VOKI BLOG POST
VOKI is a web 2.0 tool that is designed to engage students through the use of student and teacher created avatars that speak. The overall idea seems to be that students will engage more with this tool because they are able to create a multitude of characters for different learning situations. Students and teachers may also create dialogues to go with their vokis. There are three basic platforms: voki, voki classroom, and voki presenter. The only platform that is free is voki, which is limited to character creation and voice over. I found the free version to be very frustrating because the adware blocks the majority of the tools needed to create characters. I must admit that I was accessing the tool on a Mac, and am not sure if there are compatibility issues. I was able to utilize very basic features and create several characters that said different things, which was entertaining, but with no practical purpose. The website does offer instructions for how to embed these characters in a google website, which is really cool, but even though I followed the instructions explicitly, the avatar still didn't work on my webpage. I did watch the three tutorials offered by voki, but none of them really provided sufficient details to support their claims of how their platform makes learning more accessible and engaging than other platforms that are out there. My gut reaction is this site is just looking to get your money and may not offer any other educational benefits than those found on other learning management platforms. It's a neat tool, but not enough to warrant spending $35.00 to subscribe.
Thanks for the heads up. I learned about the tool during my undergraduate class. I can see it enhancing a presentation but nothing more than that!
ReplyDeleteThanks for the heads up! I wanted to try this and still might try it but I'll be aware of the limitations before hand.
ReplyDeleteDude, thanks for agreeing with me! I found it so useless for the secondary classroom that I went ahead and looked for another tool to use as a Web 2.0 project. It was limited in potential and not user friendly. Perhaps it has more to offer but you have to pay up in order to find out. Not a good sales model in my opinion.
ReplyDeleteThere is no issue with using a Mac versus a PC for this Voki. The program seems very useless and it's not very easy to use I don't enjoy it I don't see the point of putting avatar into my pride presentations, especially if I have to pay for it. Since the only way for it to be used you have to pay to get the paid version. I don't think that you would have enough time to sit there and add an avatar into your presentations.
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