Wednesday, August 5, 2009

Voki Avatar

Wow! what a great tool to use in the classroom, I belive this is the best and fastest way to "engage and not enrage" (Prensky 2001) students in the classroom when transitioning from one subject to another. This could be used in so many different ways, for example having the students use as an introduction tool with each other and the teacher. Have students create their own for on-line assignments and so much more. I had so much fun with creating my very first Voki, I giggled and laughed so much in the computer lab, my friends were beginning to wonder what I was doing, when they realised I was in theVoki page, they knew..... I will try to use this tool within my power point next week for year 3. Following the steps were quite easy except on how to embed my new character into my Blog, needed a little help there. My learning style - Visual, sometimes stops me from following some steps if I don't have specific step by step with images, that are clear an concise. But I am sure most students will find it fun, engaging and interesting. I hope to use these more often.

I showed my Voki to my 10 year old son and he just laughed and thought it was silly, hmmm was it because it was a little unusual looking or was it the voice, it does sound a little strange, but the moment I said to him that he could create one himself, he changed his tune, so I showed him what to do and he loved it, he wanted to make a few more, but we will leave that for another day. He liked the fact that he could change the characteristics of the Voki to whatever he liked according to the choices. He wasn't impressed by the voices especially the Australian accent, which I tend to agree, didn't sound aussie to me. But he did have fun and would love to show his friends at school.
Wendy.

References;

Prensky, M. (2005). Engage Me or Enrage Me - What today's learners demand. Retrieved August 5, from,http://net.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/erm0553.pdf

1 comment:

  1. Hi Wendy,
    I think that these avatars appeal to people of all ages. The first time that I encountered one on Moodle I thought it was fantastic and that you would need to be some sort of IT whiz in order to create one. I know know that they are very user friendly and when used as part of a learning experience would be very engaging.
    Regards,
    Nari

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