Assistive Technology: Voki

“As educators, we must often find creative, alternative means of satisfying established standards and criteria for student learning, and of making them achievable for our diverse learners.” (Copeland, 2011)

Voki is a Web 2.0 tool that can be used for all of our learners in our classrooms to creatively express themselves and meet the “established standards” that are mentioned in the above quote. Voki allows students to create avatars, and students can make the avatars speak by either typing what they want their avatar to say or by speaking into their device’s microphone so the avatar uses the student’s voice. With a free subscription to this tool, students can make up to three avatars that each speak for 60 seconds. Students can choose from many different characters to create their avatar, such as presidents, children’s storybook characters, Greek gods and goddesses, holiday figures, and more! The typing feature for each avatar makes this tool accessible for students who may not be comfortable speaking aloud and for students who are mute or hearing impaired. The microphone feature makes this tool accessible for students who have difficulty with typing and motor skills, or for students who are visually impaired. Students with a visual impairment will need a bit of assistance navigating the creation of their avatar.

You can access Voki by going to voki.com on your device’s web browser, or by clicking here. For more information about how to use Voki and ideas for how to incorporate it into instruction, check out EdTechReview’s blog post here.

References

Copeland, C. A. (2011). School librarians of the 21st century: Using resources and assistive technologies to support students’ differences and abilities. Knowledge Quest, 39(3), 64-69.