The top tip from the London Languages Show - get a VOKI

[Jo Rhys-Jones]

Guess who was advocating getting a VOKI at the Languages Show on Friday? Only Thérèse Comfort, CILT Adviser for Early Language Learning, that's who! In her great 'Moving on - teaching languages in Y5 and Y6 , session which looked at progression and expectations for children who have already experienced two or three years of language learning in their primary school', she treated us to a camtasia captured 'Voki' that she'd made earlier. Vokis have been popping up on blogs for a while now and long-championed by the likes of Joe Dale, Lisa Stevens, Isabelle Jones, Chris Fuller, Jose Picardo et al. So what are they? What do you do with them and how do you get one?

Get a Voki now!

A voki is a little animated character - you get to choose what he/she/it is and edit his/her/it's appearance if you want to, then, and here's where it gets interesting, you add a voice. The character will then 'speak' for you.
It is ridiculously easy to do and your class will love you for it. There are three ways to add a 'voice';
1 - The children can pre-record themselves speaking/singing using audacity or an mp3 recorder and then upload the file just like an attachment in an email.
2 - The children record themselves using a microphone directly onto the voki following the dead-easy on-screen instructions.
3 - Type in what you want to say into the little text box - but look - you can change the text box to recognise text other than English. It's a little phonetic I know, but I made the alien on my page this way.

Then what? Play them back to the class, let them see each others - silly, fun and incredibly motivating. Suddenly you can be sure that group work involving speaking is actually being done now - because they all want to make the best voki. They are especially good for children who are shy and tremble at the thought of speaking in front of the class - the voki acts like a mask to hide behind.

Moreover you can make your ICT coordinator very happy/jealous by popping a few voki up on your school site or blog. When you click 'publish' after creating your voki you get a code which you can copy (just like a url address if you wanted to copy a YouTube video) and then paste into a blog/site/wiki. For example, go to www.voki.com now, don't bother signing up, and have a go at making a voki, then copy the code and come back to Talkabout. Go to your page (see the My Page tab at the top?) click on any of the editable text boxes (little word 'edit' is at the top right just click) and paste in the code. Click save and.....ta da! Your voki speaks from your page!

Vokis used to work directly from the blog and comment pages of this ning, but for some reason don't want to play today, but another place you can put one if you don't have a blog/site is on a wiki, so by all means go to the talkabout wiki (sign up/in) and then paste the code for your voki onto the sandbox page if you want to try it out there.

If you already have a voki and are happy to let others see/hear it, please leave a link for your page below!

[Helen Dunford]

That is really kind Lisa. I have put Voki, Wiki and Voicethread on my PM list of developments! Will let you know how I get on!

[Lisa Stevens]

It's really easy!! Check out my blog for my presentation and notes on Voki Voicethread and Audacity - (and other stuff!!) There are lots of examples and links to tutorials!!

[Helen Dunford]

This looks very exciting. Just need the time to learn how to Voki!

[Jayne Jackson]

I'm with you two on this... Vokis are a superb way to get children talking and are, of course, great pieces of 'evidence' in their own right. Posting onto a school site promotes home/school communication and keeps parents informed about their children's study and progress from a cross-curriccular perspective. Making pupils' Vokis available via an IWB at parents' evenings is an aim of mine for next year. In the meantime, my 13 year old son's 'alter ego' can be accessed on my page.

[Lisa Stevens]

[Lisa Stevens]