Voki Avatars are an online character, designed by the user to purvey a message in a visually stimulating manner.
There are many applications for Avatars in the classroom. The visually stimulating nature of the avatars makes them an ideal 'hook' to begin a learning experience.
Students must perceive their tasks to be valuable and interesting. In order to achieve this, teachers must use a variety of ways to engage students in classroom tasks. (Maranzo & Pickering 1997) Voki is one of these ways.
Because of the engaging nature of Voki, teachers could use the Avatar throughout a unit of work. The avatar could be used as the 'hook' and identify the unit objectives and set tasks for students to complete. When students reach each set task another avatar would lead them to the next set of tasks. This would continue until the end of the unit and ensure that students remain engaged throughout the unit. For example this would work particularly well for a unit on different countries and cultures, "Around the World in 60 days".
Marzano, R., Pickering, D., Arredondo, D., Blackburn, G., Brandt R., Moffett C., et al. (1997). Dimensions of Learning: Teachers Manual. Aurora, Colorado: McRel
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Hi Antoinette
ReplyDeleteI think you are right, a voki avatar is a great way to get children 'hooked' into a unit of work or even just a lesson. The best thing about it is that any age group would love this visual stimulus and i think you would get great results from using a voki ub the classroom. I love your idea of using a different avatar to guide students to the next learning task, this is something i would like to try. Will let you know how i go!
Good luck
Jasmin
Thanks Jasmin,
ReplyDeleteYes I thought it would be great to have a different character from each country every time the students reached a new country to research.
Thanks for your comments
Antoinette