Voki: Free Customized Avatars



What is it?


Voki allows you to create your own customized avatar. You can change the appearance of the avatar, pick a background, and best of all, make it talk! You can add your voice by phone, microphone, or use text-to-speech to make it use a computerized voice. When finished, it’s easy to share a link to it or embed it on any site. It makes it so easy to use for both students and teachers!

Voki provides you two different account options. You can register for a single user account for free or a classroom account for $29.95 USD a year. The nice part about Voki classroom is it’s much easier to add student accounts. Without it, you’ll have to add individual accounts, using a different email for each one, or have all students use one account name. The other nice part about the classroom account is that you can add recordings of up to 90 seconds as opposed to 60 seconds with a regular account. Either way, your students are guaranteed to love it!

Video Tutorials


Below, you’ll find video tutorials walking you through the Voki site. The first video will show you how to register for an account. The second video will share how to customize your avatar. The final video will finish up showing you how to customize your avatar as well as show you how to share your Vokis whether through email or embedding.


Examples




Application in Class


Voki is a great classroom tool. If you keep a class blog, student blogs, a wiki, or have a different class site, you can welcome others with a little information about your class by having a Voki in your sidebar. To practice fluency, students could create a Voki and then read short stories or poems they’ve written. I’ve used it before to have students write Valentine’s Day poems and then recite and share in Vokis. You could have students research some of the animals or famous people that are in the Voki program. You could then have them present information through the Voki. You could have students use it to share results of a science experiment or important vocabulary in math. You could have students use it to create math problems that other students would have to listen to and attempt to solve while at a math center. There are so many amazing opportunities with Voki!

Resources and Links

  • Voki Classroom
  • Voki Lesson Plans
  • Teach Web 2.0 – Voki
  • Slideshare – Voki

  • *What are some ways you’ve use Voki in the classroom?*


    *How could you incorporate Voki into a lesson?*