of facial features would then be very limited if you were in fact able to upload any of your own images to act as your own personal talking avatar.
RESOURCES
COMPUTER EASTER EGGS
•
The Eggs documented here vary from version to version. Go to www.eeggs.com to access an even more exhaustive list of fun Eggs.
Program Eggs Adobe Photoshop •
•
Electric Cat - Press and hold Ctrl + Alt and click on the eye on the tool bar. Merlin Lives - Press and hold Ctrl + Alt and click on the arrow on the layers box and choose “palette options”.
•
Word •
Excel •
Excel 97 Flight Sim - In a new worksheet, press F5. Type X97:L97 and press enter, press the Tab key once. Press and hold the Ctrl + Shift keys and click the Chart Wizard toolbar button. Note that you must have Direct draw installed for this Flight Sim with Credits to work.To fly, press your hold right to go forward/faster forward, or press and hold the left to go backwards or to slow down.
Adobe Acrobat Reader •
Select the Help menu, select About Plugins, select Acrobat Forms, hold down Control and press the ‘Credits’ button. Listen to ‘Woof’, and you should see the paw of a dog appear. The Credits button should say ‘Woof’.
mountain scene should appear with butterflies fluttering about.You can pin them with the left mouse button and knock them down with the alt+left mouse button, if you pin enough butterflies the alien swoops across, you can’t pin him but you can knock him out of the sky. Friendly Alien in InDesign CS - Under ‘File’,‘Print Presets’ choose ‘Define...’ Choose the ‘New’ button and name the preset ‘Friendly Alien’ and then click ‘OK’. Under ‘File’, ‘Print Presets’ choose ‘Friendly Alien’. Click in the bottom left ‘Page Preview’ box Feet Stripe - Choose “Stroke Styles” from the stroke palette. Select “New”. Select “Dash” for line type. Name the stripe “Feet”. Choose OK
Typing Exercise - Open a new word document. Type “=rand(200,99)” (without the quotes). Press enter. Wait a few second and see. Try typing after “=rand” any variation from (1,1) to (200,99)to see different results; the first number being the repetition and second the number of times in a row.
Message in About Box - Go to the help menu. Click on About Microsoft Powerpoint. Press Ctrl - Alt - Shift and hold.Triple click on horizontal divider in About box.
Click “help” then click “about InDesign”.A screen should come up showing version details and some legal stuff.Type “butterfly” (no spaces, no return)A
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Programmer’s Head - Warp to the last level; type idclip, run through the daemons face and shoot the head to win the last level in an alternate way.
Search Engine Google Answer to Life the Universe and Everything - Log on to internet. Visit www.google.com. Enter in search “answer to life the universe and everything” (no quotes and all lower case). The first outcome will show Google’s calculator, informing you the answer is 42.
Operating System Eggs Windows NT •
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Cow Jokes - Start a new game, visit the cows on the eastern part of town. Click on a cow a couple times until something happens, repeat the process and you will get something else, then will repeat thereafter.
Warcraft 2: •
Hidden Song - Press enter, type in “disco”, and press enter again.
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Various Volcanoes - Right-click on the desktop, click properties, then click on the settings tab, Choose 3-D text as the screen saver, and click on settings. In the Text box type “volcano” and click ok.
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Hidden Music - Press Win logo key and R.Then it will open Run.Type in “Media” (without quotation marks). It will generate a folder of Windows sounds and hidden midi music.
Windows XP • •
To instantly win a game of solitaire, simply press Alt + Shift + 2. Candy Cane Pipes - Go to Display Properties. Click the Screen saver tab then Click 3D Pipes. Click Settings. Click Textured. Click Choose Texture. Click Cancel. Click OK on the Screen Save Setup. Now The Pipes should be Candy Cane Coloured! - www.eeggs.com
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and talk.
Developing Our Online Identity Developing our own unique identity is an important part of being online and which is not always appreciated when we first start setting up our online accounts. Personal connection is important for interacting online.The better others can visualise you as a real person the more likely they will be to want to connect and network with you. Branding Having the one online identity across all accounts makes it easier for others to connect and relate to you.When starting out we often feel nervous about using our own identity but there are many long term benefits. It’s amazing how often we network with people using sites like Twitter, and the username is so unusual that it can take months to realise “Oh that’s really John from John’s Blog and I love reading his blog.”
