Voice Feedback for students

One of my biggest struggles is giving students regular feedback on their writing. I am able to look at their writing on a fairly regular basis, but getting that feedback to them is hard. If I have to type it out it takes hours. If I have to meet with them individually to give them the feedback, it takes days.

Then it hit me - could I send them voice feedback somehow - record my voice giving them quick feedback on their writing (probably 30-60 seconds worth). Then they could listen and use the feedback as they write more.

I work with 4th graders, so I think voice feedback would not only be cool, but might be more effective than written feedback.

Any ideas for an easy way to do this? What technologies could I use? I need a system to organize this easily so that students can "pick up" their message.

Tags: writing

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Permalink Reply by Jack Phelps on November 29, 2007 at 8:26pm

Hi Matt Kish~

I'm curious to know if after a couple of months you've solved your problem. I run a company called ChitChat (http://ChitCh.at), which just released an "educational network" that lets teachers create and share course content, and gives them interactive class websites so their students can respond to assignments online. Right now, we have capabilities that allow teachers to write directly onto student work, just like you would with a red pen. However, I'm really intrigued by the idea of letting you do it with audio, so I think it's something we might try for within a few months. I'd love it if you'd check out what we've got up right now, and let me know if you think it's interesting for you, or if you're not sure how it's useful, etc. jack@chitch.at.

You might also be interested to hear about a company called Snac (www.snacinc.com) that I met recently. They have a pretty sweet flash-based system for commenting on web content, documents, video, etc. I don't know whether or not they have or are exploring audio capabilties, but they're launching pretty soon, so if you keep your eye out maybe you'll see something you like.

Enjoy!
Jack

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Permalink Reply by ddeubel on November 30, 2007 at 1:03am

I am going to check out snacinc.... I'm in EFL teaching and any audio application is of interest.

You might just record on your ipod/computer and then upload to www.podcastpeople.com ?? That might work.

DD