Personas-How Does the Internet See YOU?

Pulled this off of Twitter this morning-Have you ever wondered how you are seen by the internet. Well now you can find out.

'Personas is a component of the Metropath(ologies) exhibit, currently on display at the MIT Museum by the Sociable Media Group from the MIT Media Lab. It uses sophisticated natural language processing and the Internet to create a data portrait of one's aggregated online identity. In short, Personas shows you how the Internet sees you." Source: http://personas.media.mit.edu/

I gave this a shot and watched as Persona dealt with the online data, much of what I know had little to do with me personally, except for my name, the last of which wasn't even mine until I married. Added to the fact that most of my online presence comes under mrsjgarcia, I doubted the information obtained would be very accurate. In other words, I was a bit skeptical. However, the data portrait it generated is actually quite close to what I would have created if I had been asked to do it on my own, knowing what I do about myself.   Interesting!persona2

Super Teacher Tools

I just came across this in the New Tools Workshop Wiki and thought it would be worth sharing with everyone.

http://www.superteachertools.com/index.php#tools

Basically the site allows you to copy your class lists into the system, which creates seating charts that can be rearranged by dragging on screen or randomized for mixing them up and printed out each time. A link is sent to you that you can use each time to modify your class. It can also generate groups of various sizes randomly so that you are saved that task, the other thing the system does is pick names from a virtual hat, which is a great way to vary the students to whom you ask questions in each class. There are plenty more goodies on the site to investigate, but I thought that these tools in particular might be very useful to some of you since it is the beginning of the year. By the way it is free and no registration is required.

enjoy

More on Speaking and 3D Avatars

We are now using Voki in full force on our LRC and ICT websites to send reminders, updates and homework assignments to kids. Just today one of my colleagues, Carmen is a History teacher. Today she  assigned her students the homework of creating a Voki whose job is to answers the question: What is History? Fantastic, what a way to motivate kids to do homework! I really enjoyed viewing these interactive assignments! Take a look!

Here is an example


Get a Voki now!

Just this evening when finishing our latest Voki for the LRC site(which I must say bears a strong resemblance to our Librarian), I clicked the play button and came across Trek Yourself and Svedka Bot Builder..Great fun. I have included some examples below. These two are very easy to use and no account is needed. They can be embedded, sent by email, downloaded, uploaded to facebook etc..Bot Builder doesn't appear to talk, but provides for movement, while Trek Yourself allows you to upload, or text in your message.

My Trek Self

My Bot

My Voki



Get a Voki now!

Collecta for Real Time Searching.

Collecta is great for  current events including rapidly developing issues. It provides plenty of returns, many of the hits being Tweets, blog posts and news updates.

Yet another tool for the digital toolbox!

Prezi

A colleague of mine just demonstrated Prezi to me(thanks Marc).  It is a presentation map construction application, which allows you to define paths, zoom in at given points, add text, links and media. It is great for those of us who don't always work in a linear manner. Get your ideas down, organise them at will, add rich content, define a path, save then present. It's that easy.  I not sure about embedding code for the app yet but if it doesn't already exist it may soon.

Hoote Suite, Tweet Deck and Today's Meet

I am now using both Hoote Suite and Tweet Deck to manage my Twitter accounts. Hoote Suite is a great way to manage all accounts in one place, it was recently updated and is very user friendly. Tweet Deck is great on many levels as well. In addition to ease of tweet and tiny url's, its column layout allows for at a glance access to followers, hashtags,  tweets, direct messages, scoops, groups and more. It even has Facebook integration.  It has taken me a long time to recognise the power of Twitter and become a regular user. I am now completely sold and my Twitter experience at BLC '09 has only helped to solidify my belief that this little tool can go along way in education. I am now using it as one of the most active areas of my PLN, checking it more often than I do my reader. I use it for broadcasting on webpages and will begin using it as a back channel with some of my classes.

ps: Today’s Meet is a great little back channel app. It works free of charge and is as easy as naming a room and sending out the invites on Twitter or via email. You also have the option to save the room for different time periods ranging from 2 hours to 1 year.