I love audio and listen to a lot of it! Research shows listening to books is just as effective as reading for comprehension and retention.
I still think writing has a unique status as a communication technology because of the series of translations required. (Audio is "A's thoughts -> A's words -> B's word detection -> B's thoughts"; Written language has the added mediating step of "words -> letters" and back.)
Footnote 3 - Short video feedback for an essay is something I had never considered, super interesting to think about. Have you ever written in depth about it? Would love to hear more about how that worked, and where the idea came from.
I'm not sure if there's a whole blog post there, but I'll think on it :). The tl;dr feedback format would generally be:
-voice over high-level evaluation of essay
-1-2 pieces of constructive criticism
-recap/positive ending note
To elaborate a bit on the FN: Video is nice for constructive criticism in particular because you can soften the tone for what might sound blunt if the student were just reading it. You can also highlight a pattern across the essay (e.g., "some of your transitions feel abrupt"), then jump around (e.g., point out few different paragraphs and suggest a transitional phrase in each spot).
What about people who process audio more easily than text?
I love audio and listen to a lot of it! Research shows listening to books is just as effective as reading for comprehension and retention.
I still think writing has a unique status as a communication technology because of the series of translations required. (Audio is "A's thoughts -> A's words -> B's word detection -> B's thoughts"; Written language has the added mediating step of "words -> letters" and back.)
Footnote 3 - Short video feedback for an essay is something I had never considered, super interesting to think about. Have you ever written in depth about it? Would love to hear more about how that worked, and where the idea came from.
Yeah, I got the idea from a colleague!
I'm not sure if there's a whole blog post there, but I'll think on it :). The tl;dr feedback format would generally be:
-voice over high-level evaluation of essay
-1-2 pieces of constructive criticism
-recap/positive ending note
To elaborate a bit on the FN: Video is nice for constructive criticism in particular because you can soften the tone for what might sound blunt if the student were just reading it. You can also highlight a pattern across the essay (e.g., "some of your transitions feel abrupt"), then jump around (e.g., point out few different paragraphs and suggest a transitional phrase in each spot).