BP5_2010012_Web2.0T2Dopppleme

Hello,

I'm Janean!  Sherita's newest 2.0 companion.  She found me while browsing through some of the 2.0 tools on the web that allow you to create avatars.  Avatars in case you were wondering, avatars are beatiful little virtual people, like myself, that allow you the room and freedom to re-create yourself from your own perspective, and then invite others to do the same.  Avatars allow you the room to explore virtual worlds and other social networking online communities with ease.  There's no pressure to be anyone other than yourself.

Sherita teaches high school english and finds that her students often times have difficulty finding ways to express themselves in class.  Some students are shy, others are afraid of their answers or discussion ideas being rejected, and some are not motivated via discussion.  She really has difficulty soetimes getting the boys to participate in novel discussion and litearay analysis.  As she was searching I jumped up and caught her attention.  I helped her easily navigate through the dopple me platform and within minutes I was more that a few pieces of labled technological cookies, I was an avatar. and not just any avatar, but Sherita's avatar.

Which brings me to another point.  Learning is all about customizing.  Today's 21st century learner has the ability to customize evertything form the music on their ipod, to the settings on their computers, to the avatars they use to represent them in xbox live.  Boys especially need the ability to "touch" and experience abstract thought, and students have the need to feel comfortable in their own skin.  Avatars like myself allow them to do so.  I can be embedded in PLE like iGoogle and shared as an image, I can be embedded in a website or blog like this one.  How cool would it be to ask students to create an avatar based off of a complex character from a specific text they are studying, or what if students were asked to create a character blog that narrated by an avatar?  How cool would that be.  It would definitely alllow students the ability to find common ground between technology they know and the text they were learning.

I think I've inspired hserita to look into using avatars in her classroom, if notheing but for a social means of discussion for classroom content, or maybe even to get her faculty excited about ways to integrate technology intheir classrooms.  I hope I've done the same for you. See you later.