It’s important to set goals when learning a new skill or embarking on a new journey, so here I will record my goals for using technology and digital media in my classroom.

1. Get comfortable with the uncomfortableness of learning new technology: I am by no means a technology pro. I can do the basics (you know, operate a computer, create PowerPoints and Excel sheets, set up a blog apparently, etc.), so I might classify myself as proficient, but not exemplary. Knowing that, however, is fine by me, as I believe it is important for one to know what they don’t know to better improve in whatever area they want to improve in. So, to improve my skills with technology and digital media, the first step is to accept and lean into the fact that I often don’t know what I’m doing — but I will, with time.
2. Incorporate more technology and digital media into my classroom: This one is probably pretty obvious and goes without saying, but I wanted to explicitly put it as one of my goals because I admit that I don’t do this as much as I want to. I think incorporating more technology and digital media into my lesson plans and my assessments, and as activities that students can do to expand and demonstrate their learning, is highly beneficial for everyone involved. And, since we’re in 2019, I feel like I’m doing a disservice to my students if I am not (A) making class relevant and engaging by incorporating technology and digital media that they themselves are likely so used to, and (B) providing more avenues for self-expression and exploration since there are so, so many great platforms and tools out there.
3. Learn what’s out there: Naturally, to incorporate more technology and digital media into my classroom I must figure out what is out there to use and then refine that list to include quality platforms and tools that enhance my teaching and my students’ learning. I know that a Google search goes a long way, but I hope that through this class (Digital Media & Technology in English Language Arts) I will be able to more easily find these quality tools and platforms and become more savvy when it comes to technology and digital media in general.

Check out my goals in a shorter soundbite version I created using a platform called Voki.

Upon Reflection: I used Voki because I wanted to portray myself animatedly talking about something I am animated about: my goals for using technology and digital media in the classroom. And while my Voki doesn’t sound super animated, I liked the idea of typing a message into a box and having it read because, heck, that can be fun to hear your words spoken in an Australian, Scottish, British, etc. accent (you can also record your own voice). Similarly, it was really fun to create a character — an alter-ego, as it were — that was totally different than what I actually look like. I did consider creating a lookalike of myself, but then I got enamored with all the possibilities there were on Voki. Do I want to be a punk, a gnome, a cat?! I settled on a male stylized in anime form because I like anime, and I know many of my students do, too. I imagined using Voki to relay information to my students, and I thought they might find it amusing and draw them in if they got that information from a different sort of sensei (“teacher” in Japanese) with an odd accent . . .

And then, I thought about how much fun I had creating my character* and how much my students might enjoy it as well — either recreating themselves into a new avatar or creating Vokis for literary characters and having the characters say something, for example. This sort of activity could be taken in different ways: perhaps students could take some lines from the text that stand out to them or exemplify the character’s personality or feelings and have their Voki say those lines, or students could literally put words in the characters’ mouth like they might on a character’s pretend Twitter page. Or, if the Vokis were of the students themselves, I wonder if we could keep coming back to using the Vokis to have some sort of discussion at different points throughout the year. Now, you can’t really create much of a story with Voki since it is just a talking avatar, and you are limited in terms of the amount of text you can have the avatar speak, but I bet you could build a character story over time both with the text and by altering features of the Voki, such as the background, their facial hair, hair color, etc. I could see Voki being used in a fun exercise on characterization.

Voki was also really easy to use, and I didn’t need to watch any tutorials to figure out how to create my character and make it speak. I guess it really only does one thing, but if you can get creative with it, then I think Voki can definitely have a place in any teacher’s toolbox!

Questions, Concerns, Suggestions, etc.:

• How much better is the paid version for teachers?
• Voki should make its background images more high definition — many of them look very pixelated and low quality, making me think that Voki itself isn’t very high quality. I also feel like I’m in the late 90s/early 2000s.
• I can see character creation being a pretty big time sink. I think it’s important to not pressure students’ creativity (“You can’t rush art”), so I wonder if this would better serve as a homework activity that is followed up on in class the next day.
• There are tabs that suggest students can hang out together — I love that idea. I wouldn’t be surprised if hanging out in virtual spaces was helpful for students — with certain constraints to ensure their safety and levels of appropriateness, of course.
• There are some pretty good videos on how to use Voki in the classroom on Voki’s YouTube channel — along with tutorials, if necessary.

*Character creation takes my husband and I a very long time in games like The Sims and Skyrim. But it’s the best part!