As part of our Graduate Diploma in Learning and Teaching we have been learning about various ICT's that can be incorporated into teaching activities. Voki is one such ICT. A Voki avatar is a free version of the SitePal avatars. When you create your own avatar you can use them to introduce lessons or segments that are relevant to your subject. These can be embedded into the learning framework and have great potential as a 'hook' into the new subject matter. Not only can we hook a student into an activity but they can potentially create their own avatar as part of the requirements for presentation.
Embedding an avatar into the lesson certainly fits into the Engagement Theory of Kearsley and Shneiderman. Their basic principal of Relate - Create - Donate implies that the learning activities first need to be relevant to the students, they need to be creative and purposeful and they need to be making a useful contribution to an outside audience. Using an avatar to assist in this process would be a powerful tool. The students can work either individually or as groups to complete the requirements of the task and within the task a number of avatars could be used to support their outcomes or just as a creative way of presentation.
I have attached three avatars for demonstration purposes. The first one is Anna from Denmark who is introducing herself and encouraging the students to learn more about her country. The second one is Kiyko from Japan teaching the students about Sumo Wrestling and the third is Penny, a fish from the Great Barrier Reef. She wants to explore with us her home and all its wonders. These are such exciting ways to introduce a new subject to students - and so easy to do - students as young as Prep could put one together, with support.
Marzano & Pickering's (1997) five Dimensions of Learning (DoL) talks about the Attitudes and Perceptions (Dimension 1) of students within the classroom. Good attitudes and perceptions by the students will enhance the learning outcomes for them. We need to engage the students in activities they feel are important, worthwhile and enjoyable. Dimension 5 is the 16 Habits of Mind (HoM). It incorporates within it the need for assignments to be interesting, because if not then we should try and change our experience by looking at the assignment in a new way. "The result may be a more creative final product, a better grade, and hopefully, an increase in learning."(P. 289)
Because avatars are fairly new to me I believe the incorporation of them can assist students with understanding ideas that our outside the boundaries of stand conventions (Marzano & Pickering, 1997). This fits in with "exploring a phenomenon, or inventing a new product, sometimes we need a completely different way of looking at a task" (P.289).
I look forward to incorporating them into many new lessons I create.
References:
Kearsley, G & Shneiderman, B. (1999) Engagement Theory: A Framework for technology-based teaching and learning. Retrieved on 20 March 2010 from http://home.sprynet.com/~gkearsley/engage.htm
Marzano, R. & Pickering, D. (1997). Dimensions of Learning Teacher's Manual, 2nd Ed. ASCD Publications, Alexandria, VA. USA
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