Heads and feet Challenge 2-March 2011

Much of this post has been cross posted from my class blog, ‘Kids in the Mid‘.

What an unusual title? I wonder what we are going to be doing this week in the challenges?

Answer: Heads (avatars), feet (digital footprint)

Once you are starting to create online, you often need to have a special identity. This is usually in the form of an avatar. You created them for World Maths Day, you have them in Facebook and, of course, you have them when leaving comments on blogs. So, this week’s activities relate to avatars and online identities including creating a positive digital footprint.

Students

Activity 1 – make an avatar

Step 1. Create an avatar for your blog and for you to use when leaving comments.

Avatars are a representation of yourself. Check out this post about avatars.  Create your avatar using one of the websites below. Sue Waters from ‘The Edublogger‘ has written a great post about avatars, including giving instructions on how to save them and then upload to an ‘Edublogs’ blog. Many of the sites mentioned below are included in her post.

Most important is remember to save as a jpeg file if using Edublogs.

MyHero[1] avatar2 avatar3 avatarbig

Any age can use these avatar sites:

From abi-station:

But over 13, need parental or guardian permission for these.

14 or older with parental permission

Step 2. Using printscreen to save your avatar

So you decided to create an avatar like “Hero Factory” or “Build your wildself” or “Mini Mizer” where you can’t save it easily. You need to take a picture of the screen first. Most computers have a printscreen button on the keyboard or if using Windows 7 you have an icon called “snipping tool”.

When you press printscreen an image of your screen is now copied to your clipboard. You will still need to crop and resize to get an avatar that fits well on your blog.

Open MS Paint and click control V to paste your image from the clipboard. To save, you need to go to File>Save As> change the name of the file to yourname with ava eg  sueava then underneath change the file type to JPEG. Make sure you save your avatar to your drive.

Go to your drive, right click on the icon for your avatar image and choose “Open with” choose MS Picture Manager.

In the icons at the top, go to View> task pane.  On the right go to edit pictures > crop.  Now move the black bars on the side of your image in, to crop your picture to what you want in your avatar.

Click OK, then back to edit pictures. Now click on resize. In the box “custom width and height” put  97 in both boxes. These numbers might be slightly different but one has to be 97 and the other smaller than 97. Click OK.

Back up to file>save as> call it sueava2 or similar> make sure it is still JPEG. Make sure you have saved it to your drive again.

Step 3. Upload avatar to your Edublogs blog

Now to upload to your blog.  Go to your dashboard> users>your avatar> browse to find your image on your school H drive>alternate upload.  This is your comment avatar.

Now for your blog avatar. Dashboard>appearance>widget> blog avatar drag to your sidebar.  To upload the avatar, dashboard>settings>blog avatar> browse to find your image on your school H drive>alternate upload. Go to your blog page and refresh. Your blog avatar should appear on your blog now.

If it now looks like a black coloured square then you haven’t cropped the image to the correct size in step 2 using printscreen. Or maybe you didn’t save the image as a JPEG in step 2 using printscreen.

Step 4.  Linking avatar to blog URL

Lastly, to make sure your avatar is linked to your blog URL, go to dashboard> users> profile and make sure you have a nickname and your blog URL is in the website box. This means whenever you leave a comment, the reader will just have to click on your name or avatar and it will take them to your blog. Include the http:// part in the URL.

Activity 2 – Write a post describing your avatar.

How much does it look like you? What sort of personality does your avatar have? What makes it typically you? Remember to include your avatar as an image in your post.

Activity 3 – Create a slideshow or gallery of avatars

You really enjoyed creating your avatar on line. Create them for your family or multiple versions of yourself. Now put them in a slideshow using animoto, smile box or photopeach. Or use the gallery format on Edublogs. Are there any other great slideshow tools you could use?

Activity 4 – What is a digital footprint?

Watch this video, then write a post about what might be included on your digital dossier or digital footprint.

  • What sites have you joined?
  • How much information did you give them when you joined?
  • Have you filled in more than the *asterisk questions?

Google your name or nickname but include your town as well.

