Month: October 2011

The Voki Classroom User Guide

The Voki Classroom User Guide

by Ashley Chaney ♥ 1 Comment

If you are a Voki Classroom user, you might want some help getting started. Depending on how much detail you want, you should take a look at the Voki Classroom Getting Started Guide, or the complete User Guide. This post is about some of the things you can learn in the User Guide.

If you have a question about Voki Classroom, the Voki Classroom User Guide probably has the answer! Chock full of step-by-step instruction and interesting tidbits, we have composed an easy to follow guide that will ensure a fun and successful Voki Classroom experience for teachers and students. Divided into three parts, the Voki Classroom User Guide takes you on a tour from initial set-up to reviewing and embedding your students’ Vokis.

Part I

What is Voki Classroom? Why should teachers use it? What are the benefits to using Voki Classroom? How is it organized?All of the questions above are answered in Part I, accompanied by visuals and information to help distinguish the difference between our free Voki service and Voki Classroom.

The Voki Classroom hierarchy is an important concept for every teacher to be familiar with as it is the key to understanding how data is organized and how it can be utilized efficiently. The classroom hierarchy serves as a useful visual that can help you understand the role of Voki Classroom for the teacher and the students. Once you understand how Voki Classroom is structured, the other elements become even easier to follow!

Part II

Next up is everything you need to know about getting started with Voki Classroom. Here, you will learn about the interface, as well as how to use some of the available tools to make logging in quick and easy.

Ultimately you, the teacher, are in charge of the information displayed in your account. Personal settings can be edited as you see fit and editing is a cinch! In this section you will also learn about Voki Classroom support and feedback.

As a Voki Classroom user, you are able to get unlimited e-mail support from our dedicated Support team (only available to Voki Classroom users). By taking advantage of the support tab in Voki Classroom, you won’t have to wait to get the answers you need. One of our support representatives will get back to you promptly with an answer!

Part III

Last but not least, our guide takes you through the process of putting Voki Classroom to use! Adding and editing students and their logins, creating and editing classes, and embedding and reviewing Vokis are all covered in Part III.

Here you will learn how to enter in your students’ information individually or by importing a list. Once you have added your students, you can assign them to the classes you created. The guide will show you how to do all this, as well as other tricks, such as making an Assignment “hidden” (making it invisible to the student until it is time to complete the assignments).

One of the advantages of using Voki Classroom is that you are no longer required to embed student Vokis onto a separate webpage. Voki Classroom provides a configurable Web page for each Assignment , and student Vokis are displayed automatically!

Voki Classroom is easy and fun but if you have any questions, keep in mind that you have the Voki Classroom User Guide and unlimited e-mail  support to help you out.

To view the Voki Classroom User Guide, visit Voki.com and click on the “Learn” tab. There, you will find the User Guide among many other useful tools to help you get the most out of your Voki experience.

Thank you for your support and on behalf of the entire Voki Team, we wish you a happy school year!

Tip of the Week – Viewing Voki in Full Screen

Tip of the Week – Viewing Voki in Full Screen

by Ashley Chaney ♥ 1 Comment

Can you make a Voki scene appear in FULL SCREEN?

Yes, you can!

If you’ve ever wanted to view a Voki in full-screen mode, there is a really neat trick we’d like to share with you. This can be useful for presentations, for those who are visually impaired, and just as a cool trick that you can teach others.

Follow the steps below to make your Voki full screen!

Note: The code may look overwhelming but if you follow these steps, playing your Voki in full screen will be a breeze.

  1. In My Voki, click on the Voki you want to display.
  2. Click the ‘Publish’ button.
  3. Copy the embed code and Paste into any word processing document.
Now, here’s the fun challenge… You need to be a little bit of a sleuth and pick out the right part of the code:
Tip: This is a great student exercise in attention to detail.
  1. A few lines from the bottom of the code, you should see a URL  (http://) in quotes
  2. Copy the URL beginning with: http://vhss-d.oddcast.com/vhss_editors/voki_player.swf?doc= (do not include the quotation marks) and ending with a number before the word “quality”
  3. Paste the URL into your browser and click Go
That’s it! If you copied the URL correctly, your Voki will now load in Full Screen mode.
Here is an example. You want to copy the highlighted part.

Voila!

Now, you’ll have the biggest Voki of them all!

What do you think? Share your comments below and we’ll be sure to respond.

Until next time,

The Voki Team

Rediscovering America: Columbus Day Lesson Plans

Rediscovering America: Columbus Day Lesson Plans

by Ashley Chaney ♥ 3 Comments

The ways in which we have celebrated Columbus Day have varied greatly throughout American history. Some use this day to honor Italian-American immigrant ancestors and others observe the achievements that have been made in America since it became a place on the map. On the other hand, many people don’t think about anything at all! Today’s Columbus Day celebrations, like the man himself and the stories that followed his ‘discoveries’, are wide-ranging.

Although we can’t tell you what to do or think (or celebrate) on Columbus Day, we are here to help you plan your class with ease! So, let’s make this Columbus Day a day of rediscovery. With a fresh new batch of lesson plans, we aim to break down some myths that surround American history and rediscover these same histories with a different and more inquisitive lens, using Voki of course!

Below are the Voki Columbus Day Lesson Plans, which are now live in the Voki Lesson Plan Database!

(Remember – the grade assigned to each lesson plan is our best guess – you can use Voki lesson plans from a higher, or lower, grade than the one you teach – if you think they fit!)

  1. Who was Christopher Columbus? (5th grade): Columbus and his voyages are investigated using primary sources and critical thinking.
  2. Discovering America (4th grade): Who did the Europeans encounter when they landed in America?
  3. Deconstructing the American Revolution (7th grade): Students learn about the policies that led to the American Revolution and analyse their effects on a society on the brink of chaos.
  4. America: Before and After the Industrial Revolution (10th grade): Students learn about how American industry became more efficient and modernized after an industrial invention boom.

Rethinking what are often considered to be facts is a great exercise for students. By questioning history, students will discover for themselves that this subject is one that has been passed down from human to human through many different perspectives. By combining primary sources with critical thinking, these lessons bring history to life and show students that various stories make up each historical event or period.

Along with helping students analyze the murkier parts of history, the lessons will help students discover new ‘facts’ for themselves, which is a valuable tool for developing thought processes and is essentially related to Christopher Columbus!

Each lesson contains the intended grade level and subject(s), the time recommended for completion, resources needed, as well as a list of objectives and activities. The lessons are easy to follow and can be adapted according to your own personal teaching style.

As always, we are interested in hearing about how you have used Voki in class. If you have a lesson plan that uses Voki and you would like to share, please email us at lessonplans@voki.com.

Happy Columbus Day and have fun rediscovering America!