"Welcome to My Web!", Said the Spider to the Fly

When teachers find new technology, whether it is hardware or software, evaluation is critical. As a teacher, you want to determine efficacy. Is the new technology efficient, easy to use and accessible? One of my favorite tools in my efficacy evaluation toolbox is the KID TEST.

Here is how the KID TEST works. Put the device or software out where students, or any KID, will see it. See how long it takes them to tell you about it. The faster they find it, use it, and share the new technology the higher the KID TEST score.

As they tell you about it, the KID TEST rank can increase or decrease with their discussions of descriptions and uses the students discover. I always appreciate using the 5 point Leikert scale to document my technology evaluations, including the KID TEST.

Recently, I performed the KID TEST when I found two new widgets that a teaching colleague, Jonelle, was using on her Classroom 2.0 profile page. To me, they looked very unique, so I thought students might like to use them.

To find out if students will like them, I must perform the KID TEST. Before I start the KID TEST, I like to tryout the technology myself. I inserted the two widgets, Weather Pixies and VOKI, in my n2teaching blog. Both of these widgets are informative and interactive. Each has an avatar that you select. The avatar in Weather Pixie is dressed appropriately for the weather in your area in a little scene with the temperature, etc. The VOKI avatar's eyes track the movement of the mouse when it is the vicinity of the widget and it will talk when you click on the PLAY button. This is my public education oriented blog, and I often share information with students here.

To practice the KID TEST, I always use my kid as my practice tester. I placed my widgets online, and I waited. After a few days, my kid, Dena, asked me about one of them. I told her, and that was that. Interesting, appealing, but no immediate knowledge transfer. Probably a 3 on a 5 point Leikert Scale for the KID TEST.

A few days later, we were discussing various bits of code that she has used recently, while I posted a blog entry. When I scrolled down to check out my map widget, I passed over the VOKI widget. Dena asked, "What's that?". I replied, "That's the other widget I discovered on my colleague's profile page." I mentioned that the image I used was the closest I could find to fit me, and she said, "I like it."

We discussed the fine points of VOKI. Dena said, "You can type what you want it to say?" and "Can you use your own voice?", so I told her that both options were possible. She says, "Wow, I like it!"

Then Dena proceeds to tell me that she has been looking for a widget like this, but the only one she found was a talking widget service that costs $19.99 per month.

OK, I know an opportunity when I see one, so, while I was traveling to the VOKI website, I asked if she wanted to see the website. A enthusiastic yes, bumped up the VOKI tech evaluation score, so off we went to the website.

Dena was impressed with the great variability and opportunities to use VOKI.

Try it out, I give VOKI a 5 out of 5 on the initial KID TEST, and I hope you will see all the possible uses a teacher could have for this creatively cool widget.

Weather Pixies for Kids and Adults

On my Classroom 2.0 .ning network, one of my colleagues had this cool little widget called Weather Pixie. It is a little widget with a weather person who tells the weather for your area. You can select an individualized weather person with a variety of clothing types and hair color. There are about 30 choices.

This would be an excellent active desk add on for young students. They can learn about the weather and what they should wear. I was very impressed that the clothing on the weather person changes with the weather.

Also, the background changes from day to night as it really is where you are.

Personally, I think people of all ages will like Weather Pixies, but teachers and parents can definitely get it "for their kids and students". LOL! Yes, I am getting this Weather Pixie for my daughter.

High Technology

Using IR satellite technology, you can read this map and determine where the rain will occur. Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellites tracking the cold and high cloud data from GOES.


This infrared satellite map of the Central Plains in the United States is very helpful for teachers and students studying practical meteorological tools that any person can access.

Why go to the untrained TV/Radio news reader when you can learn all about the weather and its forecasting yourself?


I love technology, especially technology that sent us to the moon.

clipped from www.goes.noaa.gov GOES Eastern US SECTOR Infrared Image Meteorologists use color enhanced imagery as an aid in satellite interpretation. The colors enable them to easily and quickly see features which are of special interest. Usually they look for high clouds or areas with a large amount of water vapor. infrared (IR) image cold clouds are high clouds bar on the right side of the image indicates the pixel brightness values for the corresponding color temperature can be determined from the following formulas:

Brain Painting with EEG

clipped from neurofeedback.blogharbor.com

The Beauty of the Brain: Brain Painting with EEG

these aren't just inspired works of art, they are actually images derived from EEG activity.

They come from a site about a new neurofeedback system developed by Bill Scott, who has been a leader in the field for many years.

I can't get into all of his pages, but he seems to have developed a system that can take the EEG waves produced by an individual's brain and to create a visual image of the activity.

clipped from brainpaint.com