Add a "human" element to your website. Check out my new Voki avatar at META Web 2.0.
avatar, and then publish to your blog or website. Use your Voki avatar to introduce topics or aid with instruction for those that are better audio/visual learners.
yeah in your case nlowell not a good option .. yes Anne .. comment feature is actually what makes it attractive to me .. because students could have a travelling dialogue across the globe. Exercising authentic use of the language (in my case typical language learners without special needs).
Frank, forget the gender comment from the dog named Nancy (with the voice of Paul)---I thought your avatar was male--then I looked at it today and it was female---then a golden retreiver--never mind.
Nancy .. I love it .. don't worry ... hehe. My voki avatar will take on many different personalities .. so that it doesn't get stale. My voki representation is actually one of the comments .... so I am in there somewhere .. hehe
I explored Voki yesterday and thought it was a lot of fun. I have mine on my Classroom 2.0 page. I have also written a blog post about my 'adventure' with it on my page.
Thanks for reminding me to give it a go.
Helen
We use a blog made with Drupal, and there is an option to "disable rich text"---allowing you to paste the code in. Does Edublogs have an option like that? You can see me here. I look so mature--I am "old" but my avatar makes me look even more mature!!
Hi Nancy,
Still tricky! I've tried this and all that comes is the "Get Voki' tag!!! Very frustrating.
BTW, you sound great with a British accent. Not that I've heard you without it.
I've posted on this discussion before with my ups and downs with voki. I did it with 50 kids this week and the verdict is in....drum roll please.....this is one of many 2.0 tools that is going to the bottom of the list. The kids were lovin' it and rolling on the floor laughing but I can't see that we'll be working with voki anymore in class. I think it's a stretch to find a use in our classroom. I have introduced some tools that having staying power, but this isn't going to be one. Good luck with your post---what you are getting means you may be cutting the wrong code or putting it into the WYSIWYG and not into the code "box".
Hi Nancy .... people say the same thing about twitter .. and then other educators have devised very creative uses of twitter for educational purposes. It is all in the implementation. Every tool is useless and a waste if time if not used in a constructive way.
I work with English as a Foreign Language (EFL) students and vokis give learners opportunities to use and get exposure to the language (structure, pronunciation, communications, reading, listening, writing, and speaking) in a very accessible nonthreatening way. Plus instead the old-school penpals, you can now have voki-pals that speak and respond across boundaries (countries, gender, economies, etc). Kids also get to learn technology and new media publication in the process.
So, I guess my point is that any tool can work wonders if implemented with purpose. And, any tool can not work also, as is your experience. Thank goodness we have much to choose from.