Educational Value of Avatars and Voki

Hi.

Has anyone used avatar creation in their lessons? Two popular sites are simpsonizeme and doppleme. If so, what do you see as the educational value of creating avatars?

For Voki (site), same questions.

I've read arguments for and against both tools. Still gathering input.

Thanks to all for their wonderful input.

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Permalink Reply by Suzie Boss on August 5, 2009 at 11:01am

Hi Jonah,
I had a chance to interview two teachers recently about projects that make good use of avatars. You can read more (and find links to classroom resources) in these stories, both in Edutopia:
--"Avatars Teach Teens About Self-Image"
--"How to Talk About Life Online" (featuring Classroom 2.0 member Diane Crockett)
Good luck!

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Permalink Reply by Durff on August 8, 2009 at 3:14pm

Yes, both avatars and icons are important in my lessons. We think of avatars as ways to represent ourselves without a photograph-important in online safety. We use portrait illustrator.
Icons are more like one's brand name, or recognizable image, like the golden arches are for mcdonald's. We often use different sites for this.
We use sites like Voki and Blabberize to make fun widgets for our blogs.
The objectives in a lesson incorporating avatars are:
online safety
using unfamiliar sites
using the embed code

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Permalink Reply by Jacqui Murray on August 9, 2009 at 8:08pm

The one I stumbled across and plan to use this year is called Face Your Manga. It's completely free, has lots of options for students and is easy enough for my 2nd graders. It seems a good way to impress on students the importance of anonymity on the internet while giving them a fun alternative.

How do I look? (I think the picture shows up here)