Month: February 2011

Voki Tip of the Week: Creating Class Accounts

Voki Tip of the Week: Creating Class Accounts

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Setting up a class account is not is not difficult at all. In fact, it’s as easy as setting up your own account.

1. Create a generic email address and register it with Voki.com. Make sure the email address is class-appropriate. You may want to create an email address for each of your classes. If you’d prefer to use a school email address, ask your network admin (the IT person(s)) for help.

2. Once you’re done, pick an easy to remember password.

3. Logging in: Here, you have a couple of options. You can choose to give your students the login info, so they can login in and create/ save Vokis from home. This obviously requires an honor system. Alternately, you can log them in yourself, on multiple machines, during every class. This would give you control over the account password.

Students can access the account at the same time, edit and save their work all in one place. And you have access to every Voki all in one dashboard.

Enjoy!

Tip of the Week: Voki as a Newsletter

Tip of the Week: Voki as a Newsletter

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One of our users gave us a great example of how she uses Voki: she records a welcome message on her newsletter! You can see an example of the newsletter here.

Sra. Silvey creates a newsletter for her Spanish Language students’ parents. As part of a voluntary contest, she asks her students to create a welcome message. The winner gets to create their own Voki and gets featured in that news letter. Pretty cool, huh? See the discussion here.

You can also check out Sra. Silvey’s teacher blog!

Got a Voki tip?

Share it in the “Voki in the Classroom” section and we might feature you right here, in the blog!

The “Missing” Voki Embed Code

The “Missing” Voki Embed Code

by Voki Blog ♥ 9 Comments

Quite a few Voki users have reported that they cannot see the Voki embed code, after clicking Publish. We have identified the issue and we would like to tell you about it here, as well as the solution we’ve implemented.

The New Voki for Ed uses a new type of publishing called Gigya. The Gigya publishing tool (or, panel) lets Voki users easily and automatically post their Voki to many, many types of blogs and websites. The Gigya panel also includes an embed code that you can copy and paste into your site, blog, or profile.

The Issue: As many of you have noticed, some schools have blocked Gigya. What this means, is that the school’s network settings prevents accessing (seeing and using) the Gigya panel, which includes the publishing options (icons) and the embed code. Keep in mind that you should still be able to access the Voki link. This was obviously a significant issue for many teachers! This is also why you can probably access everything just fine from home, but not from school (where you need it!).

The Solution: One solution would be for the school’s network administrator to allow use of Gigya in your school. If this is not possible, we’ve implemented another solution. When Voki senses that Gigya is blocked (i.e. when your system will not allow you to see the Gigya publishing options), you now automatically see the Voki embed code, which you can paste into your site, blog, or profile. This code also provides you with your Voki scene ID.

That’s it! Our embed code solution is now live and working. We hope it serves you well!

Sincerely,

The Voki Team

Voki Tip of the Week: Posting your Voki on PBworks.com

Voki Tip of the Week: Posting your Voki on PBworks.com

by Voki Blog ♥ 5 Comments

Since the launch of Voki for Education, there have been several questions (and, yes, concerns) about publishing Voki scenes on various platforms, such as PBworks.com.  Some Web-savvy Voki educators decided to share a “fix” in the Teacher’s Corner community. So, this Voki Tip is dedicated to posting Voki on your PBworks.com page!

Step 1

After creating and saving your Voki, click on Publish and Copy the embed code.

Step 2

On the edit page of PBworks, go to Insert, but instead of [More Plugins > Interactive Media > Voki Speaking Avatar], just click HTML/JavaScript.

Step 3

Paste the code into the box provided and select “Allow JavaScript.”

Step 4

Save your work. The Voki should appear/speak. That’s it!

Did this fix work for you?

Want to share a tip? Let us know at submit@voki.com.

