Widgets for the under 13’s
Now that edublogs allows so many different widgets by using the text box, I would like to find some that might interest the students who are under 13 years old. As I am trying to teach my kids to be honest in what they are writing but still being internet savvy, I would prefer they don’t use programs which in the terms of service say “You must be over 13″. This is a disappointment because both Voki and Feedjit have these in their terms of service and I know my students were intrigued when I showed these to them.
While reading through some comments in the edublogs blog, I came across one blogger, aboatman, who recommended a Japanese/Chinese avatar creation site. I tried this out and found it very simple to use and also to install in edublogs.
What are some of the other great widgets that the under 13’s could be using?
Hi Sue
Here is an avatar creator they might like to try. These aren’t widgets but are another few applications they will enjoy are ToonDoo is definitely worth trying – they get to make their own comics or comic books (really easy to use) and how about a photo editing site like fd’s Flickr Toys?.
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What about the “Make a Meez” avatar creation tool that comes with http://photobucket.com , a popular image site. Just create an account then select “Create Avatar” … here is a link to my Meez:
http://i185.photobucket.com/albums/x32/metaweb/mz_0801_10021960333-9.gif
Not sure about the age signup rules and such. But the avatars are fun to make. The avatar part of the site is located at: http://s185.photobucket.com/meez?special_track=nav_album_avatar
Frank
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Other widgets our under 13s use, are vokis. My voki account allows me to create many vokis, so I logon as me and each student creates their own using my login. They save with an appropriate filename so I know whose vokis are in my account. Their voki can then be inserted in a text widget for sidebar display. See http://flurogreen.globalstudent.org.au/ My students like inserting clustrmaps and that is so easy now with edublogs. The weatherpixie is another one. I am surprised at how much my year 10 students even enjoy this one on their blog. See http://chatty.globalstudent.org.au/Stats counters (might be too old for your students See http://noo0001.globalstudent.org.au/ (Note that we are having troubles with globalstudent and formatting at the moment, so some of his links arent working) He also has several stats counters. When it was a 41deg celsius heat on Monday, students constantly referred to it, to see the temp, the wind direction etc. I think it is a great one to have one so that student visitors from the globe visit the blogs, can also compare with their climate. I, personally love widgets but they aren’t for all of my students so I let their individual personalities shine through. Some global students have goldfish swimming around in a sidebar widget which is relaxing, if nothing else!! It will be interesting to see what other suggestions are added to this post.
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Not being one for the fine print but have you tried these
weeworld – http://www.weeworld.com/
http://www.buildyourwildself.com/
Have fun
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Hi, Sue Waters directed me to your blog. I just stumbled upon this blog post: http://blog.missiontolearn.com/2008/03/more-than-50-web-widgets-for-your-learning-mix/ where the author lists tons of web widgets. I took a quick look at the Science and Math category and some of the quick blurbs mentioned age ranges (eg, one was for 8 – 12 year olds). I hope this helps!
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Sue, Frank, Anne, Barb and Claire – thank you all so very much for these sites that the students can visit and look at or make widgets and avatars etc from. I will make sure they find out the age range first as I would prefer those students who are not yet 13, don’t use those widgets. Just me being fussy and regimented … lol It will give them more choices once they do turn 13 though.
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I am 10 and i enjoy sites like clubpenguincom where you make a penguin avatar,but I would like a site for,say under 14’s,like IMVU,where you can chat with friends,get pets,get a job etc. (something like an online Sims game) In fact,the only reason I was directed to this sit was because I searched for (avatar sites for under 14’s)
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Miss Wyatt,
Do you think that the Twilight widgets you commented on were for 13+ or under 13? I’m just asking, because the sites I got them off of didn’t say an age. And you really should read the Twilight books, as an answer to the Q you put on my blog. They are awsome but some kids might feel uncomfertable because it is a romance story and has a LOT of mushy stuff.
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