How to Provide Real-Time Feedback with Kaizena

Kaizena is an excellent web-based tool that allows educators to provide high quality verbal and textual feedback with less time and effort than traditional assessment methods. Students are the real benefactors; however, as current research strongly suggests that audio file feedback is preferred by most students because it allows for a clear and more detailed assessment that is tailored to each individual student (King, D., McGugan, S., & Bunyan, N., 2008). In essence, students are more engaged in the learning process because Kaizena allows students to receive personalized feedback that is more inspiring of improvement. 

Kaizena's impressive functionality is also highlighted by the following features:

- a tracking/rating system for skills and/or content.

- a tagging option to easily locate previously documented learning resources.

- an on-demand actionable resources library that students can access via hyperlink.


How To Get Started:




Sample Activities:

Click here to start sharing your ideas with other educators. Please feel free to access this resource in the future as more ideas are added on a regular basis.


Teach-nology:
(the pedagogical rationale for the use of technology in the classroom)  

Skill	Teach-nology
Literacy	To demonstrate the ability to use language to read, write, listen and speak. To evaluate feedback constructively and and competently.
Make Judgments & Decisions	To reflect critically on learning experiences and processes.
Reason Effectively	To use various types of reasoning (e.g. inductive, deductive, etc.) to improve one's written output or comprehensive of the content.

Kaizena is quickly gaining a reputation as a go-to student feedback tool for educators. To get started, click here!


This post originally appeared on The De-tech-tive 4 Teachers technology blog.

King, D., McGugan, S., & Bunyan, N. (2008). Does it make a difference? Replacing text with audio 

     feedback. Practice and Evidence of Scholarship of Teaching and Learning in Higher Education, 3 (2), 145-

     163.

SpeakPipe - A Voice Mail Service for Bloggers

The most incredible thing happened to me today - I received my first voicemail!  Now you are probably thinking, Lynda, where have you been?   Voicemail technology has been around for years!  Of course, receiving voicemails from a phone is not what I am referring to.  The voicemail I received was from my blog.  Before I explain how this works, I would like to thank Craig Martin from Boston for sending me my very first voicemail.  :)


SpeakPipe is an easy to use voicemail service that allows bloggers to connect with their readers verbally.  Once an account has been created, users can customize their widget by selecting what text appears on the button, as well as the color and location of the widget.  It only takes a few minutes to set up and then users are ready to receive voice messages.


Other nice features of SpeakPipe include:
1.  No need to learn HTML code, as SpeakPipe generates the code for you.  All you need to do is copy and paste it into your blog platform settings.  


2.  The SpeakPipe button sits discreetly on your blog and when a visitor scrolls up and down, the button is still visible.


While in beta, SpeakPipe is free but once the site is officially launched, users will be charged for the service. In the meantime, I encourage you to give it a try!


Below is a quick tutorial with screen shots on how to send a voice message using SpeakPipe.



Step 1: Locate and click the "Send Voicemail" button.

Step 2: A smaller window will appear. When ready, click on the green "Start Recording" button.

Step 3: Another small window may appear requesting access to the computer's camera and microphone. Click on "Allow" and record your message. Messages can be a maximum of 10 minutes in length.

Step 4: Once the message is complete, click on "Stop". Next, you will be prompted to type in your name and email. This is optional. Before sending the message, it is wise to listen to it first. Click on "Play" to do so. When ready, click on the "Send" button to send your message.

When a reader sends a message, an email is sent to the blog author to notify them of the new message.  Messages can be played from the SpeakPipe Inbox where they can either be deleted or downloaded to your personal computer.

SpeakPipe is a great way to receive verbal feedback from your blog readers. This verbal connection may have more of an impact than plain text. To get started, visit the SpeakPipe website here.


This post originally appeared on The De-tech-tive 4 Teachers.