  • What did you find?
  • Are you on the web for sports teams, named in newspapers and where else?
  • How many cookies or footprints are you leaving behind?

Classes

Activity 1 – Create a class avatar slideshow similar to activity 3 for students.

Activity 2 – Create a class poster or video about your commenting guidelines

Commenting is one part of our digital footprint, so it is important students know how to comment in an appropriate way.

Activity 3 – Involve parents in leaving comments on your class blog

  • How many parents are involved in your class blog?
  • Do they check it out regularly or is the blog just something you and the students do at school?
  • How could you involve parents more in the blogging process?

Kathleen Morris and Linda Yollis have some great ideas about involving parents or grandparents. Check out this handout about blogging, navigating the class blog, family blogging month winner and grandparents comment.

Next week we look at global activities getting ready for Earth Hour at the end of March.

About

I am a middle school teacher who retired in 2012 but still loves teaching. In my spare time I enjoy tracing my family history and helping others with their genealogy as well as chatting with my friends around the world. But most of all, I enjoy travelling and visiting new places.

Tagged with: , , , ,
Posted in March 2011
26 comments on “Heads and feet Challenge 2-March 2011
  1. Alejandro says:

    And what if i dont use edublogs? i use weebly!

    • Miss W. says:

      Alejandro,
      I visited your blog and it looks like you worked out how to add the avatar to your blog anyway. Perhaps a post I could link to next time, telling others how to add avatars to weebly.

      • konnaski says:

        Miss W what if i don’t want to use the avatar makes can i use a picture of my own choice?

      • Miss W. says:

        G’day Connor,
        It is up to you and your teacher. Your school might have certain requirements about having avatars, so check with your teacher.

  2. strawberries102 says:

    When you geta cluster map and you delete it on accident can you bring back all the dots from were people have visited it?

    • Miss W. says:

      G’day,
      I think if you go back to clustrmaps and sign in again with your username and password they should have your map that your can embed again.

  3. Zachary W says:

    I have finished the blogging challenge and here is my link so you can check http://bloggingaboutdailynews.edublogs.org/

  4. Michael Gjessing says:

    I, uh don’t use edublogs, and the computer says my avatar is insecure. :(

  5. quinn says:

    im done

    • Miss W. says:

      Quinn,
      You haven’t left the URL of your blog here so I can go and visit. Go to your dashboard> users > your profile and fill in the area called website with the URL of your blog. Remember to include the http:// bit as well.

  6. I use blogger so how do I upload my avatar please?

    • Miss W. says:

      Aisling,
      If you look on the challenge blog down the right hand sidebar to the ‘Get Help’ section, you will find a link to ‘Blogspot help here’. This is a blog written by a teacher in New Zealand who gives lots of clues on adding bling to your Blogger blogs. Hope this answers your question.

  7. Marshall says:

    I forgot to mention I’m done with this challenge. :)

  8. We now have a welcome post for parents. I also created a Family page with the same info. We have our comment guidelines established and are practicing on partner pages. We do not yet have avatars because there is only so much time: I teach writing, not computers or tech, so time is short for creating avatars. I’m sorry if we have not kept up — I started late, and didn’t quite understand what to do until Miss W wrote on our blog! Thank you for explaining.

    Welcome Families
    Family Page
    Comment Guidelines

    • Miss W. says:

      Zachary,
      No self promotion on this blog. To get visitors coming to your blog, you need to go out to other student blogs and leave great comments, not just ‘Check out my blog.’

  9. Andrew Lamb says:

    Better late than never :)

    The Unstoppable C’s Avatar slideshow

  10. Hi there,
    I am having difficulty getting my Animoto to show. I sent it to YouTube, and same problem.

    This is how I did it:
    Copied the HTML code,clicked on the “HTML” tab in our Edublog, pasted the code. Published the page.

    When I viewed it, nothing showed up.

    In the meantime, I’ve placed a link.

    Do you have any suggestions for me?