Sharing Our Human Side Giving people a glimpse of our human side, warts and all, is important - this makes us human as opposed to a machine. Show people that we have a sense of humour, that stuff upsets us, that something exciting has happened….. Help others connect with you.
Windows Vista
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InDesign CS3 •
Doom 2:
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avatar move
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An Easter Egg is a term that refers to an undocumented feature or novelty that is in a program that the makers of that program placed in the program for additional fun and credits. Easter Eggs are in no way destructive to any software or hardware within the computer and are usually meant for something unique and fun.
Make your
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Build Our Identity Using Variety Text can convey feelings, emotions and to some extent personality but won’t help others build the visual picture of what we look like. A photo means others can visualise what we look like to some extent. Twitter can give others a much deeper insight into our personality, deeper than blog posts;, because we tend to express more sides of our emotions and our interactions with others can be synchronous. A voice to go with a photo helps further to create the mental image. But video is even better as it adds an entirely different dimension again - it helps complete the image.
Avatars in the Classroom? A virtual representation of a teacher, commonly known as an avatar, can outperform a teacher any day. It can pay unwavering attention to every student in the class; show most spectacular actions while concealing any personal lapse, like getting angry; and can detect the slightest movement, hint of confusion, and improvement in performance of each student simultaneously. Most people may think of avatars as too primitive to show such details. But avatars can now be built that look just like you the teacher, gestures like you, even touches like you. And the technology can be transmitted over a network. The prevailing wisdom in teaching, as in just about every form of social interaction, is that face-to-face contact is the gold standard, trumping all forms of mediated interactions. But as virtual reality moves from games into rigorous scientific applications, it is inevitable that there will be some rethinking of the importance of physical location. Petrol and travel can be an expense and a nuisance, but perhaps more importantly, a teacher’s avatar has powers that just don’t exist in physical space. Research by Benjamin S. Bloom in the 1980s and subsequent studies have demonstrated that students who receive one-on-one instruction learn at least in an order of magnitude better than do students in traditional classrooms.Virtual reality makes it possible for one teacher to give one-on-one instruction to many students at the same time. The use of the Web to personalise messages to different recipients has received ample discussion, most notably in the area of advertising; users are familiar with spam messages that appear to be from one of our colleagues. cont PAGE 3..
INSIDE • Educational uses for avatars • How to create your own avatar • Make your avatar speak • Hidden Easter Eggs • Finding Teachers on Twitter • Tips from Teachers • Getting out of our comfort zone • Hard Copy • and more
TEACHER RESOURCES
STRATEGY AVATARS IN THE CLASSROOM? cont ..
7 Ways to Find Teachers on Twitter Not a day should go by that we don’t learn something from our colleagues. An excellent way of keeping the learning coming is to utilise the Twitter network. Some people’s teacher network has climbed to 1000+ Twitter users. As the size of the network increases so to do our learning opportunities increase.
Links:
twitter4teachers.pbwiki.com •
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spreadsheets.google. com/ccc?key=pM_ ZE5BS0SgqDabnhl8Z2aA&hl=en twitterforteachers.wetpaint.com www.c4lpt.co.uk
on Twitter. Each entry is accompanied by a short summary about the Twitter user. Many international users and a very large contingent of Australian teachers
Having a Twitter network is a great way to learn about new resources for teaching. A Twitter network is also a great place to exchange ideas about teaching. If you are a Twitter user looking to expand your network of teaching colleagues here are seven ways to find other teachers on Twitter.
5.Twitter search is located at the top of the Twitter page and is a search link. Users of Twitter can try searching for key words commonly used in educational technology. Then follow the Twitter users who are writing messages containing those key terms.
1.The Twitter 4 Teachers PB Wiki was started by US ICT specialist Gina Hartman.This wiki is organised content teaching area so that visitors can connect with Twitter users who teach the same subject(s).
6. Look at who others follow and who others send “@” messages to. One of the ways that is easy to build up a network is to look at who the ‘popular’ people follow
“Twitter is like an ever-expanding conversation. The more people you follow, the more you learn.” 2. Educators on Twitter is a Google Docs Spreadsheet of teachers that are currently active on Twitter.The list is constantly growing as new additions are added almost daily - quite a few Australians are listed here.
and follow them. If someone you currently follow sends an ‘@’ reply that appears in your Twitter stream, check out who that ‘@’ message was sent to. Chances are good that the recipient of that message is also interested in the same topics you’re interested in.
