Chrys



**__ Avatars made in KidPix __ ** We have been dabbling with making avatars in KidPix. This came about from me originally seeing Rochelle's avatar ceated in [|www.meez.com]. After emailing meez.com to find out if my 7-8 year old children could use this site under my guidance, (which incidentally is for 13 years and up), they wrote back to say that we were **//__not__//** able to do so. Well! not a class to be defeated, the children jumped onto KidPix and created their own, and then exported them as j.peg files into VoiceThread. You can view these in the same site when you enter into their following new learning!

**__ VoiceThread  __** The Room 4 children have had some experiences using [|VoiceThread]. //A VoiceThread is an online media album that can hold essentially any type of media (images, documents and videos) and allows people to make **comments in 5 different ways** - using voice (with a microphone or telephone), text, audio file, or video (with a webcam) - and share them with anyone they wish. A VoiceThread allows group conversations to be collected and shared in one place, from anywhere in the world.// They firstly used the **writing tool** to tell me what mountain they thought the picture was and/or where it was located! The second experience was a homework project, done incredibly independently at home, or at school depending on computer access. On this project they had a map of New Zealand. They had to locate one or more places that they had visited that were not Reporoa, Rotorua or Taupo. To do this they had to use the **drawing/doodling tool** to locate the places with the option adding the writing tool to it!

**//The Mountain experience//**

1. To view this experiences go to [|www.voicethread.com] It is on a public/shared domain. 2. Click on Browse. 3. Type in the browse box - Where am I? 4. You will see a picture of a mountain. Click on this picture. 5. Can you see the children's avatars on the left and right hand columns? Wave the mouse over an avatar to see their comments. 6. If you have an avatar, please add your own comment. 7. If you haven't - then my challenge to you is **//__"make one"__//** and **//__"get your kids to make one"__//** and then return and make a comment!

**//The New Zealand experience//**

1. For this expereience you will need to use our Room 4 login as it is a private domain. 2. Go to [|www.voicethread.com] 3. Click on 'Sign In' 4. Type in the email space - room4kidz@yahoo.com (Don't click this link! Just type this in! I can't seem to make it an un-link.) 5. Password is - room4kidz 6. Enter 7. Click on the New Zealand map. 8. You will have to click on the map for it to zoom in for a better view of the place names.

The next projects we will be venturing on will be using the **webcam and microphone tools.** So watch this space!

 **__ Our ePals, the Haka and how we will achieve such a mission! __** The other major experience we will be undertaking is teaching our Texan ePals the haka via webcam as part of the $1000.00 grant that we received from the [|Unisys KidzConnect]programme. Being named as recipients was a real shock to our systems, but one that we have had plenty of time to get over. So we have been able to practice, practice, practice our haka, waiata and tikanga. This is because our ePals are on Spring Vacation and not due back until mid-August. So time is drawing near and we are becoming more and more confident about what we need to do! We will be reflecting on every stage of our journey as we go, using the **VoiceThread video doodling tool.** This will also enable our Texan ePals to practice the haka moves at each stage independently, make comments and ask questions too. So please join us!

Thank you Unisys for this opportunity! 