Cha-Jing!

     Just this semester, I have had the experience of receiving feedback from a teacher via voice notes on the BlackBoard discussion board. I had never been evaluated this way, but I have to say I thought it was very useful and allowed for a better interaction. The tone of voice one uses when speaking says a lot about the point and the attitude that they are trying to get across. I could mistake a serious piece of feedback for something not-so-significant when the evaluation is just in writing or on a grading rubric versus the voice notes. She went through each part of our rubric in the voice notes, which allowed for me to hear which parts she really wanted me to work on more. The voice notes are the same as handwritten evaluations in the way that you can refer back to them at any time, but the voice notes are more useful because they will never get lost! Just log on to BlackBoard, and there they are. No hassle of keeping track of papers.
     I feel that it is important for me to learn skills such as using the voice notes for future classes. Even if I do not become a teacher, the world around us is constantly becoming more and more digital. We are moving into a time of digital learning, digital lectures, and so on. As of now, I do not know how to create a voice note, but would like to learn. I believe I would be able to catch on quickly and would like to explore other ways of digital teaching and evaluation.
     I recently learned about Jing, a way to conduct voice notes into a PowerPoint. I have not used it yet, but would like to try it out in future projects. It seems like a great way to guide your audience (or classroom) along with the PowerPoint, allowing a teacher to use the slides for more visual learning and leave the words for the audio, through Jing.