Voki is a fantastic website/service that allows you to create an AVATAR that speaks for you. You can choose your facial features, a background and either record your own voice or write the text and use a computer generated voice. I used it to introduce the pros of using a Blog in education (in italiano) and the cons (by my friend Ziraldo)

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I thought it would be great to ask the students of my new class to introduce themselves using this technological device. I did it last year with my first form and they loved it, they particularly enjoyed looking at their schoolmates’ avatars. This idea of SHARING their works and being able to be seen and heard is of the utmost importance for adolescents.  I believe it’s a good activity as it shows a lot about the student’s personality (through his/choice of face, background & colors) and it teaches them to SELECT the relevant information (as there’s a limited time allowed) & be CONCISE. I did not monitor their accuracy as they did it at home as their first assignment.

Here’s some of their avatars. 

I’ adding below two tutorials on how to make a Voki that I found in the web: the first is a SlideShare in English and the second one in Italian (by Carla Asquini)

There are lots of other creative ways to use a Voki, this is just one of them. I find it a funny way to integrate technology into the teaching of English as a second language. Comments and new ideas are welcome!