Voki

For my first Online Tool that I have chosen I am looking at how to use Voki in the classroom.

http://www.voki.com/




Voki is a free online tool that allows a person to choose an avatar and create a voice for the avatar. One can create a voice either by recording their own voice, uploading a voice previously recorded, in something like audacity, or by using the text to speech option. You are however, limited to a 60 second recording.

Voki claims to be able to:

• Motivate students to participate
• Improve message comprehension
• Introduce technology in the classroom
• Explore Voki as an effective language tool
• Inspire and get inspired by other teachers

In terms of  following through on the above claims, I do think that Voki could motivate students to participate in the way that it can provide anonymity for the student.  If a student could put together and deliver a speech through Voki, then I see this as being very beneficial for the student who has anxiety about public speeches.  I am sure that it would depend on the teacher as to whether this would count for their mandatory public speech or not, but I am sure there would be some teachers who would be willing to let anxious students use it.

In order to improve message comprehension, I can see it as a valuable tool to have students type out a specific text and then be able to hear the message played back to them.  A student may be better able to catch their grammatical errors better when hearing their typed text played back to them.

As far as this being able to introduce technology into the classroom, I am not a big fan of incorporating technology (perhaps a better phrase would be computer games or tools) just for the sake of introducing technology.  So if a teachers main purpose was to incorporate Voki into their class so that they could put a check mark beside the 'uses technology in the classroom' I would not be super impressed.  It is about the teaching and not the tool.  Having said that, on the site there are a number of examples from teachers, including lesson plans, that will help a teacher use this tool to enhance their teaching, not just for the sake of incorporating technology, which would certainly touch on the inspire and be inspired by other teachers claim that Voki makes.

Some areas that I can see teachers using voki is for: unit or lesson introductions, as this would create more interest especially in an online classroom, learning how to express yourself, practicing keyboard skills including computer skill such as copy and paste, and for learning/practicing a second language.
In my exploration of the Voki site I was able to create a Voki avatar and embed it into this blog with ease.  I can certainly see the benefit of this tool to enhance delivery of content or units in my online classes.  I am curious how much bandwidth and internet speed would be a problem for students trying to watch the Voki especially if trying to use it with an entire class.

Here is a few good sites to see student examples:

Voki Talking Avatars
Cybraryman
Student Reflection Using Voki