3. Twitter for Teachers is a wiki with the purpose of educating teachers about the use of Twitter as an educational tool and as a professional development tool.Visitors may consider following the contributors to the wiki. The creator has also produced a video demonstrating how to use Twitter, Delicious, and Google Reader and can be used to find more Twitter users of interest to the viewer. 4.The founder of the Centre for Learning & Performance Technologies, has compiled a list of nearly 800 educators
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7. Start engaging conversations.There are a couple of ways to do this. One way is to start a conversation around a resource that you’ve discovered. Another way to start a conversation is to pose a question or problem that you would like help solving. People are generally willing to offer feedback. If someone sends you an ‘@’ message try to acknowledge it people seem to appreciate acknowledgement. Note that you may not always be able to do this because of time lapse. - www.fretech4teachers.com
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Do you Twitter? Imagine a 20 minute lesson where all the students microblog throughout the teacher’s presentation as it is being presented. Outsiders and visitors are invited in to comment at the same time. Sure enough, someone will need to act as a ‘rudder’ to control the input and to keep the conversation on track. But imagine if the discussion was displayed on an overhead electronic whiteboard or with a projector. The chatcast is then dumped in to a wiki.The class then organises the wiki comments clarifying what was said; answering questions (student to student as well as teacher to student, and also utilising any other resource that can contribute to the topic); summarising the big ideas; reframing the discussion in terms of what needs further explanation and where to next. Imagine the possibilities in the classroom .....
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In a virtual classroom, the teacher can tailor not simply a message, but their identity. The avatars can now be developed with such a level of sophistication that they can determine what the student is doing and consequently redraw themselves to match the student’s behaviour.A sort of mimicry. A number of psychological studies have demonstrated what is called the ‘chameleon effect’ which is when one person nonverbally mimics another, displaying similar posture and gestures, and so he maximises his social influence. Mimickers are seen as more likable and more persuasive than nonmimickers. In a number of laboratory studies of behaviors including head movements and handshakes in virtual reality, it can be demonstrated that if a teacher practices virtual nonverbal mimicry - that is, if she receives the students’ nonverbal actions and then transforms her nonverbal behavior to resemble the
“The word avatar comes from a Hindu word for a god taking mortal form on Earth.” students’ motions - there are three results. First, the students rarely are conscious of the mimicry. Second, they nonetheless pay more attention to the teacher.That is, they direct their gaze more at mimicking teachers than they do at teachers who are behaving more normally. Third, students are influenced more by mimicking teachers - more likely to follow their instructions and to agree with what they say in a lesson. This, of course, can’t be done in front of a class of 20 or more children. But in a virtual classroom, an avatar can seamlessly and automatically create 20 different versions, which simultaneously mimic each student. Without the teacher having to pay any attention to their actions, let alone to type commands on a keyboard, the computer adjusts gestures and other behaviors to imitate each student’s gestures and behaviour. In effect, a single teacher can psychologically reduce the size of the class. The virtual classroom, too, can be tailored for each student. It is believed that classooms have a sweet spot - the location varies from room to room but is often front and centre, a few metres away from the teacher. Students randomly assigned to sweet spots in real-world classrooms do about 10 points better on tests than do students sitting elsewhere in the room. Of course, in the physical world, only one student can sit in the sweet spot. But because virtual rooms are drawn separately for each user, every single student’s avatar can be sitting in the sweet spot - and will see classmates’ avatars sitting in other locations. It can be demonstrated that putting multiple students simultaneously in the virtual sweet spot substantially increases the learning of the group. The digital transformations of virtual classrooms can increase students’ learning at all levels.
RESOURCES
Avatars - are they really worth all the effort? Avatars can be a fun part of developing an online identity, but there is so little time in the classroom, are they worth the time? This article is about exploring the different ways of creating an avatar for children to use online.
Kid Pix One way is to create them is in Kidpix.This method has a few advantages. Most students know how to use Kid Pix and enjoy using it.And of course, selfcreated images are free of royalty complications. Also, it is difficult to create photo-realistic type of drawings in Kidpix so there is no danger of making the avatar too realistic if the child decided to do a self-portrait. However, one difficulty with KidPix is that images are difficult to resize.
