Bitmojis: spice up your lessons!

After being inspired by the wonderful Language Show and Joe Dale’s webinar on the use of Bitmojis, I have decided to revamp this old post.

I started using Bitmojis more and more during lockdown. I had used them before to create scratch cards. I got the idea from a lovely person from Face Book but I cannot remember her name, apologies!  This is the template.  The only thing needed is to print out the template, cut the cards and stick a scratch sticker, bought in Amazon for around £3 on top of the prize statement.  My students, even the most reluctant, die for these cards! I give them around for good answers, behaviour etc..  

During lockdown I maximised their use and by doing so also my students' positive response to their learning. 

The first thing I recommend doing is to upload the Bitmoji extension on your google bar as an add-on. That way you can just click on the Bitmoji symbol (second on the left in green), look for the bitmoji you want and copy and paste the image onto any document.

For the technicalities of creating a Bitmoji, watch Joe Dale’s webinar. 

Bitmojis for PDF and video certificates 

I have created certificates to acknowledge excellent progress and effort during distance learning. To do this, I have used Canva.  Having the extension on my google bar, I just copied and paste my bitmoji into my Canva project. This is an example:

To accompany the above certificate, I also created simple videos, using Bitmojis and the IMovie trailer app on my iPhone. Students and parents particularly loved this! I also created one for my tutor group to wish them good luck during internal exams/ assessments in July. 

A video tutorial on how to do this video trailer can be found here, I can assure you it takes 10 minutes!  The only thing you will need, is a selection of saved bitmoji pictures in your phone/iPad/Mac to add to your trailer video.

Virtual Classrooms

Bitmoji Virtual Classrooms, through the use of Google Slides, became increasingly popular during lockdown! I, personally, did not need to use Google Slides, as I use  Onenote for my lessons. However, I created my own virtual classroom picture which I incorporated to all of my Onenote lessons to make them more engaging. I created mine, again, with Canva instead of Google Slides as I wanted it as a picture, without hyperlinks:

Here there's a video tutorial, there are many on Yutube, on how to do this step by step. 

Using Bitmojis to give feedback

I also used Bitmojis (on Onenote) to give feedback to my students and encourage them to continue working hard, that is, by giving Merits and Alphas according to my school reward protocol. Below there's an example from a Y9 pupil:

Using Bitmojis with Forms, virtual trips and Escape Rooms

Most excitingly, I use Bitmojis as listening activities embbeded as YouTube videos on Microsoft Forms or just in Onenote. In order to do this, I do the following:

1.  I used PhotoSpeak on my phone to make my Bitmoji talk (it moves the mouth when doing so): I just uploaded the Bitmoji I wanted into Photospeak as a photo, which I saved on my phone, added voice (my listening input) and saved it as MP4 video.

2. I uploaded the video into my Youtube channel.

3. I embedded the Youtube video, by copying and pasting the URL link, into my Form activity. I did this for extensive listening practice.

4. I created, using Forms, different tasks: filling in the gaps, questions/answers, transcription type of tasks, multiple choice etc.. I created many listenings/videos within the same Forms activities like this! 

You don't need to use Forms to practise listening this way, but just have the videos on Youtube and embed them into Onenote or link them into your Virtual Classroom.  Listening/ video activities can, then,  be personalised to suit different abilities (length, specific use of vocabulary and speed, depending on your students). This is a great way to model listening for students based on given sets of Sentence Builders for retrieval practice!

Example of Forms using Bitmoji for listening 

The Bitmojis can be used on Virtual trips! There are excellent examples in our MFL Padlet.

Finally, I used the Bitmojis for my own Escape Rooms using Genially, below there’s an example. Marie Allirot has many, many examples on how to use Genially to create Escape Rooms. Many of her examples can also be found on MFL Twitterati Padlet. 

Of course, students can also create them to practise speaking and give little presentations, using the method above or by using bitmojis with Flipgrid. In his webinar, Joe Dale actually explains very well how to do this! 

Overall, Bitmojis  make my lessons more engaging and, again, memorable! However, there is specific planning on their use as they are not just used for the sake of it! Check the Face Book group Bitmoji Craze for educators  for fab ideas on their use! It is addictive, be warned!This is the template.This is the template.