Creating a welcoming atmosphere

Tool: Voki
Type: Web-based service
Requirements: Browser
Cost: Free

First Thoughts
At first, I wasn’t going to test out this tool. It seemed cool, but essentially just eye candy. Then, the more I thought about it, the more I began to think about those ‘hi-touch’ individuals who really appreciate a more personalized environment - bios and images of instructors and classmates, expressive methods of communication, etc. - that helps reduce the distance they feel in primarily asynchronous classes. This tool, like the video messages in a previous blog entry, addresses that, I think.

First Experience

Creating this little character was fun and easy with Voki. In just a few minutes I was able to create and personalize my own character - select a base character, outfit and color it, add a voice, and set the background and player. That’s all there is to it, really. The most difficult part (after deciding what to say) was trying to decide on which base character to start with.

I did have one minor problem. Once I created the character is, I wanted to get code to embed in this blog. However, wordpress wasn’t listed as one of the supported blogs and I was uncertain how to proceed. There was an “other” option and an “web page” option - both of which provided Javascript. I’ve not had luck trying to embed javascript before - WordPress gets rid of it and this was no exception, so I can’t embed it; instead, I have to provide you with a link my character animation.

Teaching and Learning Ideas
Idea 1 Teachers or learners could create introduction messages during first week of class. This will be especially fun and easy with Voki.

Idea 2 Have you ever noticed how some folks can only express themselves through someone else? You might have shy students, for example, that don’t like to voice their own ideas. However, if you ask them to create a character and have it say something…well, that’s entirely different, isn’t it? I think these animated characters can give people an opportunity to voice their ideas in a way that feels safer to them.

More Options
If you like the idea of animated people on your site or in your course room, you might also want to check out

Meez and my meez character animation or

Gizmoz and my gizmo character animation.

Meez has many more customization options, but it doesn’t allow you to create an audio file. Gizmoz is limited in options, but you can include audio.