A Free Fun Way To Create Speaking Avatars! By Jody S. Sandru

1. A Free Fun Way To Create Speaking Avatars! By Jody S. Sandru

2. Classroom Uses & Definition Vox + Loki = Voki “Vox” is Latin for voice Loki is a prankster character in Norse Mythology Voki is free and the system requirements are access to the Internet and Adobe Flash.

3. Let’s begin the creation! Step 1: On your Internet browser Open www.voki.com Step 2: Click Register Voki Home Page

4. Registering is easy! Part One Part Two Voki will email a confirmation link to the email address provided. Open your email and click the link to activate your account. Fill in the boxes Agree to the terms and conditions Click finish

5. Time to get creative! After you log in, may the fun begin. Click , “Create A New Voki.”

6. Select Your Character In the window, click on the head Characters are divided in categories and you can select male , female, or all. Surf through the wide variety of categories: Animals Anime Toons Classic Cats Dogs Digmon Holiday Politics VIP Randoms Oddballs Click the character that best suits the purpose of the mini podcast! Perhaps President Obama, Santa Claus, or a even a loyal dog will connect with your audience and improve the message communication. The character you select will appear in this frame. That’s not all, after you decide on your character, our next slide will show you how to accessorize and customize your character even more. Character samples

7. Customize Your Character The character I chose was under the classic category and a plain-jane female. It’s time for a much-needed makeover. First up, the hair. Click on this button that looks like a wig. Available hair styles for your character will appear: I will select the long dark hair by clicking on it. Check it out on the next slide.

8. Lips and Makeup! Wouldn’t you agree, the long hair seems to soften her demeanor? Now let’s “Angelina Jolie” her lips and put on some makeup. Click on the lips button and you will see the available lips. I will choose the pink lips! Now for some facial sculpting, click on the tweak button and you can manipulate the size of the mouth and nose, and also adjust the height and width of your character. Next step click on the color button and change the color of her mouth, makeup, eyes, skin, and hair!

9. The finishing touchesclothing and accessories! • Click on the clothing tab, and you will have several categories to select from: classy, dressy, uniform, costumes, sports, or casual. Let’s go with casual, and pink to match her lips! • Last up Bling. This tab allows you to add jewelry and accessories such as glasses! Clothing and accessories are unique for the character you select. • Now my character is complete and you click on the green done button!

10. Time to give your character a voice! There are four options to add voice to your Voki by clicking on the buttons. Enter a number and Voki will call you and prompt you to record over the phone. You can preview and redo the message if you don’t like how it sounds. Type your text and choose from different languages and/or Voki’s accents. It changes text to speech. Use a microphone attached to your computer and record your voice. You will be prompted to allow access from Voki. You will then hit record and a bar will keep track of your recording time. Preview and hit done when satisfied. Upload an audio file from your computer. After recording hit the green done button I prefer the phone because of the ease of recording and also the clarity. The prompts are easy to follow and you can listen to the recording by hitting #1 after you are finished and if you don’t like it you hit “3” to re-record. When you are satisfied, you hit #2 to save and Voki automatically uploads the recording to your character. There is no cost! 1 2 3 4 We’re almost ready to publish, but there are two additional embellishments!

11. Backgrounds and Players The background button allows you to add scenery behind your character. There are nine categories to choose from: Sports, Indoors, Nightlife, City Views, Outdoors, Travel, Animated, Holidays, Obscure Since it is almost time to head back to school, I chose an autumn background! The player button allows you to change the color of the frame around your character and the action buttons. There are nine color themes to choose from. I selected a sage green player theme to “church it up” a bit more.

12. Next up publishing Click the publish button to email to a student or parent or to get the code to embed on your blog , wiki, or web site. You will be directed to save your Voki at this point. Name and Hit Save! You will be notified when the Voki is saved. Click the orange X to close the scene saved notification and you will be directed to the publishing options.

13. Publishing Options Four options are available for publishing: Add to your site. Select the size of the player to embed in your site, Large, Medium, or Small. Copy the code to your clipboard. Send by email. You may enter multiple email addresses, a subject and a message! Send to a mobile, you can make this Voki into a ring tone! More Voki Fun. This allows you to check out what other Voki users are creating and read up on the latest features. 1 2 3 4

14. Finished! The voki is saved in “My Voki” for future use. 1 2 3 4 Main window buttons to remember 1. My Voki is a storage center for the vokis you have created and saved. Vokis you have received from friends can be saved here and your user profile is available in the About me tab. 2. Create takes you to the customize a character window demonstrated in this presentation. 3. Play lets you see other Voki creations and explore the application gallery. 4. Forums lets you request help and view feedback and update information. When finished, don’t forget to logout in the upper right corner of the window.

15. Pros and Cons Amazing ease of use Point and click creation Four ways to add audio Easy embedding to web sites, blogs and wikis No cost to use Audio is limited to 60 seconds Images cannot be uploaded to create with Ads are included on the frame because this is a free site. Voki is working on allowing educational users to create without ads, but this is still in progress Pros Cons

16. Curricular Ideas Have students use Voki for: Have teachers use Voki for • Practice foreign language skills & ESL • Debate political cartoons • Write poems and have the voki read them out loud • Answer interview questions • Epal exchange • Assistance for shy students to contribute • Email recognition podcasts for student work • Audio instruction podcasts • Writing prompts • Classroom announcements • Word/Tip of the day • Add a human element to online classes • Math warm-up exercises

17. Have fun discovering ways to engage students in the classroom with Voki Check out my finished demo Voki at http://www.voki.com/php/viewmessage/?chsm=13eae06ce41ebb3f68f8638649529b9a&mId=491022 The End!