Engaging with Avatars

As I was listening to Marc Prensky's podcast on Ewan's blog, I began to think about how engage with students that are more used to watching and listening rather than reading. My year 10 students are currently struggling with the requirements of their GCSE coursework and I wondered whether the use of an avatar would be another vehicle for conveying some key information. So, after some web searching and finally spelling avatar correctly I came across sitepal. It costs, but it's fun and here is my first rough attempt. I recorded the audio using audacity and exported it as an MP3 and uploaded it to sitepal. It is currently sitting on our VLE alongside written instructions.

I think there is some potential here- especially if students are able to create their own web based talking avatar. Avatars could be used to explain and evaluate their own work and the work of their peers (much more fun than annotation). Also, it would bring a new dimension to personal presenations. Not only could you add narration, but you could add a talking head. Any other ideas?