Doppelme Try doppelme as www.doppelme. com. Although users are expected to register and sign in it is still possible to create an avatar without having to register. Just right-click and save the completed avatar as a gif file.
are probably almost too many options which means that students could possibly take forever to create their perfect image.
WeeMee www.weeworld.com WeeMee avatars look quite good, however, there are some options that will make teachers feel uncomfortable with the site.
Simpsonize Lego Avatars
simpsonizeme.com
Students can create ‘Lego’ Self portraits using the MiniMizer at www.reasonablyclever.com/ mm2/. Account not required.
Wildself The NewYork Zoos and Aquarium site has a nifty little avatar application. Their site allows users to build their ‘wildself’. Find it at www. buildyourwildself.com
Gimp
Although it’s a Simpson theme-based site and that could put a lot of people off (or attract a lot of others) this site may be the best of the bunch.There are only a few options, so it won’t take forever in class.There aren’t any inappropriate questions, and it is just plain fun! The idea is to upload a very clear and contrasting photo of a head shot and the site will turn it in to a Simpsonised avatar.The requirements for the photo to be uploaded are very precise and is probably the only thing that may discourage users.
Voki Gimp is free, open source, and powerful. It is a versatile graphics manipulation package. Find it at www.gimp. org
Portrait Illustration Maker Calling itself the ‘Best ‘n’ Free avatar maker for Blogs and SNS, Portrait Illustration Maker is free with no registration needed. illustmaker.abi-station.com This one is by far one of the ‘safest’ creators.There
Voki speaking avatars are lots of fun to create;educators use them to add a human element to their sites or to engage students. Their creation is very simple and safe.The only issue is that the final free version has some unobstrusive advertising at the bottom of the avatar.More details are on the centre pages of this issue of Interact. www.voki.com
CURRICULUM Ideas, thoughts, links, news, tips, hints and information for the computer classroom. If you have a great link or tip, then send it through to [email protected].
EDITORIAL
Just Too Easy www.j2e.com J2E is an educational document processor which runs in the web browser. Use for word processing and web publishing needs. eg homework, worksheets, and web site creation. Every j2e page has its own unique url. So, as well as accessing pages from any web browser, users can share them with teachers, pupils, family and friends. J2E is currently free of charge for individual users.
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tried and tested in a classroom situation, teach students the fundamentals of Science, so they reach High School ready to go, and best of all, • they are free to download. Each experiment printable: • clearly lists the resources needed, • gives step by step instructions, • includes observation prompts from Captain Curiosity, • fully explains what is going on in the experiment, and • issues Curiosity Cadet challenges to extend student’s learning and understanding. And every experiment comes with Teaching Notes which: • give background information, • explain how and why the experiment works, • assist with lesson planning, and
SuperclubsPlus Australia www.superclubsplus.com.au
This is a well-moderated online social networking environment for young Australian students, based on a successful UK model. Normally it’s $15+ per year per child, but due to corporate sponsorship it is free for a year to Australian schools until a certain number is reached.
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provide follow up questions to encourage discussions in the classroom.
Captain Curiosity Glogster
www.captaincuriosity.net Australian made site full of simple and effective science lessons that are free to download. Teaching Science in Primary schools can be difficult.Teachers often complain that experiments are difficult to organise and some teachers lack confidence in their own scientific knowledge. All of Captain Curiosity’s science experiments: • are easy and fun, • use simple, everyday objects,
www.glogster.com/ edu Glogster Education is a Web 2.0 resource where users can create their own posters. The Glogster website says that you can ‘mix graphics, photos, videos, music and text into slick Glogs.’ The Educational version is still at beta stage, but nevertheless students and teachers could have some real educational fun on the ‘normal’ site. Just less control over access.
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HARD COPY
Do avatars help us get out of our comfort zone?
