As I looked through the “Top 100 Education Technology Tools
for Learning,” I was amazed at how many I had never heard of before. I wanted to do research on so many of them,
because I found them all very intriguing!
However, I still try to have somewhat of a social life, so I limited
myself to one: Voki.
Voki is used by 2 million users in education (students
and/or teachers) and serves as an excellent way to teach and learn with
technology through the use of interactive avatars. What is really great about Voki is that it was
created with students and teachers in mind, and the application of it really
shows just that.
The first step is to create an avatar or Voki. Honestly, it took me about 20 minutes to
create mine! Not because it was
complicated (it was super simple actually), but because there were SO MANY
options. I designed my Voki to somewhat
resemble me (basically blonde hair and blue eyes!), but the avatar can even be
an animal. As I searched through the
many different clothing options, I realized that my Voki had a bigger and
better closet than I do! She also has a
variety of jewelry and sunglasses to choose from as well. I even got to choose her background as a
pool, since that’s where I hope to be lounging this weekend…
After I created my Voki, I saw that you could add
voice. It gives you many different ways
to do this: by phone, microphone, text to speech, or uploading a file. I recorded a quick blurb and then finally
published my Voki.
Now to the educational part of Voki! There is an entire lesson plan database with
hundreds of already submitted lesson plans for a variety of subjects and
ages. I chose “Spelling” for “3rd
and 4th grade” and was shown very detailed description, objectives,
and activities. The activities included
having students create a Voki to teach the rest of the class how to spell their
list of words and the ‘rules’ needed in order to do so correctly. For example, the Voki would teach the class
that receive is spelled c-e-i because you have to follow ‘i before e, except
after c’ rule.
This is great for students because it encourages them to
volunteer and participate more because it is really the avatar Voki doing the
work. All the student has to do is present
his or her Voki, and then just let the Voki do all the talking!
Voki can become even more effective, but at a price. For $30ish a month, you can have your own ‘classroom’
to organize your students and their Voki’s.
For schools that are well equipped with technology, I think this puts a
whole new fun spin on learning, even for the teacher!
Art teachers in elementary schools have begun to use this site which hosts online art galleries. It's easy for students and teachers to upload their projects. The website is great for organizing class rosters and their projects. The actual publishing of the artwork is a quick and painless process with easy tools to assist the student. It also allows online interactions for students and "fans" of their artwork.
This site has a multitude of different worksheets, activities, and games each categorized by subject or by grade. I've used this site for extra worksheets and really enjoyed how they offer beginner, intermediate, and advance levels per grade. It's helpful when accomodating for children in your classroom. If you're not a member, you are only allowed access to a limited amount, but my school had a membership so we could all use it. 
The first new one I checked out is called Delicious. I found Delicious very similar to Pinterest in the sense that you can show off what you like. It can be videos, pictures, articles, posts, etc. on any topic which you can organize into a 'stack.' It's very easy to personalize and even easier to share with your friends or even the entire web. They have an entire category dedicated to education which can take you to links to help with building lesson plans or strategies for studying. 
