Wow this tool I have found particularly interesting and think it could have many different applications within the classroom. My first thought when I was playing around with this tool was that it would be an excellent way to engage and motivate students at the start of a new topic. I imagined that the Voki would give the students their new 'task' in the form of a mission or top secret business. This relates to the Enagagement Theory derived by Keirley and Schneiderman (1999), as it provides an authentic focus for students to learn.
I think that this tool could also help students you have difficulties with speaking in public. With a Voki students can simply record their own voice and present it through a Voki. I think this would take alot of stress and pressure of children you find public speaking particularly hard.
Vokis are also an excellent way to cater for all learning styles and to encourage students to be motivated about their work. Vokis also relates to the Learning Design Framework (Oliver, 1999) as it provides a multi model experience for students.
Kearsley, G. & Shneiderman, B. (1999). Engagement Theory: A framework for technology-based teaching and learning. Retrieved August 4, 2009. from: http://home.sprynet.com/~gkearsley/engage.htm
Oliver, R. (1999). Exploring strategies for online teaching and learning. Distance Education 20(2), p.240-254
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Hey!!
ReplyDeleteWhen initially viewing this tool I believed it to be fairly useless and only there as a novelty. This is when I started to think. I then thought of some very useful ways to use this application in the successful running of a class.
One way could be in the early years schooling. This tool can be used for student speech development. Simple words can be placed on voki and then the children are required to copy what the avatar is saying. This is an interactive way that may engage these students to inporve their speech rather than the convential ways.
Another use could be in WebQuests. Because WebQuests are largely based on instruction giving, to cater for all learners, the implemention of voki's a WebQuest can "talk" the instructions to the student along with having the text format provided. Now we're moving into Multimodal resources as preached by Oliver in the Learning Design Framework where text, visuals and sound are being encorporated.
I'm sure there are thousands more uses for vokis and that you just have to be creative in making it even more effective in a classroom setting.
That is some great thinking Dean and i agree with you entireley. I had never thought about using Vokis within a WebQuest but that is definately a great idea.
ReplyDeleteAlso with helping students with their speech, I am not sure if it would aid them to much as the Vokis speech can sometimes be a little hard to understand.