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
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
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