Voki.com project for review phase of writing process

[Jim McDermott]

I love working with innovative people! My friend, Lisa Nielsen, found this service: http://www.voki.com, and saw how it can increase interest in the review stage of the writing process. Voki.com is a service that gives you an animated avatar that talks. You can design your avatar’s appearance, add your voice, and pop it into any web2.0 compatible site (MySpace, Facebook, and Blogger are popular there). The avatar moves and speaks based on what you say. So how about having it read a student’s essay so they can hear what their writing sounds like. The review/proofing stage of the writing process can be a drag and is quite often skipped over. The Voki avatar can increase interest in this phase, give students another lens through which they can review their writing, sharpen their speaking and listening skills, and add another creative outlet for displaying their work in their digital portfolios (which of course if their social networking page). Any classroom based teachers interested in trying? If you do, please let me know so we can document it as an innovative use of technology in the classroom!