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/

Ted Talks

Michelle Obama- A plea for education

This video is of Michelle Obama's plea for education talk in Elizabeth G. Anderson School UK. Michelle is on her first visit as First Lady to the UK.

After watching this talk, I knew I had to write about, although I don’t want to give a commentary of what Michelle is talking about, what I really want to talk about is what I got from this talk.

Firstly, I would have to talk about how fantastic a speaker Michelle is, her tone is passionate, she speaks with flow and grace and this adds to the levels of interest and enjoyment that I had from this talk. As a person she is the perfect example of what her plea is for. Michelle was born in a working class environment and with all the love, support and her own hard work she has got to where she has today, she has got herself to a place where she can influence and inspire so many others to do the same.

 Michelle argues that we are all born with what we need to succeed, and with the right balance of love and nurture in the home, community and school environment we can achieve anything that we want and choose our own destinies. I agree with her, and although she stresses to her audience (Elizabeth G. Anderson students) that they should strive to be the world’s next leaders, I believe that no matter what you want to be, if you want to be a nurse, a dentist, a bin collector or the next Priminister, then you should work hard to achieve whatever goal you have set yourself.

Michelle talks about the world as it is and the world as it should be, and how we can close the gap between the two. She suggests that with a good education, which will either act as a social class vehicle or a way that we can climb to the top to change the world, we all can close this gap between what the world is and what it should be. I again agree with her, however, I feel that this view of the world, whilst it is a lovely image, is a slightly unrealistic view of the world. This is my opinion, hopefully, we all know that a majority of the world are living without basic human rights; we know that people are being hurt, are not living in freedom and are without food or water. But, people are still carrying on as the way they are, so where Michelle makes the bold plea for women to rise to the top, take the reins and close the gap, it’s not about the people at the top, it’s about everyone, it’s about ignorance and for the people that we are ignoring, it’s about not knowing there is another life other than the one they are living. People don't change because they have been told too, we all only change if we won't to change. So instead of trying to change others ways, let’s change ourselves first!


Micheal Jackson- Man in the Mirror
I feel that this video relates to what I have writen.

Ever changing technology in Education

The world of technology has had a significant impact on education and has changed the entire educational landscape. Within the last 20 years we have seen the introduction of  interactive whiteboards, computer suites, laptops and tablets on desks, research online via websites, eBooks and  eJournals it has transformed the way in which students today use techology and it is still evolving.

Whenever students want information of opening up a dictionary or encyclopedia now they just pull out thier phones, tablets or computers and type it into search engines, and becuase of this students can see multi-media versions of the information. For instance, a teacher telling you about the New York City is enhanced by clicking on Google Earth and typing it in, where you can take it right down to the road view.
Of course this readily available information does not aid deductive reasoning skills making your hypothesis or conclusion. It can leave students entirely dependent on technology.

Students can now study from home with education technology that allows teacher and student to interact remotely. Students can download assignments from websites, listen to lectures on podcasts and communicate with the teacher via text messaging. Now a teacher is not limited by the number of chairs in her classroom. One teacher can teach hundreds of student across the country, all at the same time.