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How about an idea to make the review stage in the writing process fun for students!
by Jim McDermott


A few weeks ago a colleague of mine shared a web 2.0 tool that we envisioned could be useful in the writing process.  I shared this on my blog and in a few social networks and got such a good response that I wanted to share it with you on the Digital Learning Environment. 

Voki.com is a web 2.0 tool that gives you an animated avatar that talks. You can design your avatar’s appearance, add your script, and pop it into any web2.0 compatible site (MySpace, Facebook, and Blogger are popular there). The avatar moves and speaks your script.  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, I'd love to know how it went -- comments to this post welcome!

Simple right?  I think that's part of the reason why educators of all technology expertises are interested in things like this.  Easy to implement, free, and easy to see its educational value. 

Jim McDermott has served the New York City Department of Education as a teacher and an instructional technology specialist. He has presented at state, regional, and national education technology conferences on topics such as project based learning, immersive gaming, online learning communities, and technology based curriculum development. As an avid blogger, Mr. McDermott's "Tales of a Technology Omnivore" can be found at http://techomnivore.wordpress.com. His current interests revolve around online learning, web 2.0 tools in the classroom, and his long time passion: feature rich mobile devices.
  • Anonymous on Fri, 05/30/2008 - 17:07

    Jim is right on target with infusing Web 2.0 tools such as Voki's in the classroom to promote and support fluency in reading and writing. It is an instant engagment and motivational tool for even the most reluctant and struggling reader and writer, which to find immediate success in their own writing and digital creation submissions.

    I have used Voki's as an icebreaker tool with a Master's teacher program and high school students, to introduce one another to each other- noting "uncommon cominalities", specialty intersts, and sharing of best practices bewteen job-alike-groups. It is an instant hit.

    Lastly, I presented this to 26 school boards and its immediate members in western, WI. WOW an eye opener to all board members- they loved it- but were hesitant of implications of students using it inappropiatley. Of course- I promoted the use of this tool by supported research of how many of the ISTE NETS and content standards could be covered with this one activity, the instant engagement and student productivity aspect- and of course the modeling of digital citizenship skills students would be required to demonstrate and modle to other studetns to utilze this online tool in the future- THEY WERE SOLD!

    Naomi Harm
    Educational Technology Director
    Wisconsin
    http://ie20-naomi.blogspot.com

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