Voki.com

Instructors! Check out this site:  www.voki.com
Create your own avitar for your online courses.  Students can also create an avitar. 

No doubt, there aren't many selections to make your avitar look exactly like you.  But, you could create a funky character.  It is better than paragraphs and paragraphs of text, anyway.  I think it catches the attention of the online student, and causes them to be more engaged. 

Check out mine below:

Creating Futures!

Last week I had the opportunity to attend the Creating Futures Through Technology Conference (CFTTC) at the Beau Rivage Resort in Biloxi, MS. I learned some really cool things, that will help instructors implement technology in their classrooms. Here are a few sites that I would like to share with you:

• Join.me -- share your desktop/screen with another user. Great for helping students with issues, especially if you need to see their desktop, or if you need them to see yours temporarily.



• Khan Academy -- wonderful "how to" videos that are simple and easy to understand. Great resource for any student. Bill Gates endorsed, free, and no sign-up required.
  


• Wordle Clouds -- cool little tool that would be fun for a vocabulary, med terms, or other course in which students are learning to type and spell words correctly. Students type the words, and Wordle creates an "artsy" looking cloud. Must have Java.



• Engrade Flashcards -- create flashcards for any topic, or view flashcards that have already been created.
  


• CloudOn -- iPad users, beware, you will fall in love. Microsoft Office and Dropbox both for the iPad here.
  


• Android App Inventor -- easy, free, app inventor. Need some programming experience to do this. Plenty of YouTube videos to help, though. Must have Java, gmail account, and software for app inventor installed on your computer.
  


• iTunes University -- iTunes podcasts/videos for free learning.

Hope you enjoy these links. Some, I am sure you have heard of already. Leave me your feedback...I love comments! :)

Stage Design!

I love that my church constantly changes things up. Never boring, or bland. Here are some recent stage designs that my husband and I have put together with the help of our church family. Here is what is called the "weave"....directions on http://www.churchstagedesignideas.com/, but we did it our "own" way, and it turned out great! :) the LED lights can change the color of it, or with lights off it looks like woven metal.

This was our first experiment, and I think it turned out great - considering we didn't have LED lights at the time.

And this is what we had at Christmas for our message series, "UnWrap".... it's a little hard to see, but it is ginormous boxes stacked. Very cool!