Voki: Put some swag in your lesson presentation!

There are many websites out there that allow you to create a speaking avatar that can then be embedded or linked on a website or blog.  My preferred website for this is Voki.  Voki highlights these 4  features offered by their website.

1. Motivate students to participate
2. Improve message comprehension
3. Introduce technology in a fun way 
4. Utilize Voki as an effective language tool 

It can also be translated into 25 different languages if you are working with ESL students. A few things that make Voki unique is that you don't even need to create an account to make an avatar. If you want to save your work you will need to create a free account. I can tell you from my personal experience that my students (who are in high school) loved these avatars.  They would always ask me to replay them in class even after weeks had passed.  I post them to my moodle site in the main page or embed them in a specific lesson. Here are a few examples of how I used them. I also plan on having an AI student create one today when I tutor him.