Do you like the avatar version of Mrs. Willyerd on this blog post? Voki.com is a free Web 2.0 tool that I learned about today at the Ohio E-Tech conference. The popular movie "Avatar" makes this tool relevant to students who might want to make their own avatar while learning at the same time! How - you may ask? The session I went to allowed students to incorporate Voki into a GoogleEarth virtual tour, which could be used in science to discuss biomes; language arts to discuss the setting of a novel; or in social studies to explore different locations. The students could create their own avatars that are associated with different bookmarked locations in GoogleEarth, type in up to three factual sentences per location, and create a virtual tour for other students to take. It would almost be like a Jigsaw 2.0 activity. How do I use Voki? This is really simple, and you don't even need an account. If you go to voki.com, then you click on "Get Started." You can pick the character - male, female, dog, cat, etc. - and then add all the extra touches - accessories, voice, etc. Type in what you want the avatar to say, and then publish. Cut and paste the "My Space" code into your GoogleEarth bookmarked location, and then the students can get a narrated tour by the created avatar. (Don't worry the My Space code doesn't link you in anyway to My Space. I just is the html code to allow the avatar to be embedded in the different programs.) Have questions? Let me know and comment!