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Welcome to my first Technology Tuesday post!  Based on your votes, the majority of people wanted to learn how to create a talking avatar!  Before we get started, check out my talking avatar below:

Sometimes explaining technology over the internet can be difficult, so I decided to lay out the directions step by step using pictures!  Let me know if I should go forward with this format for future Technology Tuesday posts! Now, enough talk, lets start having fun with technology!


First things first, visit Voki so you can practice along with the following directions! (Creating a Voki account allows you to create your own avatars for free.  A Voki "Classroom" account gives you accounts for all of your students and costs money.  For now, just create a regular Voki Account.)  
 

I hope you enjoyed my first "Technology Tuesday" post!  I really mean it when I say that Id love to see you Vokis, so be try to post one as a response in the comments! Be sure to vote in my sidebar to pick what I will blog about next week! This post is linked up with the following Linky Party!

How annoying is it when youre designing a worksheet or a poster and the background of the image gets in the way?  Based on the poll in my sidebar, most people wanted to learn how to get rid of that pesky background and make it totally transparent!  And today... Im going to teach to how to do it, for free!



First things first, download Gimpshop so you can practice along with the following directions!  Gimpshop is like photoshop, but for free!  And... it works on Macs and PCs!

If Gimpshop doesnt install properly on your computer, download Gimp.  Its literally the exact same program, but Gimpshop looks more like Photoshop when its open.  Either will work!

I kept the same format as last week with the step by step directions with images... let me know how you like the format!





Thank you for visiting technology Tuesday!  Speaking of technology... I made three banners for the contest going on over at TPT.  If you like them, please vote on them (be sure to vote on all three!).  All you have to do is click the picture below and click "Like!" on facebook!  Itll take five seconds of your time and Id really appreciate it!

Time flies when youre having fun... and it flew all the way to Tuesday again!  Thank you for all of your votes again!  The winner this week is: How to Download Videos off YouTube.


I do have to say though... all of you blog hoppers really kept me sweating!  When I glanced at the poll, I thought it was a three-way tie at first!  I wouldnt even know what to do if that were to happen!


Now, Im assuming this goes without saying, but just to be safe: this tutorial is strictly for educational use.  By no means can you sell or redistribute the videos you download.

I primarily download YouTube videos for:

• Organization!  How nice would it be to have that subtraction song in the "Subtraction" folder on your computer, along with all of the other subtraction resources you have?
• Saving Time!  When youre teaching every second is key!  The time you spent searching online for a video during class is not as productive as it could be!  Redistribute those seconds/minutes to asking higher-order thinking questions about the video!
• Reliability!  Even if your internet goes down at work, youll still have access to that great video that you wanted to show the class!

There are so many ways to download YouTube Videos, but Im just going to detail my two favorites:  one doesnt require you to install any software onto your computer.  The other is quicker and more streamline, but requires you to use Firefox.


Now, for the first option: How to download YouTube videos without installing any software. This tutorial uses the website Save Media.


Option Two: The easier way to download YouTube videos (this tutorial only applies to Mozilla Firefox users!  This tutorial uses the add-on Flash Got All.)





Be sure to vote for next weeks Technology Tuesday Post!  I wonder if it will be a nail-biter again!