Voki: An Online Tool Where Students Create Talking Characters
- Mar 6, 2017
- 1 min read
"Over the past 20 years, the idea of literacy has changed dramatically. The typical idea about literacy as reading and writing print text has expanded into multimodal literacy, which includes reading and writing multiple forms of non print texts such as images, web pages and movies (Miller & McVee, 2012)".
It is important to enhance student's technology skills and to expose them to many different online tools to help develop their literacy skills and digital footprint. Voki is an online tool where students can create an animated avatar that talks. Students are able to record their own voices using multiple devices. The avatar's appearance, voice, and background can be personalized.
The site features educational resources, including teacher-submitted lesson plans.There are many different education platforms teachers can use this tool. Teachers can share information with parents by embedding Voki's into classroom/school websites, twitter accounts etc. Student's can use this tool for proof-reading their writing by listening to it aloud. Students can also upload their Vokis on a class website, can practice literacy skills and share their Voki's with their parents/guardians. English Language Learners can use Voki to help students with their vocabulary.
References:
Miller & McVee (2012). Multimodal composing: The essential 21st century literacy. In S. Miller & M. McVee (Eds.), Multimodal Composing in Classrooms, Chapter 1. New York: Routledge.
http://www.voki.com
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