I loved learning how to make a Voki avatar and a voice thread this week. I'm anxious to use this technology in several of my courses as they add so much interest and fun and learning should be fun. I'd love to have a virtual Voki classroom! Last semester I added a virtual game, Spedville, to my SPED 420 class and everyone had to add an avatar to their classroom and then fill it with things needed in a classroom such as desks, bookcases, school supplies, a white board etc. They obtained these supplies by doing "jobs" such as answering a difficult question from the weekly reading, listening for a scrambled word said in class and then telling me both the word and the time I said it, and coming to class on time. This is a course I will not be teaching in the future but I may take some of these components and add it to one of my other courses...just for the fun of it. I've added my avatar link below. Like Rick's, it's a younger version of me :)
http://www.voki.com/pickup.php?scid=5670151&height=267&width=200
The research tells us that teaching online can be effective, at least as effective as f2f classes. We know this, but now I think what we can do is to make our online courses more fun and interactive. Tools like Voki and Jing can do exactly that. They can also help make course content and interactions between students and/or instructor much more personal. Even using these tools just a little, hearing the person's voice or seeing the person on video, can then help make text comments seem to come alive. You'll be able to "hear" the text.
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