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=__**Blabberize**__=
 * Is a tool to make any picture of your choice talk. You choose a picture and add a voice of sound clip and you can make any image talk.**

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I have chosen to use Blabberize to get my students excited about the school year. At first I thought that it might be a one and done idea, but the more I thought about it I felt that it may be a great way for the students to present their biographies. Teaching 6th grade, the students do a biography project where they choose a person that they want to know more about. Blabberize can be a great way for the students to present some of their research to the class. Many of the students do not like to present to their classmates and this may be a good way to have them present but not be standing in front of the class.

I plan on introducing it on the first day of school and use it as an "ice" breaker to start the class. I think that it will get their attention right from the first moment in class. I actually took a black and white photo, colorized it with a sepia tone and then imported it into comic life. In Comic Life I turned myself into a cartoon and then exported it as a .jpg to use in Blabberize.

Articles: I had a hard time finding an article that supported research that Blabberize as an educational tool was well documented. I did find some examples of teachers blogging about how well it worked in their classroom.

[|Teaching Tomorrow] [|Ed Tech in Teacher Ed] [|Blab On! – Interactive Classroom Tool]

Examples: [|Welcome Parents (Shark)] [|Kindergarten Welcome] [|Third grade Intro]

Links: [|Other Cool Animation] [|Blabberize Cheat Sheet] [|Tutorial] [|Blabberize Wiki] [|Blabberize Blog]

Advantages/Disadvantages I think that using Blabberize can have a positive effect for many students in getting them engaged in the activity. Many students do not like to present to their fellow classmates and this can be a way of getting them to present. It offers a creative way make a presentation. They can incorporate aspect of their report in the Blabber like using a picture of the person that they did a biography project on.

The disadvantages of Blabberize is that you are only allowed 30 sec clips. That may not be enough time to do a complete and effective presentation. The other disadvantage is that many students can get wrapped up in the "creative" part of choosing a picture and recording over the substance of what they want to say. One way to solve that issue is to have the student complete the writing portion (have it graded or approved) before they are allowed to go onto the Blabberizing part. Another disadvantage is that the students need to have an account to save their work and our school district may not like the lack of control that they will have over the login and password part. At this point Blabberize does not have an educational side/site for presenting their work. As a teacher it is always concerning when there is not a safe site for students to view work.