Interviews with Educators | Lisa Nielsen

Interviews with Educators | Lisa Nielsen

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Lisa NielsenWe wanted to write an intro for Lisa Nielsen, writer and educator, but she kindly went ahead and wrote a better intro than we could ever come up with. So, without further ado, take it away, Lisa!

Lisa Nielsen
I am the author of The Innovative Educator blog (http://theinnovativeeducator.blogspot.com) and the upcoming book, Teaching Generation Text which focuses on using basic voice and text enabled cell phones in education to bridge the digital divide. I have more than a decade’s worth of experience in working to help New York City school’s educate innovatively.

Goals
My goal with using Voki is to give every student a voice and a face in a fun and engaging way even if they only have access to a phone.

How I use Voki

Voki is a great tool that allows the 21st century student to capture, publish, celebrate and converse about any topic or subject.  I love helping innovative educators use Voki.  Here are some of the things they are doing.

  • Students can use Voki in the revision process of their writing by recording a Voki to make sure it sounds right. If it doesn’t, simply revise and re-record.
  • During publishing parties some students are uncomfortable reading their work. Thanks to Voki they can present their work without embarrassment.
  • English and Foreign language Learners can use Voki by recording themselves saying dialogue or reading a passage.  Listening to the Voki enables them to hear how they sound and work on fluency.

Some of my favorite things about Voki:

  • It enables students who might not be proficient at writing to tell their story or share their message.
  • It enables students to publish to an authentic audience in a format where others can comment and keep the conversation going.
  • It gives a voice to a student who might not feel comfortable speaking publicly.

What would I add to the Voki product?
The ability to add your own Avatar either your photo or drawing.

My favorite Voki trick
Set up pages at the end of units of study where students can share one great thing they learned. This creates a page of our learning which serves as a great reflective tool.  I also suggest inviting parents, family members and others in the school to community to leave Voki comments for students.

Check out Lisa’s blog: http://theinnovativeeducator.blogspot.com/

Follow Lisa at: http://twitter.com/InnovativeEdu

Want to be interviewed for this section? Send us a note and a link to your blog/ twitter at submit@voki.com.

Interviews with Educators | Mary Beth Hertz

Interviews with Educators | Mary Beth Hertz

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As part of our efforts to strengthen our educator community, we’re introducing you to some of our most enthusiastic Voki for Education users. These educators will answer questions about how they use Voki in the classroom.

This week we bring you Mary Beth, an elementary school teacher in North Philadelphia, PA (USA).

“One thing I loved about Voki was that you could get that code without having to log in or get an account. All my students are under 13, so they can’t create an account at school without parent permission… it was really great that the kids could get the [Voki] code without having to log in and get an account.”

“[My students] had some fun personalizing their avatar. I learned a lot about the kids, just looking at how they chose to dress and accessorize their Voki avatars.”

See our Vokis at: http://alliancesixthgrade.wikispaces.com

Follow Mary Beth at: http://twitter.com/mbteach

Want to be interviewed for this section? Send us a note and a link to your blog/ twitter at submit@voki.com.

Hello world!

Hello world!

by Voki Blog ♥ 2 Comments

Yes, Hello World!

Welcome to the all-new (and much improved) Voki for Education Blog! We’re thrilled to have our blog up and running. We have a ton of great content to share with you and we’re excited that you’re here!

Some of what you can expect to see on this blog includes:

  • News: The latest from the new Voki for Ed.
  • More news: Our take on, and links to, developments in educational technology.
  • Interviews (text and video) from Educators about how they use Voki. If you’d like to be interviewed (and featured in our blog), email us.
  • How-to’s: Ideas, tips, tricks, and new ways to use Voki. If you’re new to Voki and want to learn the basics, visit the Newbie’s Corner.
  • Guest bloggers: Exclusive posts by influential education/ ed-tech bloggers. If you’d like to contribute as a guest blogger, email us.

If you’d like to stay in touch, we’d love it if you joined us on Twitter and on Facebook, where we post regular updates.