Avatar – transforming learning

Fareen Wahid

“I am always ready to learn although I do not always like being taught.” – Winston Churchill

The wisdom one acquires from reading the textbook page to page can never equal the learning one can gain through active engagement and participation in the learning process. Technology is a wonderful way of engaging the learner in the classroom. One of the latest tech tools that can engage both the teacher and the students is the “Avatar”. An avatar is a character that can be created and customized using virtual reality. Students can represent themselves imaginatively by adding speech bubbles, selecting themes and backgrounds, changing characters’ facial expression, and mixing audio tracks for their projects.

Such platforms are excellent for independent learning.

Avatars come in handy not just when making projects but even otherwise in your daily teaching-learning moments. When learning about the Mughal empire, for instance, students can use websites like https://www.vyond.com/ to simulate a Mughal city and they, or to be more precise, their ‘avatars’ can then begin exploring it. The students can even build prominent Mughal memorials such as the Taj Mahal and discuss architectural specifics and the culture of the Mughals. One can also switch from the historical mode to the archaeological mode and learn about the Mughal period from a different perspective.

• Ask students to create historical avatars and have virtual conversations with each other suitable to the historical period they are in.
• Engage students in historical biographies by having them create characters to match their learning content.
• In the language class ask students to write autobiographies for the avatars they have created.
• Play a “Guess Who” game as an ice breaking activity at the beginning of the year. Students can create their avatars and ask each other questions to guess who is who.
• If you are a teacher who uses technology to give and accept assignments, create your virtual avatar and build and embed it in your Google docs. This will help you bond better with your students.
• Celebrate an accomplishment of a student, by embedding an avatar onto their Google assignments.
• Teach adjectives by asking students to describe their avatars.
• Practice reading fluency by having students record their voice on Voki (a website that allows you to create avatars, see reference), reading a poem or short passage. You can share this video with the parents or embed it in a digital portfolio if you or your school have the practice of maintaining them.
• Ask students to write a story with their avatar as the protagonist.
• Use the avatars on behaviour management charts and reward systems instead of the students’ actual photos.
• Students can design avatars to practice speaking the language they are learning. A set of instructions can be given to, for example, pronounce new words or state their definitions. Students can also use their avatar as a teacher who speaks the correct version of the word and definition after they have spoken it. This is similar to the use of flash cards, except it is more exciting and fun!
• If you are interested in knowing what the students have been gaining from your lessons or lectures, you can assign a fun class assignment by asking them to give a short one-minute summary of your previous lecture. Their avatar could be the teacher (it could even be you) speaking about a recently learned subject and summarizing the important points.
• Presenting in front of a classroom is not everyone’s cup of tea. Do your shy students a favour by asking them for their presentation on an assigned subject by their avatar.
• Every teacher’s worst fear is that he/she will not be able to hold their students’ attention for long. Bring your lectures to life by asking your avatar to do the talking instead of you. The quirky character will certainly increase their attention span.
• Let your avatar give students their homework, or instructions on making presentations, etc. Let your avatar tell your students what you expect from them. Add this video to your shared classroom folder so that students can re-open and hear the instructions again whenever they need to.

Here are some websites that allow you to create avatars and learn in the process.

Most of these websites are free of cost. They are easy to use and quite fun and most importantly using such tools in the classroom will help your students express themselves.

The author works in DSB International School, Mumbai. She is an educator, historian and writer. She can be reached at fareenqureshi6699@gmail.com.