Avatar Fun for 7th Grade
Students in Mrs. Vollmer's 7th Grade Geography class recently took a unit test in an unusual fashion. The kids had to know the information on a unit covering East Asia and prove that they did. But it wasn't your typical pencil paper, multiple choice, essay question test. These students use technology in the classroom regularly with OneNote, an online classroom program. For this unit final though, they created an avatar. An avatar is an electronic image that represents and is manipulated by a computer user in a virtual space.
Students used the site voki.com to create their avatar. Some chose animals, people, or anime characters. They fine tuned their choice with hair, jewelry, accents, and background settings. Then they typed in the facts about East Asia's physical regions, culture, and history. After creating the avatar, each student then presented theirs to the class. The voki avatars actually use a computer generated voice to speak the facts the students typed.
Mrs. Vollmer said, "This was a new way for the students to demonstrate what they have learned as well as have the experience to present to their peers. They did a great job!"