Fall 2012 In this issue: • Welcome Back to School! • New Voki Classroom    Updates • Voki Refer a Friend • Ways to Use Voki in    Higher • Voki Conference Survey • New Character Ideas • What We Like about Voki • Useful Tips of the Week What We Like about Voki: Are you curious about what teachers have to say about Voki? Our fans and followers on Facebook and Twitter are actively posting what they like about Voki! Here’s what some of them have to say: “Saw class of students send voki's to a teacher stationed in Iraq, they were awesome.” - TheresaShafer “I use the Voki as a tool to make education more fun and better target my students of distance education.” - Luiz Araújo (Facebook) “So impressed w/ these final projects my students put together! They had to make a Voki to go along w/ Macbeth & they are so fun & amazing!” - mjmbecky “I love this. I have shared with the teachers at my school and also added a voki avatar to my class blog.” - Leah Belson (Facebook) “Super excited for the new school year. Added some sweet Voki's to my site for spanish speaking families :)” - missgsci_study Like using Voki? Don’t forget to tweet it to us @officialvoki or share it on our Facebook page!		Welcome Back to School! While students in the United States, the Caribbean, Mexico, Russia and England, are preparing to start school, students from different parts of the world are still in school! Voki users in Japan, South Korea, and China are currently on their semester break. School is still in session for our Australian Voki users until December. Students in India and the Philippines are already into their third month of the school year!   With school starting soon (and for some, a semester break soon), we have set a new goal for this upcoming year. We will be connecting with our global community with special lesson plans, new blog posts, and connecting more with our fans and followers. So be sure to check us out on Facebook, Twitter, and our Voki Blog! We will have a lot of fun activities and information for everyone! To everyone who’s still in school, will start school soon, and taking a break from school: Good luck! Shubh Kaamnaayein! 祝你好運! ¡Buena suerte!     New Voki Classroom Updates Voki Conference Survey It’s been over one year since we introduced Voki Classroom to the world! Voki Classroom is constantly improving and it’s all because of your valuable feedback! Thank you everyone! Let’s see what improvements we made this past year! • Simplified Student Logins—Student logins are now just their First initial, Last name, and 3 numbers. Quite easy to remember! •Writing Assignments, Deadlines, and Feedbacks — Now, teachers can give writing assignments along with Vokis and set deadlines to them. We also added the feedback feature! • Ready to Review Notifications, Multi-Delete Functions, and Privacy Features— With the Ready to Review notification, teachers can see which assignment needs to be reviewed. The multi-delete option allows teachers to delete more than one student at a time. And we also increased student privacy! •15 Day Free Trial—The long awaited 15 Day Free Trial for Voki Classroom was launched! Check it our at our Products page! •Exclusive Voki Characters—We added new characters to Voki Classroom. Voki Classroom characters can be previewed in the Voki editor. Want to try out all these new Voki Classroom updates? Just sign up for the Free Trial! Hey Voki users and Voki supporters! This survey will help us know about any upcoming education technology conferences that are going to take place! We appreciate your time. The survey will only take a couple of minutes! To take the survey, click the button below: If you take the survey by October 31, 2012 and include your email at the end of the survey, you will be automatically entered to win 2 free months of Voki Classroom! 3 survey takers will be randomly chosen! If you are the winner, your name will be announced on our Facebook page and Twitter (@officialvoki)! We have a small list of upcoming conferences! Check them out! • Tri-State Educational Technology Conference (TSETC) • Iowa Technology Education Connection (ITEC) Conference • Northwest e-Learning Conference • Ubiquitus Learning Conference 2012 Are you attending a conference and interested in presenting Voki? ? Make use of our Voki PowerPoint and Brochure!
Voki Refer A Friend New Character Ideas With summer vacation over and the weather starting to cool off, it’s the start of a new school year for many students and teachers. Whether you are still in school, still on vacation, or just started the new school year, there’s always a reason to celebrate! To kick start this celebration, we are starting Voki Refer a Friend! For every friend you refer, you get 2 months of Voki Classroom! Let’s see the details below! How this works: 1. Ask your friend to sign up for the 15-Day Free Trial with a 1 or 2 year subscription of Voki Classroom. 2. After their 15-Day Free Trial is over, email feedback@voki.com with your email and your friend’s email! We will add 2 months of Voki Classroom! Hurry and take advantage of this! Voki Refer a Friend promotion ends October 31, 2012! We love getting feedback and comments from our Voki users. So let’s keep that feedback coming! To celebrate the start of a new school year, Voki is planning to add some new characters to the Voki editor. And we would love it if you share actual Voki ideas with us! If you think you have great character ideas, accessories design, or even a theme you want to see on Voki, share it with us! Send us your ideas at feedback@voki.com or share it with us on our Facebook and Twitter (@officialvoki)!
Guest Blogger: Barbara Jolie—Ways to Use Voki in Higher Education Voki’s speaking avatars add a creative and personal element to any classroom, and they are especially effective in connecting participants of online courses. Vokis are also perfect for communications courses that focus on speech and language. Connecting in the Virtual Classroom Students of online courses may feel disconnected from professors who only communicate via chat or e-mail.Speaking avatars are being used by online instructors to introduce themselves in more personalized and engaging ways. Similarly, students can create avatars to introduce themselves to professors and classmates in an icebreaking routine. This works well for those students who are uncomfortable with video chat, and it also allows everyone to share elements of their personalities through the fun visual elements. Sharing Updates and Announcements In addition to using a Voki for a preliminary introduction, professors can use these speaking avatars to make announcements or pose weekly questions. Professors can record their own voices to promote further personalized engagement. Communications Courses Vokis focus largely on speech, making it the perfect learning tool for speech and language classes. Foreign Language Course Professors can use Vokis to record a number of phrases. By posting them to a project management system (such as Blackboard), students would be able to access the phrases at any time. Students can also use the Voki to record their own phrases or short responses to a question posed by a Professor. Lesson Idea: Play a storytelling game where the professor begins with a 60 second premise. In a predetermined sequence, each student must respond to each student must respond to the story of the preceding student (as told by Vokis). The end result will be a long story, full of twists and turns and all the humor of mistakes. Students should be encouraged to respond quickly and creatively. The goal is to communicate confidently and effectively in the moment – which doesn’t always require perfect grammar. Communications/Speech Courses Using a series of recordings invoking tone, inflection, pace and other elements of speech; students can develop their best speaking voices and share the results with professors and classmates. Lesson Idea: Ask students to create an avatar that represents a famous celebrity or politician (historical figures are okay). Students can then use voice imitation to create a cartoon version of the figure. This will allow students to have fun while studying voice patterns. Radio Broadcasting Radio broadcasting students have the unique challenge of establishing a great speaking voice as well as an on-air persona. Broadcasting students can use Voki to create engaging representations of on-air exchanges that can be shared with classmates and professors. Lesson Idea Students will create a oneminute recording to align with his or her own radio personality. The avatar, the voice and the material will work together to create a realized character. The goal is to teach students how to purposefully meld voice and content to create a public personality. Classmates can vote on the most successful “virtual hosts.” Barbara Jolie is a full time freelance writer and blogger for www.onlineclasses.org. She writes about advantages of online classes and is particularly interested in writing and language education. If you have any questions email Barbara at barbara.jolie876@gmail.com.
Vokis Across the Web Check out these runaway Vokis on the Web! You might even see your own! Useful Tips of the Week • Setting up Voki Classroom for the New School Year • Changing Your Voki Login Emails • Voki Icebreaker • Voki Classroom Support
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