    Kind regards,
    Tracy

  11. Tyki Mikk says:

    I know that the post came out a little clumped on my page, but I finished (*is determined to catch up on the challenge!*)!

    http://omoiemotion.edublogs.org/2011/04/03/student-challenge-2%e2%99%a6-avatars-avatars-avatars-a-digital-dossier/

    -x-

  12. We jazzed up our Comments with Fodey. Check it out at:
    http://martinezroom201.edublogs.org/comments/

  13. Utau Hoshina says:

    Konnichi wa! I know this is an old challenge. BUt what’s so wrong with Manga Face Maker? I found nothing inappropriate about it.. and I did not find anything that parents would disagree with.

96 Pings/Trackbacks for "Heads and feet Challenge 2-March 2011"
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  10. [...] Challenge 2 (BTW)Well, in all honesty I couldn’t mess with my already existing avatar, oops, but you know I tried. I’m like the Rosa Parks of my avatar picture because I can’t change it, the only real differences are that I’m not refusing I just can’t and Rosa was an African American facing Prejudice acts and discrimination…. Same thing though right?  But I kind of feel that my picture accurately describes me. Despite the mid-evil ages image that shows me as the heroic and just kind of amazing knight, that picture has value. At that point I was in Germany at some tacky tourist shop, and my group was just about to go take a tour inside the castle Neuschwanstein (CLICK IT) I really think the picture describes me on a deep level though, because it shows my serious side as well as my desire to learn the German language, and my sense of humor, which is just the most ostentatious representation  of who I am. And that picture being loaded into the computer is kinda like, actually exactly what the video Digital Dossier was about. Personally I really despise the fact that currently, anyone is checking what I’m doing, seriously? Is that necessary?! Well ok, if I just threatened like a nuclear missile attack yes, but the only crime I’m committing right now is not eating the four individually wrapped Reese’s cups sitting before me. The slide show of avatars…..  about that……. I’m extremely prone to messing up directions so that will eventually be uploaded I promise, but seriously Oreo’s won the race to my attention. Back to the Dossier though, I really try not to fill out any form that requires my interest. I think it’s because of my acute fear of axe murderers. Or that I hate junk mail?  OOoo that’s nifty. Almost 129 names were attached to Jon Crotsley but my middle name Edward and last name attracted attention to famous people, and somehow Oprah Winfrey?!?!? Did you know we were cousins? Just kidding, she’s too old, and my weight doesn’t drastically change every other episode. (just kidding.) Anyway 350 words is too many so enjoy this video of A GIRL TRIPPING OVER HURDLES. Thanks For Caring! Create a free edublog to get your own comment avatar (and more!) [...]

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  21. [...] Here is my avatar I made. ENJOY!                      Student Blogging Challenge [...]

  22. [...] to work on or complete the blog challenge Posted in 1st Period, 2nd Period, 6th Period, 7th Period, Blog Challenge, [...]

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  24. [...] post is for student blogging challenge. I like my Voki avatar. It’s cool that I actually got it really close to what I actually look [...]

  25. [...] Challenge 2: A digital dossier is a digital collection of papers containing detailed information about a particular person or subject (usually a person’s record.) [...]

  26. [...] pretty sure you can see it on the right-hand corner, but just in case… So part of the Student Blogging Challenge-2 was to well make an avatar. I had a different avatar, but I changed it to this one. I’m not [...]

  27. [...] post is for blog challenge 2. My digital footprint View more presentations from teganr4. category: Blog Challenge Posts [...]

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  35. [...] Why I chose my avatar is because I love seals. Whenever I go to a aquariom I love to look for seals. But everytime I go I do not find them:(. They are really cute plus there my favorite animals! I love them!this is the link.http://studentchallenge.edublogs.org/2011/03/14/heads-and-feet-challenge-2-march-2011/ [...]

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  61. [...] is in response to the 2011 Student (Class) Blogging Challenge – Heads and Feet Challenge Post a Comment    (0) Comments   Read More Create a free [...]

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  63. [...] My avatar I think looks just like me! I always have my mouth open, and whenever I have my hair down i wear a bow or a flower. My hair is sandy blonde. I have bright blue eyes and I wear contacts. My favorite color is pink, you will find me wearing pink a lot too. (: My avatar is made for week 2 challenge. [...]

  64. [...] post is part of Challenge 2 of the March Student Blogging Challenge. addthis_url = [...]

