Generation YES Blog

Now that I am a part of many social networking groups, blogs, wikis and forums, I find myself having to introduce myself over, and over and over again. I thought there has to be a better, more interesting way to do this. I was cruising one of my social networking groups (classroom 2.0) and I saw this cool widget-like graphic on a friend’s home page. This interactive graphic is called Voki. Voki enables users to express themselves on the web in their own voice using a talking character. You can customize your Voki to look like you or take on the identity of lots of other types of characters… animals, monsters, anime etc. I chose anime, I always wanted to know what I would look like as a cartoon Your Voki can speak with your own voice, which is added via microphone, uploaded or phone. Voki is basically free unless you want to download your character on to your phone and is strictly used for non-commercial purposes.

Voki is brought to you by the folks at Oddcast, a New York based company that has been creating speaking characters on the web for a while. You may better know them from Careerbuilder Monk-e-mail.


Get a Voki now!

I posted my Voki on our GenYES OCN (online communication network for GenYES students) and encouraged the students to create their own Voki identity. This fun character will be useful when they introduce themselves to their Partner-teacher before they begin their project together. Voki would also come in handy when collaborating with someone who does not speak your language (like a school across the world) because when choosing a voice for your character you can also choose the language too! Since the identity is fictional students would never have to reveal their real identity. Big Bonus!

I encourage everyone to check out the site and introduce yourself to someone new with this fun, and entertaining tool. Have fun!

Megan E