If margins of student papers aren’t enough real estate for your comments, or if you don’t have time to meet all students individually, then Jeff Sommers has a low-threshold application for you. He suggests creating digital recordings that you can insert in Word drafts, directly email to students, or deposit in Blackboard’s Digital Drop Box. Your operating system should already have voice recording software; if not, you can use free, cross-platform downloads like Audacity. Here are some sample commentaries. They are like student-teacher conferences you can take home and listen to in a more comfortable setting with your paper in front of you. Sommers’ recordings are on average only about 5 minutes long, but he covers a lot of ground. Compared with the usual scrawlings on margins, the audio comments are clearer, more precise, more personal, and tackle at length how strongly/weakly ideas are developed. This can encourage students to be more thoughtful about revision instead of basing it solely on where the red ink is. (Here are some interviews with students.) Does anyone think that such an application would be useful in his/her work? What would be the hurdles for you (self-consciousness, time, learning the technology, etc.)?
About
CAC.OPHONY is a weblog on communication-intensive instruction at the college level and its implications for students about to face the challenges of writing and speaking publicly in professional settings. CAC.OPHONY is written and edited by the Fellows of the Bernard L. Schwartz Communication Institute, Baruch College, City University of New York.
Baruch College is the 2008 recipient of TIAA-CREF Theodore M. Hesburgh Award in recognition of the Schwartz Institute's outstanding faculty development programs.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 Unported License.
One of my biggest concerns is my handwriting, so yes. Another concern is that when I really try to explain a problem with a student’s writing, I end up having to write a really REALLY long note that (I suspect) many students may ignore. I know my threshold for listening is much higher than for reading. I like this idea–though I think it would take me a while at first to develop clear, concise comments in this new format.
Reply to Jill
Writing my comments in a word prcocessor rather than by hand usually takes much longer — I feel that they’re more instructive and farther reaching that way, but they do take much much longer to compose. I wonder if audio comments would be the same way. Might be fun to try that some time regardless.
Reply to Mikhail
Hi everyone.
What's a good alternative to the IPOD?
I'm wondering if any of you can recommend a good MP3 player that is comparable to the IPod but WITHOUT they hype and price tabe to go with it.
I was at the apple store a few days ago, and really liked the new 40GB or 80GB IPods that also show video, but was wondering if I could get the same kind of funcationality without that heftly price tag.
Reply to Mateo