Cool Tool #1 Bitmoji

My original cool tool that I was going to review was Bitstrips, but unfortunately for me those have been replaced with Bitmoji, so instead of reviewing Bitstrips I will be reviewing Bitmoji.

Bitmoji is your own, personal, emoji. It is a cartoonish version of yourself that can be really be used anywhere! It can be integrated with Facebook, Facebook messenger, gmail, snapchat, text or anything using google.

This app is very user friendly and can be downloaded onto your computer using chrome or on your phone (Apple or Android). Once you download Bitmoji, you create your personal avatar and go from there. What makes this so easy is that all you have to do is make the avatar look like you and BAM you are done and let the fun begin! With that, I do not think that students will face any challenges using this piece of technology.

The challenge that I do see happening is how teachers could use this tool in a classroom (when it comes to being educational) because there are not very many ways (if at all) that it can be aligned with the standards. But I do think that it would be fun to use in a classroom. It is a cool way to get students attention because it adds a little play in the classroom and it keeps students motivated to want to see when and where you will place a Bitmoji next. If you allow students to create their own I think that it might help them communicate and express themselves which will result in them gaining more confidence.

When it comes to incorporating Bitmoji into the classroom there are a couple of ideas that come to mind:

 1) You could make passes for your students to use in class such as: homework passes, music passes, and bonus points on a test.

2) In any subject you could make a comic strip of some sort or this would also be a good idea for students to create a collage the first week of school to tell the class about themselves. This is one that would take a bit of time because you have to create the speech bubbles  for your comic or strategically for what pictures describe you.

3) When you make a test or exit slip you could add Bitmojis to do the following:

Motivate

Encourage

Reinforce directions

4) When it comes to having your students take notes or using a PowerPoint you could use these to make students aware that this section of notes are important/going to be on the test

Or use as an instructional hook to get students thinking (and smiling) but hopefully thinking




5) You could also use these to start a discussion or use on homework that you want students to elaborate more about because you are going to discuss it in class. It could also be something that you want students to think about or used as a key for something you want as a writing prompt.

6) You could also create stickers to pass out to students when they are having a bad day, I know that if these were around when I was in school I would have loved to get a cartoon sticker with my teacher on it. It shows that the teacher notices that I am having a bad day and that they are having fun, which makes school fun.

7) Bulletin boards

I am sure there are other ways that this could be used in a classroom but I just wanted to share a few.
I think that Bitmoji is a fun, simple technology that I would use in my classroom for possible summative projects or activities but not really to enforce a concept we learned in class. If anything it will get your students smiling when they leave your class and a topic of discussion (hopefully positive) with their friends.