If you haven't had the chance yet, go check out www.voki.com. This great website can offer a lot of educational fun for your students (K-6). I don't recommend it in higher education. This site is free, but if you want to create a classroom on voki, this will add an expense, even though it's not too much. On this site, kids can create avatars to communicate their thoughts and have fun doing it!
So how does this relate to service learning? All ages need to learn to reflect about what they are doing in and outside the classroom, right? Voki is just another tool to encourage them to do so. You can give them a question about their service learning project, and they can respond through their avatar. They can change the voice, the look, the clothes, etc. This allows them to think about what their avatar will say. Each student's avatar can then talk to another student avatar. You now have created an internet class and deep discussions!
Any tool that encourages creative reflection and thought should be explored. Voki is an additional option to make your classroom a little more interesting and exciting. I suggest that you take a peek. Look around and see for yourself how fun it is to make your own avatar :0)
So how does this relate to service learning? All ages need to learn to reflect about what they are doing in and outside the classroom, right? Voki is just another tool to encourage them to do so. You can give them a question about their service learning project, and they can respond through their avatar. They can change the voice, the look, the clothes, etc. This allows them to think about what their avatar will say. Each student's avatar can then talk to another student avatar. You now have created an internet class and deep discussions!
Any tool that encourages creative reflection and thought should be explored. Voki is an additional option to make your classroom a little more interesting and exciting. I suggest that you take a peek. Look around and see for yourself how fun it is to make your own avatar :0)