Final Project

Kristen McKernin

Katherine Ross

Relevant and Innovative Learning Scenario

Brief Overview: Students will utilize available resources and their own opinion to create a Voki that reports personal identification information and favorites.  



Target Audience-
The target audience will be Kristen McKernin’s Functional Academic class, an in house classes of first and second year seniors.  This class is one 55 minute period that meets once a week.  In their grade level, most of their classes will be held outside of the school and in the community.  It is important for their in-house classes be interesting and engaging to keep their attention, and I think the use of technology will do just that.  Especially because everyone loves using the computers, and they haven’t had an official, consistent computer class for 2-3 years.



Materials– 

• Mobile laptop computers
• Cloze response Word document
• Smart Board
• Student IDs / State IDs

Objectives
At the end of this scenario the students will:

• Identify their personal information.
• Make decisions on their favored topics.
• Students will create an “About Me” report by typing their personal identification information and favored topics into a Microsoft Word document.
• Create a Voki by designing an avatar and using their “About Me” report for text-to-speech.

Procedure–
Day 1:

• Students will open the Microsoft Word document “About Me” on the desktop of the mobile laptop computers.
• Students will answer the cloze response questions by typing in their personal identification information by using their Student/State IDs and favored topics/activities.
• Students will “Save As” this document to the “McKernin” network folder.

Day 2: Teacher will model all steps by projecting them on the Smart Board, or by using a projector.

• Students will open the Internet by double-clicking the appropriate Internet Explorer icon for their computer.
• .Students will type www.Voki.com into the address bar.
• Students will login by using Ms. McKernins account.
• Username: KMcKernin@gmail.com
• Password: fullsail
• Students will click on the “Create” tab at the top of the screen.
• “Customize Your Character”
• Students will create an avatar by choosing the sex, face, hair, and mouth.
• Students will be able to customize the look and color of each of these features.
• Students will select clothing for his/her avatar by clicking on the “Clothing” tab.
• Students will have the option of adding accessories (glasses/jewelry) to their avatar by clicking the “Bling” tab.

• Students will exit the “Customize Your Character” tab by clicking the orange “X” in the upper right hand corner and click on the keyboard key icon under the “Give It A Voice” box.
• Students will open their “About Me” document from the “McKernin” network folder.
• Students will highlight and copy all of their responses.
• Students will paste their responses into the “Type Your Text” box on the Voki website.
• Students will be able to alter the accent/langauge and voice options.
• Students will click the green “Done” button.
• Students will choose a background for their Voki by clicking on the “Backgrounds” button, selecting a background, and clicking the green “Done” button.
• Students will click on the “Publish” button and name their Voki as their name and click “Save.”

Emerging Technology
Voki
Voki is a tool that allows you to create speaking avatars.  It allows you to design your own avatar using a variety of premade face features.  You then add voice by either text or recording your own voice.  The Voki website allows you to directly post your Voki to a variety of blogs and websites such as Facebook, Twitter, Blogger, etc.  The Voki website also offers a multitude of learning resources and lesson plans created by teachers across the world.  www.voki.com


Social Participation/Social Learning–
In Kristen’s classroom, students will be working with the mobile laptops at circle tables that hold four students.  As with any laptop activity, it is the responsibility of the student to ask for help from both of his/her neighbors before asking for assistance from a staff member.  
Most often this leads to not only asking for assistance from your neighbor, but sharing of work throughout the design process.  



Making Connections–

• Previous knowledge in order to create new knowledge - Students will be using their own identification information and favorites to create an “About Me” report.  
• Something that is relevant for them-  Students will see the importance of the Student/State ID card through this activity. This will just give the students another avenue to see how the information on the card is beneficial and why they should carry it with them at all times.
• With a local or global audience-  Learning personal identification information is important for everyday life.  This experience reinforces this information and where they can find it (Student/State ID) if they need to share or use it.  

Create/Produce –
Each student will produce a Voki that will be saved and shared in the next week’s class.  
















Assessment –
Students will receive full credit if/when they complete the following steps successfully:

Completed	Task
	Open “About Me” document from McKernin network folder.
	Answer cloze-response questions.
	“Save As” completed document to the McKernin network folder.
	Create avatar by choosing sex, face, fair, and mouth.
	Dress avatar.
	Copy and pastes “About Me” information into text-to-speech box.
	Change/correct the voice/speech of avatar.
	Add/change Voki background
	Publish and name Voki.
	SharedVoki with the class.

Reflection – .
Learner Reflection:
Students will discuss the importance of knowing personal identification information.  If a student cannot remember or verbalize information, they need to know another mode of delivery, such as being able to show a student/state ID.
Educator Reflection:
Educator/trainer will reflect on this activity by seeing how well the students complete the activity. If the educator/trainer sees an area on the assessment that a lot of students didn’t do well on, this area will be evaluated for better clarification in the instruction.