During a summer of local and international educational development workshops ‘Jing’ has had many outings. I was struck to see how this really simple facility never fails to make people say – “wow, I can really use that”. It’s a low ceiling technology with transformative potential. From my summer ‘tour’ here are some thoughts on how Jing can be used productively by those involved in teaching and supporting learning.

Formative feedback – an assignment walk through
As described here and also by Russell Stannard , Jing can be used to offer feedback on actual assignment work by enabling a visual-voice combination to be used. Feedback can be given and related to the assignment on screen. Early signs are that this approach is widely enjoyed by students who particularly value the ability to play and replay the feedback; the personal tones of the feedback; and, the privacy and convenience of getting the feedback in a location that suits them.

Best bits and “no no’s”(one to many feedback)
To feed forward and enable one group to learn from another, Jing can be a way of presenting good practice and things to avoid. This needs a little care to avoid showing individuals up, but with careful doctoring any ethical issues can be avoided! This can be used as a group feedback method, and can be a useful interim form of feedback when individual comments can’t be provided in time to be useful for the next assessment. Such videos can be added to the VLE or sent direct to students.

Correction
In addition to providing feedback, Jing can assist with directly facilitating corrections. This, I find, is particularly helpful with very specific and detailed tasks. The visual element can help enable the recipient to use tools to make future changes. An example would be a student who has issues with alignment being shown how to use the facility in Word, which shows the spaces and tab marks. In discussion with colleagues I am advised that the same principles may carry to correction of language or sentence structure.

Peer feedback
Lots of attention s being given to teacher led Jing feedback, but this is freeware and as a result can be easily utilised for students giving peer to peer feedback. This might even help with communication skills and confidence.

Summative feedback – a tour of the mark sheet
Students have fed back their desire to know how marks have been allocated. One way this can be brought about is through the use of Jing to discuss the mark itself; perhaps by the tutor talking through the feedback sheet, one section or outcome at a time. In this way Jing can be a useful complementary technology.

A reflective tool for students (an audio layer in the battle against plagiarism)
One of the ways we can mitigate plagiarism, and encourage learners to reflect on their learning processes, is through the inclusion of an annotated bibliography in any assignment. As an alternative, perhaps catering for different styles and preferences, students could review their own assignment and create a walk through of any difficult points, any areas that they feel could be improved and any things they would do different in future. They could also comment on how they found particular readings cited in their work.

Recalling assumptions (project management tool)
As part of my role is project management, Jing also helps with remembering what we did and why. A two minute voice over on a spreadsheet means that when we go back and think how on earth did we arrive at x, y or z, that we have the detail captured from the moment. Jing is now, therefore, becoming a favourite of accountants and data managers as well as teachers!