Vokis for Learning

Well I have just successfully created my first Voki. It took me quite some time, not because of its complexity (it was really quite simple to use) but because it is just so much fun! I think I changed my Voki about 20 times before I was finally happy with its hair colour, skin colour, lips, background and voice. Voki is a free service that allows you to create any sort of avatar which can then be saved and utilised in blogs and emails. My first thoughts of a Voki was to utilise it purely as a ‘hook’, to grab the attention of my class. Now I have been thinking about it, you could (if you were committed) create a Voki that is almost like another member of your class. You could have the Voki introduce new students to the class, ask questions during the day, respond to questions students may have and congratulate the class on successful completion of an activity (I am really just thinking out loud).

Marzano and Pickering (2006, p. 29) state that ‘...learners must perceive that tasks are valuable or interesting or they will not put much effort into them’. by using a variety of different ICT’s such as a Voki, student attention and interests in the activities of the class may increase. For example, instead of simply asking students what they know about the sun, use a ‘hook’ such as my above Voki to engage them in the activity. Because the Voki is situated at the beach, is quite sunburnt and is a young person, it gives the topic (the sun) a sense of authenticity as students can relate to being at the beach and getting sunburnt. The fact that the Voki then asks students to tell her about what the students know about the sun and how to protect themselves from its UV rays, gives the students a challenge to find out more.

The Voki has successfully drawn the attention of the students, introduced the topic for discussion and posed some interesting questions. Identifying that the focus of the lesson about the sun is to enhance students declarative knowledge, their understanding of the facts, concepts and generalisations (Marzano and Pickering 2006), we may then utilise the KWL strategy which was developed by Donna Ogle (1986, cited in Marzano and Pickering 2006, p. 55) to work in groups and identify what the students know (K), what they want (W) to know and what they have learned (L) about the sun.

The students may then respond to the Voki’s question by developing their own Voki, identifying what the sun is and ways for us to protect ourselves from its UV Rays. To ensure students feels as though they are making a contribution to an outside audience which is identified as being a basic principle in engagement theory (Kearsley & Shneiderman 1999), they may then place their Voki on their school website to promote safety in the sun.

I hope this sort of explains how I may utilise a Voki in class.

Reference List

Kearsley, G & Shneiderman, B 1999, 'Engagement theory: a framework for technology-based teaching and learning', CQUniversity e-Courses (EDED20491)

Marzano, R & Pickering, D 2006, Dimensions of learning teachers manual, Hawker Brownlow Education, Heatherton

Get a Voki now!