Is your avatar looking like your real self or an ideal form of yourself? Do you want your avatar looking provocative or conservative? Some predicted that people in virtual worlds are likely to be freer and more flexible, and therefore are likely to be more exploratory and creative in designing their avatars.They are also likely to be more playful with avatars’ characters due to the high level of anonymity. However, from what I can tell when working with groups of teachers, this doesn’t seem to be the case. Few people have been brave and exploratory enough. Instead, most created avatars quite conservatively. One typical reason is,‘well, I’m a teacher, so I deliberately choose something plain’ or ‘we know we’re coming for study and research, I don’t want to look too weird’. In other words they adapted their look and behaviours in the virtual world exactly the same way as they do in real life.‘I’m still a teacher, so I need to look and behave like a teacher’. Another typical reason is,‘ok, we know each other, I don’t want to look geeky, I don’t want to be judged by peers’. Do you have this concern? When I created my avatar the very first time, I was being brave and made an animal looking avatar. But from time to time, I kept asking myself, ‘come on, all of your network knows you, are you really sure this is a good idea? Do you really feel comfortable sitting around with a group of human avatars?’ But here I was playing safe again. And so I told myself ‘let’s step out of the comfort zone’ - and so I remained a wild animal. After all, we are always advising kids to take risks - let’s start with me and see where it finishes. mal.com
CLASSROOM IDEAS
METHODOLOGY
Gingerbread Man the Avatar
Why use an avatar? Depends in what context an avatar
Run, run as fast as you can - Hey look! I’m the Gingerbread Man. You’ve just read your students ‘The Gingerbread Man’ and it’s time for them to work on a retell of the story. Imagine if instead of sending them back to their desks to write, students could virtually become the Gingerbread Man. Your students could then retell the story from the perspective of the Gingerbread Man or even talk in character about how he felt during the different parts of the story. This can be done in the classroom with the free Video Effects software by Logitech. This software works with six of the latest Logitech webcams and allows the user to calibrate their face to the face of an avatar. Once completed the avatar will copy the facial expressions and movement of the user. The avatar faces are downloaded from the Logitech site. The potential of this technology in the context outlined can be great fun in the classroom as well as have considerable educational benefit. A student in a Year 1 class can calibrate their face to the Gingerbread Man avatar. The student can do this independently once modelled by the teacher on how the software works and the webcam is connected to the camera. The student basically sits down at the computer and calibrates her face. Now when the student smiles, the Gingerbread Man avatar smiles. When he or she raises her eyebrows, so does the avatar. When the student speaks, the Gingerbread Man avatar moves his mouth - almost perfectly lip synced. Not only is the student completely engaged when using this technology to do the retell, he is able to click one button to take a recording of his retell. He can then share this with other students and the teacher can use it as part of the student’s digital portfolio. TheVideo Effects software offers a pretty amazing level of engagement with technology for digital students. Teachers can also use this technology with special needs students as a means of encouraging them to verbalise their thoughts and ideas. A number of Special Education Teachers in schools throughout Australia are trialling this technology for this purpose; Also, with such a large range of avatars available, the technology is perfect for engaging students in literacy activities relating to character development. Students can select an avatar and then create a concept map in Kidspiration about that character.
Link: • www.logitech.com, and look for ‘Video Effects’
Once they have invented their character, they can use theVideo Effects software to ‘become’ the character and record themselves talking in role of the character.
appears, but most people use an avatar in their online educational environment for many reasons.They can be used to: • • • • • • •
Avatars Available New avatar characters are being made available all the time and these are available for free download from the Video Effects Avatar page on the Logitech website. The current popular avatar characters include: • a shrek-like purple monster • a shark • a cat • a dinosaur • an alien • a fairytale princess • a pirate • Rudolph • the sun • a koala • a wizard • puppet avatars • vehicle avatars • a gorilla • a bull dog • Santa Claus • an elf If you’re interested in usingVideo Effects in your classroom, you will need a compatible Logitech webcam. At the time of going to press, the current compatible webcams from Logitech are: COMPATIBLE LOGITECH CAMERAS
RRP(AUD)
QuickCam Pro for Notebooks
$199.95
QuickCam Pro 9000
$199.95
QuickCam Sphere AF
$249.95
QuickCam S 7500
$129.95
TheVideo Effects software is also required and comes free with the compatible webcams. It can also be downloaded from the Logitech site. Note that the software only works with the compatible Logitech webcams.
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Speak in a different voice Model alternative behaviours Introduce variety in email postings Include ‘more’ people in chat sessions Demonstrate the value and uses of role play Distance ourselves from a teaching role at times Differentiate between teaching and assessment roles Explore the comments from learners in an objective manner Provide meaningful scenarios and examples to create realism Represent good practice online and dispaly appropriate role models Discuss experiences, good and bad, to guide new learners Create a theme for the graphic illustrations in materials Provide the consistency of ‘voice’ and style’ in the learning activities, and Allow students to present their writing assignment to fellow classmates. Present information and instruction to students, teachers, and parents. Explain and instruct. Make learning so much more fun.
