Meet your partners through a Voki

This activity is an interactive ‘ice-breaker’ where partner schools can introduce themselves through an avatar created in a tool called “Voki”, and begin to work together.

Topic: Animated greetings
Age Group: All
Level: Easy
Duration: 3-6 hours

Introduction

The topics suggested here are: personal interests, hobbies and favourite things.
The pupils can also upload their Vokis to the TwinSpace, enabling them to manage a part of the project themselves.
Voki, available free online.

Tools

Audacity (or similar recording software) and the TwinSpace.
 

Process

Discuss with your pupils what to say when they introduce themselves, and/or what kind of questions they want to ask the pupils in their partner school(s). Write down what they want to say.

Create a Voki. It is easiest, particularly with young pupils, if you first create an account, and then the pupils create a Voki.
Older pupils can sign up with their own accounts.
Record or write the message, including questions for the partner school pupils.

Upload the Voki to a blog in TwinSpace. Listen to and make comments on at least three other Vokis from the partner school(s), using the speech bubble icon available in the Voki.

Listen together in the class to all of the Vokis, including the comments from the partner school(s).
With the pupils and your partner teacher, evaluate the module and the whole process.

Follow up options

The pupils can record a message using Audacity instead of Voki recorder or upload their favourite music.
The pupils can write on the forum or on the TwinSpace blog the impressions of the partner school, and the partner pupils can respond about how accurate these impressions are.
A useful point about this tool is that the pupils become familiar with each other without using photographs, which enforces an internet safety approach.

Links

Voki
Audacity

Web Editor: YANDIK Ali Published: 03.12.2009 Last changed: 10.11.2010