University of Richmond Global Studio January 2011
GETTING STARTED WITH VOKI Voki.com is a site that enables the creation of a speaking avatar. For language learners and teachers, Voki is particularly interesting because it includes text-tospeech in a number of languages and, even better, can incorporate speech recorded by individuals. Voki creations can be shared via e-mail and embedded in blogs, wikis, and other websites. Note: If something doesn’t work, try a different browser, particularly if you’re using Chrome. Creating an Account Go to http://www.voki.com to register for an account and, once you have an account, to log in. To register, you need an e-mail address which you can access to activate your account. Click Register to create an account. Note: It’s best not to use your email or another important password on this and similar sites. Creating an Avatar When you create your account, you may see something like the screen below. If not, you should click the Create a New Voki button. You can create multiple avatars (Vokis) in one account. If you click on the die, you generate a random avatar and background. Use the various buttons and sliders to customize your avatar. You may upload and use your own background image. Click Backgrounds. Then click the folder icon. Browse to select an image and upload it. Your new image will automatically be installed as the background, but you can change it. 1 sgs
University of Richmond Global Studio January 2011
The Players button allows you to select the color of the frame for the control buttons. Give It a Voice Don’t have a microphone? Click the telephone button and enter your phone number. The Voki system will call you, record your voice, and give you access immediately to the audio file. The typewriter key leads to the text-tospeech option. Many languages—and many voices—are included. Playing with this option is a lesson in the capabilities of textto-speech. Using the microphone button, you can record your own words for the avatar using an Adobe Flash widget built into the site. Click on the folder to upload pre-recorded audio for the Voki to say. This is a good option if you want to record (and edit) longer text in a program like Audacity. Click DONE when you are satisfied with the Voki’s audio. When your Voki is complete—and you can always go back and edit it—click the Publish button. Sharing Your Voki Once you publish your Voki, you will see options for sharing your Voki. The important ones are Send To A Friend, which allows you to send an e-mail link to your Voki, and Add To Your Site, which provides code for embedding your Voki on a web page once you choose the size you need from the pull-down menu.
Caution: In order not to lose your work, e-mail your Voki to your own address. Then save it to your account. 2 sgs
University of Richmond Global Studio January 2011
Unfortunately, embedding a Voki can be a bit tricky, because the code provided may not work on your site. (Often functions are turned off for security reasons.) See the Embedding Your Voki section of these instructions for hints and a work-around. If you aren’t ready to share your Voki, you can click the My Voki button at the top of the page to get back to your Voki collection.
Working with Your Vokis You can always see your entire collection of Vokis by clicking the My Voki button. When you click on one of the Vokis in the collection, you see a number of options. Click Scene Settings to have the Voki speak automatically when opened and to enable/disable the comment function. (As of January 2011, the Scene Settings function is gone.) Send to a Friend e-mails the link to your Voki. Once you choose a size from the pull-down menu, you can Get Code to embed the Voki. There are many more options in this menu than in the screen you see when you publish a Voki. You can Edit or Delete this Voki. response to this Voki.
Use Edit Comments to delete comments made in
The Comment Function Clicking the Comment button opens previous comments or, if there aren’t any, a blank Voki with a Leave a Comment button. Clicking this allows you to create a Voki to respond to the original Voki. Once you click Leave a Comment, you will have the option to create a new Voki or to log into your account and use one of your existing Vokis to comment. You do that by editing the audio file. 3 sgs
University of Richmond Global Studio January 2011
You can see this example at http://langculturetech.blogspot.com or you can add a comment to a Voki on the SDLAP Ning at http://sdlapur.ning.com/profile/sharongs.
Click here. Embedding Your Voki The trick to embedding a Voki on another site is finding an embed code that works on that site. The ‘Choose a Destination’ menu has a number of options, but they don’t always work. If you are having trouble embedding a Voki, try to find an embed code that does not use Javascript. (You’ll see that term in the code itself.) To embed a Voki in a Ning, choose ‘Other’ as the destination in the ‘Choose a Destination’ menu. Copy the code. If you are adding the Voki to your blog, make sure you click the HTML button above the ‘Entry’ box before you paste in the code. Switch back to ‘Rich Text’ if you want to add text or other information. Use VodPod as a Work-Around for Embedding Vokis If you are unable to embed your Voki on your site—but you can embed video— you can use VodPod to convert your Voki to a video.
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University of Richmond Global Studio January 2011
Go to http://www.vodpod.com and create an account. From the Voki site get an embed code. The ForMySpace Use This Code usually works (from the first screen you see when you publish your Voki); the Other from the ‘Choose a Destination’ menu works as well. Click the Add Video button at the top of the VodPod page. Paste the embed code in the window that opens and click Continue. Follow the instructions to verify that the video works and save it to your Vodpod collection. To share the VodPod version of your Voki, go to Sharing and Widgets. Choose your destination and copy the code you need.
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