I’m sure you’ve already realized I’m right here, to your right. Well the truth is that I have less hair than my avatar, but it was this or bald, so I chose this one!

Voki is a simple application which looks like a useless gadget for those who like to try every new thing that appears on the web. Well, it’s not. This little box where you can customize your appearance (usually to make you look more handsome) and record a message or even type it (the text to speech function is really good) is not only useful to change your welcoming message in your blog or in your website. Why not having your students create their own Voki avatar where they introduce themselves and describe their hobbies or daily routines? Create a blog for your class and let them publish their image.

Once you are registered, you must choose the appearance of your avatar. Person or animal, hair colour, eyes… you can also choose the background of the image.

As you can see, the message to be published can be created either through a text to speech element , recording it with your computer microphone , or uploading it from a local folder as an mp3 file .

If you decide to use the text to speech option, you can choose out of different languages, including English, Catalan or Spanish. Choose also male or female voice.

Once you are happy with your avatar, it’s time to save it and publish it.

How can you put it in a widget in your blog? Easy. Once you’ve saved it, you get the following interface:

That will give you the code to copy in your blog:

Open your blog for administration. Click on Gestiona;

Save changes, publish and… that’s it! There’s your Voki presentation!

Interesting article on ELT and blogging at BBC & British Council’s site for teachers. Different approaches and practical ideas for the classroom.