In the second week of the Student Blogging Challenge students were asked to create avatars and write about them. The students were given several options for sites that they could use to build an avatar. Some used DoppleMe, Clayyourself, and Voki. My personal favorites are Voki and Meez. Voki avatars speak giving the students a voice; whereas, Meez avatars can be animated.
Student bloggers from a previous challenge used the avatars in a variety of ways.
- Emmet’s Blog Emmet uses his avatar to give a book review.
- Veronica’s Blog Veronica uses her Voki in a persuasive speech.
- Caitlin’s Blog Caitlin uses her Voki as a welcome to her blog.
Claymation Create an avatar out of clay. This site brought back memories of childhood cartoons.
Build Your Wild Self Embellish your avatar with animal parts. Who doesn’t like Where The Wild Things Are?
Reasonably Clever. Visualize yourself in plastic. These avatars remind me of the Lego toys.
Honest Johnny A text to speech avatar.
As you look at my different avatars I wonder if you can notice some similarities? Let’s play 20 questions. Leave a comment and guess what I really look like and what I like to do.
The first thing I think about when I’m introduced to a new technology tool is how can this be used with students. One education student used avatars in his lesson plan on bullying. Each of the students created an avatar in the image of what they perceived a bully to look like. They then used the images as a springboard for a discussion on stereotypes.
How can educators use avatars in the classroom? Check out these articles for more information.
Image credit: day-mondiale.com