Those who know me, know that I do NOT like to be on video.  But I understand that the shift in the various technology tools used in the classroom includes the use of videos.  So, here’s my happy medium…Voki.  It allows me to create an avatar which looks mostly like me (they took away the option to change the size/shape of the eyes and reduced the various hair styles available), but I think that most people will agree that the avatar looks fairly like me.

So, this is what I’m thinking…for my class website this year, I am going to record various clips using voki and embed those in various pages.  I think that this will add a more “interactive” feature to my class website as well as help those students who are auditory learners.

The problem?  Voki is not as user-friendly as it SHOULD be.  I’m having to create a new Voki for every sound clip I want to use…and I have to use Firefox instead of Safari in order to get the sound clip to upload.  I also can’t record right into the Voki itself.  I have to record my audio in GarageBand and then upload the file to Voki.  Why the long run-around?  Not sure.  I wish that it were more easy.

Right now, I’m brainstorming ways that I could use Voki in my classes.  I’d like my students to be able to write, narrate, and record an audio clip and then upload it to the class wiki.  But it needs to be user-friendly.  I mean, I’m not a newbie to technology, and it took me quite a few tries just to get it to work.  Will my 7th graders have the patience for this?  Well, last year’s students had the patience of a saint.  I can’t count the number of times that technology did not work for us.  Too many, in my opinion.  We lost a lot of instructional time just sitting there…rebooting…breathing…reloading…you get the picture.

I guess what I need to do in the meantime is put together a basic How-To for Vokis so that I can give that to my students.  Perhaps it’ll make the process a bit less painful.  And, I’m hoping that my tech-stars will just take it and run with it.  =)

So…I was anxiously awaiting the release of Lion, reading the rumors, the early kudos.  I waited for the first musings from fellow Mac users who jumped in first.  I watched all of the videos…read all of the information…and I was finally ready to download the software from the App store.

I was eagerly waiting for the download to start.  I didn’t bother to check my system requirements for I have had no problems upgrading my OS every time there was a new release.  So imagine my surprise when after clicking the button to download, this message suddenly appears…

Oh, so many emotions, but none of them joyous were swirling around my mind.  Could it be so?  I am left behind in the Mac community?  But I’m so loyal.  A firm proponent of all things Mac.  Argh!  How unfair!  First I find that my printer doesn’t support AirPrint which means I can’t print from my iPhone or iPad and now this?  What is this world coming to?  How technology has so easily forgotten those who are its most ardent of followers!

 Well, you know what this means?  Not only am I now in the market for a new printer, but a new computer as well.  Well done, Apple.  Your marketing strategy has further solidified job security for your crew…and a further monetary commitment from me.  But you’ll have to wait a bit longer, for I’m not done being mad at you yet.

So…I go to grade the glogs my kids have made while they are taking a quiz. But what do I discover but that a firewall has been put up that is denying me access to my student glogs. When did this happen? Um, sometime between Tuesday afternoon and this morning!!! It may just be me…but how do you just decide to put up a firewall randomly in the middle of the school year?! Did anyone THINK about the possible implications and havoc that would wreck on two classes at one intermediate school who were using Glogster this week? No. Of course not. This is just one more example of a district limiting access to a site that is educationally sound without asking ANYONE if it would affect them or their classes. If this happened last week when all 180 of my kids were working on the glogs in class…I would have flipped out. As it was, I flipped out, sent off a bunch of emails to everyone I could think of…I dropped the names of my Director of 7-12 Instruction and Assistant Superintendent because I wrote and won a grant to specifically use this website. To say that I was upset is an understatement. I almost blew a gasket.

I vented at lunch and waited for the emails to start pouring in. I didn’t know if I would be supported or not, but I was NOT going to go down without a fight. And do you know what? When I checked my email after lunch, I received confirmation that the firewall would be lifted. I went to my Glogster dashboard…and yes, all of my student glogs were available for me to see. Now, you’d think I would be more grateful that this issue was rectified so quickly, but one just has to wonder why I had to go through this in the first place. I mean, seriously…does anyone THINK around here? Blindly banning an entire site that has a specific PAID license for educators is ignorant. I thought I was going to lose the money that my principal gave to me to use with my kids and more importantly, I thought I was going to lose my grant money for next year.

Argh. Technology is stressful enough without having to deal with people who have NO clue of what is going on in the classrooms.