Audio still sounds right for student response

I'm a ways away from blogs and other writing I've done about audio--and at times, audiovisual--feedback (see References below).

In practice, though, I've been sticking to it, lately using Turnitin's built-in audio function (Turnitin itself is built into Blackboard at Drexel), which gives you a one-click option for a three-minute audio response to student assignments.

As I've described, there are many advantages to audio response, including comprehensiveness of response, time spent on task (audio response is fast), and psychological load of responding to student writing.

It strikes me that audio also may be more relevant than ever as teachers struggle with AI, because I think among the authenticity/integrity issues that we're running with AI tools into is the way they may depersonalize the student-teacher writing relationship.

When you provide voice commentary, students hear you--I intentionally emphasized both words. Will that make them feel bad, feel sorry, feel reflective about me as their instructor? I don't know. But I do think that it makes them feel something about me, because I'm clearly on the other end.

What does a student who has intentionally and perhaps maliciously cheated think when they hear that raspy voice of mine enthusiastically and often discursively responding to their work? Perhaps they have ice water in their veins, but it seems my chances of receiving authentic writing from them improve.

Perhaps I'm fooling myself. But it doesn't matter anyway, because providing audio or audiovideo response is faster and more thorough. If it personalizes me along the way, all the better.

A few pieces about this I've written:

“The Low-Stakes, Risk-Friendly Message Board Text.” Teaching with Student Texts: Essays Toward an Informed Practice. Eds. Joseph Harris, John Miles, & Charles Paine. Logan, UT: Utah State UP, 2010. 96-107.  

“Cutting Keystrokes, Improving Communications: Response Technologies for Writing Instruction.” California English 15.1 (September 2009): 27-30. 

“Responding to Student Writing with Audio-Visual Feedback.” Writing and the iGeneration: Composition in the Computer-Mediated Classroom. Eds. Terry Carter and Maria A. Clayton. Southlake, TX: Fountainhead Press, 2008. 201-27.