Voki!!

Hey there.. you are once again reading some weird thoughts of Beck.

Well what a GREAT tool.. how awesome is it to create this little thing that you type what you want it to say and then it talks..

I had so much fun creating it.. imagine teaching a class using this tool.. children that tune out to the voice of a teacher but engrosed in the digital world, they would LOVE this. As a learning manager I would like to establish a voki with my class at the start of most units (the larger units that we would complete), I would then get the voki to introduce the start of the lesson or add parts during the lesson (to ensure that the children were engaging in the lesson). The Voki website describes what a Voki;

Voki enables users to express themselves on the web in their own voice using a talking character. You can customize your Voki to look like you or take on the identity of lots of other types of characters… animals, monsters, anime etc. Your Voki can speak with your own voice which is added via microphone, upload, or phone.

Voki lives on your blog, social network profile and will soon be integrated in various instant messaging platforms. You will also be able to download it to most video supported phones. (oddcast, 2007)

You are also able to type the message that you would like it to say. Both the speaking and the typing aspect of this tool is usefull for upper primary students and highschool students that are not strong speakers and yet have to present orals are their English assessment. Why not encourage them to use a voki for part of their assignment..


References
oddcast. (2007) About Voki: what is a voki. Retrieved on August 2, 2009, from http://www.voki.com/about_voki.php