Entries Tagged 'Fun' ↓

 Cross posted at Thoughts Have Wings

I actually didn’t stay for all of this because there was a conflict with another presentation I wanted to see.  I was hoping for a reason to like SecondLife but I still have difficulty with seeing how it is useful.  It gets boring to me very quickly and there is also the problem of people all over the world being in the virtual world and no way to filter the content.

You basically sign up for a free account, choose a basic character and one improvement that I saw was that you can designate an interest from the start.  You can then tweak your avatar (or character) by changing the body shape, face, hair, clothes and make it more personalized.

Jamey Osborne
LaPorte isd
Jamey Sismondi in sl
jamey.sismondi@gmail.com
osbornej@lpisd.org

go online and be in a virtual world
not mission based like video games usually are
like first life - do whatever you want
presentation is to shorten the learning curve
wear a thick skin in second life
things can happen that will offend you, crazy weird things walk away
virtual world that has people from all over the world in it.
can be an intensely absorbing experience
you login and say you will on for ten minutes and three hours later…

secondlife.com
owning land costs money

http://slurl.com/secondlife/Abitibi/228/113/39
(slurl is a link to a location in secondlife)
secondlife about the size of boston (they say)
there are live concerts
each square represents a server somewhere  sim or region
parcels are sims broken down
you can buy those premium account 77 dollars a year
the more land you buy you have to acquire land tiers
you find or acquire things and they are stored in your inventory
landmark is a bookmark of a place in secondlife
world menu - create landmark here
create things and set permissions to no transfer so others cannot just take them
you friend someone
search panel - how to find someone = click people tab and type name
groups (e.g. sailing community)
can create own group
search for places e.g iste - click teleport and go there
search land sales
showcase
events - like live music
classifieds for things like scripts
you can customize body shape, skin, clothing, and hair and shoes
right click on yourself and click appearance
create and save a shape
you can put all the outfit together and click make outfit button
green amount in upper right shows the money you have
there is an entire economy in second life

can learn scripting

I read about ChaCha this morning and set my default location to well, here.  I texted for local weather report and got a message back seconds later.  You can get answers on most anything so if you have talented texters in your class - look out at test time!

You can get stock reports, answers to all kinds of questions and if you like you can even become a guide and answer other peoples’ questions.

On the road and need travel information? Here is an example:

I wonder if it has suggestions for snacks? Happy texting!

Do you like doing jigsaw puzzles online? Here is a website that lets you create one from your own picture and then generates the code for you.

The site is called Photograph Puzzle Maker and it is easy to use.

Save a picture to your desktop. This will be the picture you will use to make your puzzle

Go to http://www.flash-gear.com/puzzle/ and “browse” to your picture (pictureneame/desktop)

Wait while the website generates the code

Open NotePad

Copy the code from the website

Paste the code into notepad

Click SaveAs

Give it a name and end it with .html (notepad will make it .txt – YOU have to change it)

Example – picturename.html

If you saved it to the desktop you will now see what looks like an internet shortcut icon with your filename on it. If you double click it, it will open in firefox or internet explorer. You should now be able to work the puzzle.

Addendum

I posted this the day I found it - on the computer I tried it on.  Some folks are having trouble making it work and I will revisit this when I find out what is causing problems.

Google has a new contest - create a logo! Go to Doodle 4 Google read about the original “doodler” Dennis Hwang, register your school, find exactly what the requirements are, lesson plans, the template and more. Your campus tech person should have already received an email about the contest.

Prizes

The National Winner will win a $10,000 college scholarship to be used at the school of their choice, a trip to the Googleplex, a laptop computer, and a t-shirt printed with their doodle. We’ll also award the winner’s school a $25,000 grant towards the establishment/improvement of a computer lab.

• Each of the other 3 National Finalists will win a trip to the Googleplex, a laptop computer, and a t-shirt printed with their doodle.
• Each of the other 36 Regional Winners will win a trip to the Googleplex and t-shirt printed with their doodle.
• Each of the other 360 State Finalists will receive a “Doodle 4 Google” certificate.

Important Dates:

School Registration Deadline - March 28, 2008

Doodle Entry Deadline - April 12, 2008

The judging will be broken down into 4 age groups and the theme is “What If?”

Haven’t had much time to post here but I thought this was such a neat idea. It’s called Lookybook and it lets you preview children’s book, add them to your virtual “bookshelf”, and even purchase them. You can write a review and read other reviews and share the book with someone else.

Go to FreeRice.com and take the vocabulary quiz - for every correct word they will donate 10 grains of rice through the united nations to help end world hunger.  Here is an example:

Can you say “iCandy”?

http://www.dumpr.net/
has a free and a pay level but lets you apply cook effects to photos.  There are a lot of nice free effects here.

http://www.photofunia.com/
This one was my favorite just because I liked the effects they offered.

http://www.cameroid.com/
Lets you take a picture online using your computer webcam.  You can choose a filter or a distortion method, frame or even scene - kind of hokey but fun.

picresize.com  http://gui.picresize.com/picresize2/
lets you upload photos and resize as well as apply several different effects like soften, sharpen, change contrast, greyscale, ad text, and more.

primpz.com
goofy but fun - upload an image and add props but more important - speech bubbles!  Free and no registration required.