Create your own Avatar using Voki

Hiya! 

Here is my Avatar!

Avatar's name: Ms LoLa
Age: 101 
Gender: Female
Occupation: Primary English Teacher (Experienced Teacher) 
Interests and talents: ICT and Sports

If you want to watch LoLa speaking, copy and paste this link goo.gl/YRkeXk in Google.

 
Now... Do you want to create an Avatar? Follow the steps and enjoy!
 

First of all... What is Voki?

There are several tools to create an Avatar, in this case, I used ´Voki´. ´Voki´ is an educational tool that allows users to create their very own talking character. ´Voki´ characters can be customised to look like historical figures, cartoons, animals, and even yourself. You can give your Voki Avatar a voice by recording with a microphone, using our dial-in number, or uploading an audio file. All characters can be emailed, shared on social media and embedded on websites and Blogs; but is not gold all that glitters because, there are different types of accounts in ´Voki´. The Basic Voki is free for all educators and students. You can create unlimited Voki characters on your account. Also, basic Voki users have access to basic Voki characters. Characters with a banner notification are Voki Classroom characters. They are only available to Voki Classroom subscribers and, unfortunately, you will have to pay for it.

To create your own Avatar and publish it in your blog you will need:

Step 1: Create avatar. Register in Voki.

To create our avatar, go to the following page: www.voki.com

On the "VOKI" page, we must create an account, preferably create it using your gmail account.

Once you have created your voki account, you should check your email and confirm the registration.

Enter VOKI with your email and password.

Step 2: Create avatar.

Once they enter voki, you must click on "CREATE", to create a new character.

Step 3:Changing it´s appearance.

By clicking on the dice, you can change the appearance of the avatar, this is left to your imagination.

You can explore each icon to see what can be done with each one, and also change the colour of the skin, hair, lips, clothing and add accessories.

Step 4: Voice to the avatar.

In this window we can put voice to the avatar, I advise you to do it with the keyboard, with which you can write what you want the avatar to say. You can also record your own voice, of course this must be with a microphone and creativity.

Step 5: Backgrounds.

From this window, we can change the background image to our avatar. Feel free to choose a very creative one.

Step 6: Publish avatar.

When we finish our avatar, we must publish it, for them we click on "PUBLISH".

Then we must put a name and click on accept. In case that you have a premium Voki account you will be able to follow the next steps, if not, you will need to copy and paste the link to access as I did with Ms Lola. 

Alternatively, you will have the opportunity to make the link shorter by looking at google a "URL Shortener" (https://goo.gl/). This simple action will make the link shorter and easier to copy and paste.

In case you have a premium account, you will have the opportunity to publish your avatar by following these steps.

Step 7: Getting the Avatar code.

When we publish our avatar, he will give us a code, which should be copied. Copy it on a sheet in Word or another word processor.

Step 8: Place avatar on the blog.

Go to the blog and click on options and look for the "DESIGN" option.

Step 9: Add gadget.

Then we will need to click on "ADD GADGET".

Step 10: HTML.

Once we have clicked on ´Add gadget´, a window will appear. In this window we will need to look for the option called "HTML / JAVASCRIPT".

Step 11: Configure avatar code.

Then we will need to open a screen where we must give a name to the gadget and in the space that says content paste the code that we have saved in word. Finally, we have to click on "SAVE" to upload the avatar to our blog.

 

Step 12: View of our avatar on the blog.

 

  

Opinion and Reflexion: 

Voki is a good tool which can be used in education because it is a fun way to share information between students, parents and teachers. This tool can be used to share a message using an animated avatar that talks. It can be created using your own voice recorded using multiple devices. You can design the avatar’s appearance, add voice, and can get an embed code to pop it into any blog. The avatar moves and speaks based on what the caller says.

Students can use Voki in many different ways, a clear example would be using it for proofreading while listening to their writing aloud. Also, students can create them to show what they already know. They can place their avatars onto a blog and share them with parents to give insight into what their children are learning in class.

For a student to learn English as a second language, for example, can be used as a vocal practise of the language, and also for students that are not pretty comfortable pronouncing the foreign words  while reading. 

This tool can be a useful step in helping students gain experience and confidence before presentations and to share their learning.

The only negative aspect about this tool, as I mentioned before, is that you will need to create a premium account to publish your avatar, what makes this resource less attractive for educators without economical resources.  

I hope you enjoyed this post.

WeLoveICTinClass Designer

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