Voki

Voki.com is a site that allows the user to sign in for free and create an avatar from a selection of male, female and random faces. Colours, eyes, mouth, noses, clothing and accessories can be altered and changed to suit the requirements of the user. It allows selection of voice sounds or import of a personal recording. It does not allow import of a picture from another site to be altered. The site is easy to navigate and follow through to the importing of the image to another site or sharing with a friend.

The possible education applications include

• a pre recording of a poem
• a pre recording of behaviour management (positive praise)
• a voice application for students or adults with disabilities
• an expert in the classroom
• an alias for shy students to share their thoughts and ideas
• a class mascot

While I enjoyed making the avatar I did waste a lot of time playing with the variety of voices and the available selections to choose from. It would be important to monitor students to ensure they were on task and had time to play with the avatar before being time restricted.