Hi, there! This is a blog to share my views and reflections on the uses of technology in EFL. Feel free to comment! :o)

Here goes my Voki. I was finally able to create it. I realized that apparently some of the avatars are only available for classroom voki users, and being a user is not enough. But other avatars were available to regular users like me, so here's mine:





 I work with seven and eight year-olds in an institute, and we sometimes work with puppets. They are great, especially for shy students, who might feel more confident when talking "through" a puppet. I was thinking an avatar is also a good option for these cases...
Here are two ideas on how to use avatars in EFL teaching:

1)  Students can write three things about themselves which they think nobody in the class will know. Eg: I never eat a second slice of pizza because I don't like cheese that much (this is true for myself!!!). Students write that information for their vokis to say it. Then I show all the vokis and the students guess whose voki it is.
2) Avatars can be used with kids in description of animals (I've noticed that in Voki there are animal avatars). Students write a description of an animal of their choice and then they have their voki reproduce it. Students could, at first, only listen to the audio, and try to guess which animal it is.

There's an app for ipad which is called sock puppets. It's great for roleplays. You can check it out here!  http://my.smithmicro.com/mobile/sockpuppets/index.html

:)