Thing #13 - Sign this!

Finally, something relatively easy. I must admit that I'm impressed with all of the free technology out there. These little touches can make our wikis, blogs, and slide shows so much more interesting and eye-catching.

At the Happy Face Generator, I depicted a portion of the opening scene from Romeo and Juliet (when Tybalt tries to start trouble with Benvolio). This only took a few minutes. The most time-consuming part was just deciding on what to have the smileys say. Plus, I had to limit the text so that it would fit. Now, what will I do with this? I guess I can use as a graphic on the assignment to add a little something. Too bad it's not animated. For some reason, I imagine a scene with swords clanking, people screaming, and blood gushing. After all, what's the point of a sword fight without a little blood?

I made a pit stop at Custom Sign Generator, and once again, felt a little overwhelmed (oh no, not another Flickr weekend). I decided I'd try the first option under the "Make Graphics With Your Text" header. This sent me to Sign Generator Fun, with over 500 sign possibilities. Because I wanted to enjoy a few hours of my weekend, in the fresh air, and away from this computer screen, I just created one sign. Again, I'm thinking to myself, "What can I do with this that has educational value?" And, "If it takes me forever to create something, how long will it take the kids?"

Finally, I explored several of the cites listed on the Things homepage, played around in a few more, and eventually, settled in at ImageChef.

This site actually had something I was looking for when trying to create my Burning Question for my sandbox wiki (Thing 9). When I read the burning question requirement, the first thing that popped into my mind was Jack Handey's Deep Thoughts from Saturday Night Live. I wanted my question to slowly ascend over some picturesque backdrop, like a forest or a sunset sky. At the time and with the limited resources available to us for Thing 9, I couldn't find a way to do this. But now, thanks to ImageChef, I've found something close. I'm sure with a little effort, I can get exactly what I'm looking for. Because of my new-found image creator, I've edited my burning question, removing the talking cats and adding the image from Poetry Blender (one of the options in ImageChef). It's still not exactly what I want, but it's close enough for now. I'm beginning to realize that this is a never-ending process. My sandbox wiki will grow and change until I just can't take it any more.


ImageChef.com Poetry Blender

Even though adding these creative, active images to our wikis, blogs, and slide shows does add that extra little touch, I'm not sure what else I'd do with them at this point. I know there's something out there; I'm just brain dead. My creative juices are on "E."

Perhaps, the students can create some kind of vocabulary wiki and use the image generators as a way to define words, both literally and figuratively through the images they select. Maybe this is something we can do as a department on a department wiki. I just don't know.

One last thing...I just hope that once I'm done trying to warp through all of this technology, I'll be able to find the cites again, especially once I've had time to digest it all.