HOW-TO
Get your avatar speaking A talking avatar can really bring your website to life - and what better way to get across an important announcement to the school community than using an animated speaking avatar
Links: • www.voki.com
on the school website. It’s free and very simple with www.voki.com
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Firstly, go to www.voki.com and we suggest registering and getting your password confirmation sent immediately to the nominated email address. Registration is free and so is the generation and use of a speaking avatar that you create at voki. You don’t have to log in to get started, so if you prefer, just select the ‘Get Started’ button on the front screen and you will be taken to the avatar customisation site. If you did register and login, select the ‘Create’ button at the top of the page to end up at the same customisation site. Either way, we recommend getting away from this initial screen as quickly as possible, as the Sitepal beckoning advertisement on the right hand side starts to annoy. (“Please type your message in the text box and let me say it”). Sitepal, by the way, has many more features particularly suitable for the business sector in helping businesses get more customers, direct them to more activity, and encourage them to purchase a product or service from the website. Sitepal incurs a regular subscription fee to implement. The final step in all of these customisation work is to select a background for the avatar. Backgrounds can follow a theme such as travel, outdoors, holidays or whatever.The background could also be animated, just like the character of the avatar itself. Or, you could upload and display a background that you have developed yourself. Once you are happy with the background, select ‘Done’. Another piece of customisation that can be done at this point is to select the player options that appear at the bottom of the avatar box.The options here are really only colour options. Note that the avatar doesn’t automatically start speaking when the web page is open. If you want this happen you need to select the Scene Setting box(circled) and select the radio button so that the audio starts immediately when the avatar loads on the website. When all the settings have been set and your have tested the final product, select ‘Done’.
The first step is to customise your character.The first box refers to the type of character - and there are many to choose from. Cartoon characters, dogs, cats, anime, edgy types and on and on they go. Users can further refine the character by gender, head shape, hair style, and mouth shape.The traditional sketch artist has really been put out of business here with all of these customised options. The lower panel underneath the graphic allows users to further tweek the shape of various facial features as well as adjust the colour of the eyes, mouth, skin and hair. Users are truly only limited by their own imagination. Once all of the options have been exhausted, select ‘Done’ at the bottom of the right hand panel.
Back at the initial screen, select ‘Publish’ to generate the different source codes for the various online options. By viewing the different drop down options under ‘Embed in .... Choose a Destination” you can see the available online options that Voki can generate code for - MySpace, Javascript, Blogger, Wordpress, and more, as well as the normal webpage. Once the destination and size of image is selected, some code will be generated.This code can be selected and pasted into the required location - on the school web page or wherever - and the avatar, as designed, will appear in the selected location.
Go to www.computercoordinator.com.au/Current Issue to see our Interact Editor avatar in action.
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Once the character has been selected and the look, clothing and accessories have been customised, it is time to insert the talking message. In the ‘Give it a Voice’ box there are four options.The telephone option is not available in Australia or New Zealand - but the other three are. The ‘Text to Speech’ button allows the user to type a message - maximum of 80 characters. Press play to hear back the audio. Other options here are to select an accent, select voice type, as well as select a special effect such as ‘squeaky’,‘dimwit’, and more. Other options for entering the message are to allow the website to accept and record your voice message live, or even to upload an audio file from your own computer. File types that can be uploaded include .mp3 and .wav types. Select ‘Done’ once everything is finalised.
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The saved avatar can be updated on the Voki site, and once resaved, this will update the avatar at the online location that it was pasted in - so repasting the code onto your website after edits is not required. More avatars can be created and saved at Voki. Note that the ‘Send to a Friend’ function certainly sends an email to your friend, but only to advise them that they have a message waiting to be read on Voki. Certainly a way to promote Voki, but not really in the true spirit of sending information to a friend. The only downside with the Voki generation of an avatar is the inability to upload your own character, image or photo to appear as the avatar character. Presumably the extensive customisation of facial features would then be very limited if you were in fact able to upload any of your own images to act as your own personal talking avatar.
