I've actually written about avatars before because I think they are a great way to get kids talking and possibly writing about themselves. An avatar resource I have been interested in using for sometime is Voki. Voki is a free resource that allows you to create an animated avatar from a wide variety of choices, customize it, and record or type a spoken message. Voki has great potential for use in language activities, as it can be an end product for any kind of narrative or expository composition. For example, you can pick one of the "VIP" characters and have students deliver a short biographical sketch, focusing on the text structure of sequence or biography schema. There are also animals (as you can see below), and kids could compose a descriptive or creative narrative oral presentation. Whether you type or record it, it would be a valuable project!
Here's my Voki welcoming you to SpeechTechie! Click play to hear the koala talk...
Get a Voki now!
Love your voki, but I was expecting the great Aussie accent. My one recorded okay, I used the computer's mic. If I had my mic from school probably would have used that. I wonder why you had a problem.
ReplyDeleteKathryn
I think mine is a browser/flash problem. It would record with a real delay and/or cut-off what I was saying. I'll experiment. Thanks for your comment!
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