Edublogs Serendipity webinar overview – avatars and Vokis

Preface

If you access the link to the recording it would be great if you would just leave a short comment on this post to let me know. I would really like to know if it is useful to people when I post the overviews & recording links

Introduction

In this recorded session the topic we chose by poll at the start – from suggestions by those participating – was avatars and Vokis.

The Session

Most of our discussion was around using Vokis. We all use standard avatars in a range of situations, but most of us were not so familiar with Vokis and their potential. Luckily we had some participants who had either experimented a little with them or who had used them with students. These people were a tremendous asset to the discussion, providing us with the link to the Voki site, great information about the practicality of making Vokis, and brilliant ideas for using them with students.

In this session we did something a bit different – we gave ourselves some homework! This was to make a Voki, post it and let other participants know where to find it. I’ve been lazy and posted mine in this overview as my image for the post. However to compensate for the laziness I did two Vokis!

Conclusion

This session was great fun apart from me talking too much! We had several participants without microphones so lots of the discussion was through text chat. When this happens I often talk too much as I have discovered that if silences are too long in Elluminate participants often assume their audio has failed. For me this was an extremely useful session that has finally pushed me into trying out a Voki. Something I have been intending to do for ages. I also now have a lot of ideas for using them with my students as a different kind of visual text in addition to ToonDoo which I already use.

Our Next Session

FineFocusSmallOur next Webinar is an Edublogs β€œFine Focus” session.Β  This week’s session “Easy ‘tooning with ToonDoo” will be about one of my favourite “toys”. We will look at how to use ToonDoo (online cartoon making website) to make cartoons. And also at some ways that it can be used both for learning resources and to engage students in creating visual texts.Β  Join us on Thursday March 10th at 23:00 GMT/UTC (6pm USA EST, Midnight CET) or Friday March 11th at 7am West Aus, 10am NSW, depending on your timezone – in the usual Elluminate room

In the Future

If you are a regular visitor to our webinars you will know that we alternate “Fine Focus” sessions on specific topics with “Serendipity” the unconference sessions where we choose a topic by poll at the start of the session. Sometimes the very fact of being asked for “hot topics” or other ideas for discussion or learning tends to make our minds blank. This has prompted me to start a Serendipity Wallwisher for topic suggestions. Please visit the wall and add your ideas for Serendipity topics so that we have more choices to consider. Some of these ideas might also form the basis for future “Fine Focus” sessions.

7 thoughts on “Edublogs Serendipity webinar overview – avatars and Vokis

  1. I love your Vokis, Jo – great to see the difference in result between typing in the text and recording it too.
    I have made a Vokis but am having problems with putting it up on the blog – how did you put it into the blog post?
    I have also had a lot of fun playing with several avatar creators – see http://www.giftedresources.org/jo/blog/?p=1941

  2. Pingback: Edublogs Serendipity – “unconference” avatars & Vokis « The #australiaseries Blog

  3. Hi Jo & Phil,
    I’m sorry I don’t get to see & hear your sessions now, as I am teaching. Would love to link up again one day, but the students are fairly low level and the technology is racing away at another level. How can I incorporate it again?
    We have a class blog in the challenge, and I am hoping to get some of the guys blogging again. A voki is a good way to start.
    Can’t you meow? Cats don’t say “OK”.
    I was teaching my lot the toondoo last week. Might jus have to tune in on Fri. Thanks,
    Jane

  4. Hi Jane

    We miss you πŸ™ but guessed you were teaching! There are always the recordings – second best but ok for grabbing links, Twitter names and ideas I guess.

    As you say Vokis are good as a start for ESL and the ToonDoos. I might try a Wallwisher with a stimulus picture for them to write a short descriptive sentence. Or use something like Hot Potatoes to put up a written text & multi choice answers.

    I can indeed miaow! I do so regularly with my cats – but they told me to use OK LOL as most people don’t talk felisian “chuckle”

    Hope you and perhaps your class can join us on Friday – would be great!

    Cheers Jo

  5. Meow Jo, voki failed on me today, froze and I had 3/4 hour huge probs with voice input settings. Studnts usually leave on time but today they stayed longer as we finally got wimba voiceboard working on our LMS webCT.

    B/Board didn’t get up and running and has been a whole schmozle (I think that word is felisian) failed in 2011, & we returned back to the old way, so I quickly whipped up a learning module and they could leave voice recordings. maybe the voki system overloaded after seeing your blog?! πŸ™‚

  6. LOL “Blush” Thank you for the comment Shelly – lovely that you like my “cat” voice – I shudder a bit when I hear myself in Elluminate or other recordings because I think I sound terrible πŸ™‚

    Jo

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