Voki in an educational context

Press play to listen to my avatar.

            
 My avatar has told you that 'Voki is a free service that allows you to create personalized speaking avatars which can be posted on a blog or on your social networking site.Studies show that using technology in education improves students' achievements. Voki is a unique tool which can engage students in creative expressions.

You have to be 13 to have a voki account, therefore this would be used in a secondary school. The voki website states that there are endless ways to use Voki"

Voki can be used in the classroom at can be used for any subject at any level, enabling cross curricular project or assingment work. As you can see I have created my own avatar and it was really enjoyable, it felt like I was just playing on the internet rather than doing any work. As it is fun, but can be used in an educational contetxt, it is a very useful tool, if children are having fun, they will be mor engaged and interested in what they are doing, they will also become more productive. For teachers there is a Lesson Plan database and the Teacher's corner, giving support and ideas.

 

Voki can be used to present work orally, as well as making the work interesting for the student, they can also hear how words are sounded and how they are spoken, it can also build confidence in children who are shy at presenting, it can be a way of introducing technology into other subjects. It can also be used for:-

Classroom Newsletter – Provide information for students and parents using a unique style. Persuasive Speech – Assign a speech and have the Voki avatar give the introduction, three supporting details to defend or rebut a given topic, and the conclusion.
Course Annoucements - Use Voki to create and embed online course announcements for students. It can be a fun and engaging way to present otherwise routine information.
Testing – Give a test with the Voki avatar asking questions or integrate it with a written test to assist students with reading difficulties, second languages, or to clarify questions for all. Merge it with a current online test in order to provide another modality for students.
Vocabulary – Use Voki to present a vocabulary list of words. Using real speech allows students to hear correct pronunciation. Students can stop, pause, rewind at any time.
Foreign Language – Great way to help students learn words through teacher prepared lessons. It also allow students to practice their new language by creating short stories, poems, or content informational pieces.
Poetry and Music Composition – Students create poems or lyrics that can be spoken or sung by their favorite avatar. This can include text-to-speech and real voice. They may even want to include musical instruments.

Information from-http://21centuryedtech.wordpress.com/2011/02/06/voki-creates-ad-free-site-for-education-plus-20-ways-to-use-talking-avatars/

The journey so far.....

So Far...

Link to my first post.
This is an update on my journey so far. My first ever post, explained how I was on a journey to understanding Visual Communications and writing my reflections into my blog.



In my second post, I wrote about how
 I had discovered the differences and similaraties between websited and blogs. A quick recap, a website: has static content; is formal and usually has one way communication where as a blog: has changing content in chronological order; is informal and is interactive as audience can usually post a comment.



Also, I have told a story by images, produced an animation and created mind maps with Bubbl.us. Along the way I have learned how to blog, be creative and make my blog as interesting as possible,for my post concerning Rugby I intorudced a video to my clip, and I have added links into my posts for extra support or reading. I have added images to all of my blogs to make my blogs stand out and appeal to the reader. I recently changed the layout of my blog profile, including a different design and widening the layout to fit my blogs.I have enjoyed my blogging so far and found that it isn't as hard as I intially thought.

Differences and Similarities: Website and Blog

To discover the differences and simialrities between a Website and a Blog, I had to do some research. I found the definitions on  FreeDictionary:

Website- 'A set of interconnected webpages, usually including a homepage, generally located on the same server, and prepared and maintained as a collection of information by a person, group, or organization.'

Blog- 'a shared on-line journal where people can post diary entries about their personal experiences and hobbies; "postings on a blog are usually in chronological order'

I found this infromation from  Credible Content

You can use both a blog and a website to publish on the Internet. The basic difference between a blog and a website is that on a website your main page remains static (it is constantly changing in case of a blog) and other pages contain mostly static information. On blogs — at least on majority of blogs — you can leave comments and interact with bloggers and other visitors. Most of the times this does not happen in case of a website although even on a website you can have online forums and discussion threads.
 
                                                                                    

Blog	Website
Content is regularly updated	Content is static
Not formal	Formal
Interactive	Usually one-way communication