Voki

Do your students enjoy working with technology and hate giving oral presentations?  Do you need an interesting way to introduce something?  How about a way to spice up a website or e-newsletter?  If so, a Voki might be a useful tool for you and your students.  A Voki is a talking avatar that can be emailed, pasted onto a website, or linked to a website, blog, etc.   

Voki ideas . . .

• Oral Presentations: Students can use a Voki as a way to introduce their topics.  Backgrounds can be changed to reflect location; and, in some cases, an avatar can be made to look like a famous person from history.
• Websites, Blogs, Etc.: Embed or link a Voki to spice up one of these online creations.
• Teaching Tool: Want to grab their attention?  Use a Voki in a lesson.  Or . . . A teacher can use various Vokis on a website in order to help students with a research project.  The Vokis can become part of a WebQuest that would otherwise be missing vital pieces of information in a student-friendly format.
• “Pen Pals”: This is a great way to add a little vocal interaction to a pen pal email.

Notes on implementation . . .

• Ground Rules: As with any online work, you may need to give students some guidelines for what is appropriate and what is not appropriate.
• Remember to get parental and administrative permission before allowing students to post anything online.

Getting Started . . .

• Voki (homepage link)  It's free!
• This site has a good “getting started” section:  http://www.voki.com/voki_faq.php#4 

Equipment/software needed . . .

• computer with Internet connection

• Standard Example
• Cartoon Example
• Animal Example
• Guess who?

I would encourage you to read the post entitled “Getting started . . .” before diving in.

If you have had success with a way to use Voki, please share your pearls of wisdom through a comment to this post!

Angela CMG