Talking,Avatars,Education,The, education Talking Avatars in Education - The Virtual Teacher comes of

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Avatars, Talking Web Characters and Virtualrepresentatives are growing in popularity for one critical reason ..."they work" ... AlterEgos.com hits the web running with its newrelease which is proving perfect for the delivery of training and education toall level of students using Virtual Teachers! With Broadband becoming the standard accessto the Internet in all four corners of the world, the benefits andpossibilities of utilizing rich media and interactivity in marketing arestarting to become a reality if not the norm. One of the most active areas isin the so-called Animated Avatars know by many names such as: Talking WebCharacters, Virtual Representatives, Virtual Characters and Web Compares. Theirpopularity growing every day, it's not by accident, one critical reason is..."they work" , but when it comes to using them to deliver training,presentations or integrated into CBT and education the Virtual Teacher riseseminently to the challenge. AlterEgos hits the web running with its newrelease! Assisted Education Delivery using theubiquitous Virtual Tutor comes of age. Virtual Teachers, educational presenters andtutor can have a new face, available 24 hours a day, 365 days of the year, withthe same happy disposition, virtual, animated, automated lip-syncing andcompelling content combined with contextual delivery. We know that retention isimproved, we know that "lean back" education can be effortlesslyabsorbed and we know that there is nothing more powerful when it comes todelivering complex ideas or facts than the spoken word. Virtual Teachers can beavailable in different forms, ages, sexes and even fantasy. The flexibility isendless. Education creators can concentrate on the subject matter and choosethe ideal Virtual Tutor to assist in the process. Literature assignment can bedelivered in context and even brain teasing science and math education canbecome more precise when you have the help of a virtual tutor that has thepower of "voice". Un-attended education across the web or operatedlocally makes virtual education delivery highly effective and manageable. CBThas a new face, interactive courses can have virtual assistants and guides.Many training and formal educational environment incorporate media within theirpresentations and educational content, and it's not by accident, why? becauseit works! The ability to concentrate on content and its compelling andmemorable delivery is the reason that Virtual Teachers and Tutors are commonplace in establishment high in the corporate stratosphere and junior schoolsalike, they both have something in common, the recognition that compellinganimated virtual teachers can give results in a planned and precise manner,where achievements can be accelerated at all learning levels. This is noaccident, its technology at its best, with a face and a purpose. Take aPowerPoint presentation, graphs, facts, figures and images, nice enough, add avirtual full animated teacher into the mix and you now have a new breed ofeducational delivery. In an educational setting it's a proven factthat information retention and concentration is enhanced when faced withcompelling content. So what should you look for in your animated talkingcharacter. 1: The Avatar Look Is your talking animated character"attractive", or does it look as though it has fallen out of the uglytree, is it well crafted and generally compelling, or amateurish and poorlyanimated. Does it suit your image and delivery requirements... is the qualitysomething you are comfortable associating with. 2: Automated Lip-Syncing Is the avatar lip-sync accurate? there isnothing worse than watching a virtual representative that resembles a badlydubbed movie, it is critical, our brains react in micro-seconds when faced withsomething that doesn't look right! It seems bizarre but most animated talkingcharacter offerings have less than convincing lip-syncing to say the least.Simple tests include; Does the virtual tutors lips stop moving when silent?Does it shape the phonemes correctly or is it just a random selection ofgibberish? 3: Virtual Teachers Ambient animation,Less is more. Animations during the narration should bekept to a minimum and be subtle, almost invisible. When watching a newsbroadcast you would feel uncomfortable is the compares eyes rolled from side toside and they exhibited strange and seemingly un controllable head movements.It is the content being delivered by the speaking avatar that is important, andall animations should be kept to a minimum to avoid distraction. Less isdefinitely more. 4: Virtual Tutor - The Voice Text to speech may seem convenient but it hasa tendency to sound really bad. Remember! this is a virtual representative,your own animated web or media compare it is an extension of your image, unlessyou sound like a robot steer clear of synthesized voices. Use your own voice,or a friends, or shell out for a professional voice over artist, they are notas expensive as you think! In the future TTS will probably improve but at thepresent it should only be used if you have no other option. 5: Tailoring your Virtual Character Some offerings give you loads of tailoringoptions, they even allow the visitor to play with the character during itsnarration. Generally you should try and restrict tailoring to clothing andbackgrounds for the best effect. You want your visitors and users to build arapport with your virtual teacher, so changing its looks continually does notoffer continuity to the visitor or student. Having a Virtual tutor that thevisitor can mess with only detracts from their message. 6: Integration and Hosting your VirtualTeacher Consider that many education deliveryrequirements may be remotely across the internet. Give a great deal of thoughtto this area as its rife with potential additional charges and risks. If youare on a Pay-for-view contract, a contract that charges you a monthly fee forso many streams, the risk is your growth in visitation, you end up with one oftwo potential problems; you have to pay more because you had a highervisitation as your site grows in popularity, or, you can't afford to pay more,so your talking avatar disappears and leaves a block with the suppliers logo inplace. The same goes for supplier hosting, you have no control over theirhosting facility, if you rely on your web compare and your service suppliersservers go down you have lost your "voice". If you own internetservice goes down at least the whole site is no longer visible. Always try anduse a solution that will give you total control, create your composition inyour time, generate industry standard output (Flash, Flash Video orconventional Video ) and have total flexibility when it comes to integration. 7: Flexibility gives your choice. Is flexibility important, would it be nice tohave access to the native output of your efforts in an industry standard formatsuch as Flash, Flash Video, AVI etc so you could integrate your work into otherenvironments such as Powerpoint, Camtasia, youTube etc. Are there any otherservices that can assist you from the supplier such as Voice-Overs, integrationand bespoke services. Can your composition work off-line, can you create themoff-line. Flexibility adds to the return on your investment. Summary Doing any job badly is not a good idea, manypeople grab hold of a new technology and throw it at their audience with littlethought.  Implementing a bad Animated VirtualRepresentative is detrimental and could reflect on your business and/oreducational requirements, take your time in the creation and don't settle forsecond best. After 5 years of trial marketing with a freesolution and talking to over 40,000 users AlterEgos.com was created andreleased in April of this year. Within 2 weeks following its launch it had beenadopted in over 98 countries. At the end of the day Alteregos.com listened totheir user community, it was just a little harder than first thought, but worthit in the end. Download the AlterEgos free edition and giveit a spin. You can get a copy at www.alteregos.com