  65. [...] March 30, 2011  Tagged Avatars, Challenge 2, Quality Comments Our second challenge in the Edublog Student Challenge is about creating online identities and leaving quality comments on other [...]

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  68. [...] This past Sunday was Selection Sunday. Ohio State was selected as the overall number one team in the tournament. There were a couple surprises in the selection, with Colorado and Alabama both being left out of the tournament. I’m a little confused with the whole new bracket they have, since they expanded the field to 68 teams. The first round games are going to start on Wednesday, and after that it is tournament games all the time. I’m excited for another year of March Madness, and I hope that Kansas will be cutting down the nets in Houston. This post has been for the blogging challenge Week 2. [...]

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  70. [...] goolged my name it came up from when I was it the new paper. I left behind my name and a picture. Here is the video that I [...]

  71. [...] color as well. There are some differences, but there are more similarities. This post is for Week 2 challenge. by Kim posted under thoughts | No Comments »     Click here to [...]

  72. [...] March 16, 2011 · Filed under Blogging My Family Avatars – making a free slideshow How do you like it? This is my first slideshow, it was a little hard to make but I got it and with no help at all. This post is for challenge 2 of the Student Blogging Challenge [...]

  73. [...] made my avatar using Clay Yourself for the Heads and Feet Challenge 2. I [...]

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  76. [...] Challenge #2! This week our challenge is to write a post about leaving digital footprints. Everyone should focus on leaving minimal information, or using fake information when signing up for any site or game. I use online sites called Facebook, MSN, and when I was younger I signed up for  Club Penguin. To leave no digital footprints on Facebook I use a fake age and customize my privacy settings. On MSN  I also used a fake age and only added close friends. On Club Penguin I gave minimal information and when I got too old for it I gave my account to my little sister so she didn’t have to give out any information at all. Try to google your name see what tracks you have left behind. I did not find myself anywhere on the Internet, so I guess I’ve been covering my tracks. Did you find your name in Google? If you did comment on what you found about yourself. [...]

  77. [...] are here: Home > Challenge Posts > My Avatar My Avatar Posted in Challenge Posts Apr04 This avatar looks a lot like me although I do not usually wear dangling earrings, but I thought they looked [...]

  78. [...] I am so amazed at how quickly these students listened and followed directions to get their avatars created quickly on Friday. We had such fun thinking about what we could create for our online identity, knowing that we can still represent ourselves without providing a real world picture.  I hope you enjoy our avatars for our Class Blogging Challenge. [...]

  79. [...] Week 2 – Heads and Feet – Activity 4 by knguyen2017 posted under Week 2 | No Comments »     Click here to cancel reply. [...]

  80. [...] Challenge 2 heads and feet ? Comments (0) Create a free edublog to get your own comment avatar (and more!) [...]

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  82. [...] Challenge 2 [...]

  83. [...] Challenge 2 activity 2 [...]

  84. [...] Challenge 2 activity 3 [...]

  85. [...] Challenge 2 activity 2b [...]

  86. [...] Hands and Feet by Miss W This post is about creating avatars and beginning to develop your digital footprint. Post a Comment    (0) Comments   Read More [...]

  87. [...] second challenge in the Edublog Student Challenge is about creating online identities and leaving quality comments on other [...]

  88. [...] made my avatar from wimpyourself for the Heads and Feet Challenge 2! This avatar is like me because I wear my hair up or down usually with a headband. My hair is black [...]

  89. [...] is the Avatar I made for the Heads & Feet Challenge Activity # 2. At first glance, this avatar looks a little like me but it’s definitely not an exact copy. It [...]

  90. [...] to list only a few that seem to be very popular with primary age students. I will also give you a link to another post including more [...]

  91. [...] to list only a few that seem to be very popular with primary age students. I will also give you a link to another post including more [...]

  92. [...] a quality comment? Do you have any questions about your task?  This post is inspired by the Edublog Student Challenge. addthis_url = 'http%3A%2F%2Fblogs.goaj.org%2Fbligon%2F2012%2F09%2F19%2Fstudent-challenge-2%2F'; [...]

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