Voki's.

Voki’s were the next part of the digital technologies topic which I covered, and I must admit I would have to say I think I am simply just a digital immigrant (Prensky, 2001) as I had never heard of a Voki before, along with, as previously mentioned a RSS aggregator, Wiki and e.Portfolio (Central Queensland University, 2009).

As my students in my prac class are very interested in learning about Animals and the world in general, as part of their assessment they are required to build an animal enclosure for an animal to live in, therefore, I have decided to create a Voki avatar which has an educational use to it as it is informing the students of a task which they need to complete, whilst engaging the students by telling them the purpose of making an enclosure and who it is going to be made for.

Below is my avatar which I have made in relation to the students current unit Animal Homes:


Get a Voki now!



In relation to educational rationales, the Department of Education and Training states that;
“learning in the Technology key learning area is often structured around 'design challenges'. These provide students with real life and lifelike problem solving situations to which they can respond. Students often tackle design challenges in collaborative teams, working together to design and develop a wide range of viable solutions using materials, information and systems” (Department of Education and Training, 2009).

I strongly believe that by using Voki’s as a learning tool within the classroom environment supports the Department of Education and Training’s aim of providing students with real life and lifelike problem solving situations, along with working in a collaborative manner. Therefore, in regard to the conceptual frameworks from the learning design module I think that it would be fair to say that Voki’s are linked to the Learning Engagement theory as students can be provided with the opportunity to learn in a collaborative context whilst completing a project orientated task which has an outside focus (Kearsley & Shneiderman, 1999), along with, learning retention occurring as students are required to use their prior knowledge learnt in order to complete their Voki and build upon their prior knowledge (Active Learning Online Team, 2000).

Reference List:
Active Learning Online Team. (2000). Why use active learning? Retrieved July 16, 2009, from
http://www.acu.edu/cte/activelearning/whyuseal2.htm

Central Queensland University (CQU). (2009). FAHE11001- Managing E-Learning: Moodle site. Rockhampton, QLD, Australia: Scot Aldred.

Department of Education and Training. (2009). Curriculum: learning and teaching assessment- technology. Retrieved August 6, 2009, from
http://education.qld.gov.au/curriculum/area/technology/index.html

Kearsley, G., & Shneiderman, B. (1999). Engagement theory: a framework for technology-based teaching and learning. Retrieved July 16, 2009, from
http://home.sprynet.com/%7Egkearsley/engage.htm

Prensky, M. (2001). Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants. Retrieved July 23, 2009, from
http://www.marcprensky.com/writing/Prensky%20%20Digital%20Natives,%20Digital%20Immigrants%20-%20Part1.pdf