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Hacking #flipclass With Kaizena

1/19/2015

5 Comments

 
As I have noted at least a million times on this blog, I teach three different preps (AP English Lang, Desktop Publishing, and garden-variety American Lit), and have 100 students on our 4x4 block schedule. So yeah. That equals a lot of grading. 

And since I don't think letter grades tell students anything useful about their essays, that means I'm giving a LOT of feedback. Like, A LOT A LOT. My fingers can't type that fast, not fast enough to give meaningful feedback on 200-ish assignments every week.  So Kaizena helps me. 

In case you don't know Kaizena, it's an app for Google Drive that allows you to leave voice comments on Google Docs. By using Kaizena to respond to student essays, I can much more realistically give feedback to that cavalcade of students. It allows me (and allows them) to feel like we're having sort of a writing conference, which I know is ideal for every student on every major writing assignment, and is also completely unrealistic. I love the fact that students can go back and replay my commentary on assignments, which in some ways improves upon a "real" writing conference: this way, little side trails and details don't get lost in the ether. My students will tell you I talk and think in tangents, some of which actually turn out to be interesting/useful. 

And Kaizena cuts off your voice comment at three minutes, which is perfect. It forces me to be concise, and let's be honest: three minutes is about the limit for anyone listening to a recording of me rambling about an essay. 

So yeah. Kaizena is just a couple dudes. They are awesome. They aren't paying me to write this, nor are they shipping me to conferences or anything. They just make a really cool little program, and it has a place in any class--particularly ones that are writing-intensive. 


5 Comments
Delia
1/19/2015 10:00:46 am

Kaizena is one of the many things I've been meaning to try this year & not gotten to yet...I am definitely adding it to my list of things to investigate further.

Reply
Tamara
1/19/2015 10:14:17 am

Sounds like an awesome app. Do they have video comments?

Reply
Robin Nehila link
1/19/2015 11:17:35 am

That sounds so cool! I don't do essays but maybe I'll have them type up a math problem on a google doc so I can try it out. My students would love that.

Reply
Shai McGowan
1/20/2015 10:37:29 am

I have heard of this, but have never tried it. May give it a try once my students submit their essays on their mathematician.

Reply
Dean W link
12/2/2020 10:01:35 pm

Apprecciate you blogging this

Reply



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