Marking assignments using the Amazon Kindle

So I thought I’d give  some feedback to my colleague today on a document he is preparing and although it’s a little different it still gave me a good idea about how practical it would be to marking assignments on a Kindle.

Many people don’t like to read long documents online (me included) and I also don’t like wasting paper by printing everything out, so this seemed like a nice alternative. I should mention I was using the Kindle with Keyboard – although when it arrives I would like to try this again using the Kindle Touch. I find the Keyboard on the Kindle a bit clunky and slow to type with. I also miss the ease of navigating by touch that I get on my smart phone.

 

Ok, so here’s what I did…

First of all I had to adjust my Amazon Kindle settings to allow documents to be forwarded from my UCL email account. See this sending personal documents to Kindle help article. Alternatively, you can transfer files from a computer using a USB cable.

It took me a while to find the document on the Kindle, but once I’d located it I started to read and add my comments.

To add feedback to the document I highlighted the word or sentence and typed either a comment or the wording I would prefer to see.

I was then planning to transfer the file back to the PC using a USB and send it back to my colleague with the notes attached, expecting that he would be able to read them using the Kindle for PC software that is freely available. Unfortunately this functionality doesn’t seem to be available yet, so my only option is to hand the device over for him to read directly or ask him to view it on his smart device (Android and iPhone are currently supported, as well as iPads).

If the Kindle software can sort out sending the document and its notes back to the PC for review I think this system would definitely be a good way to mark student assignments. It would suit those who are comfortable with new technologies, but don’t want to sit in front of a computer marking assignments for hours.

 

Benefits:

• High contrasting text doesn’t strain my eyes like a computer does
• Easy to read in sunlight (yes, it happened to be sunny so I tried it outside)
• Easy to send documents via email to the device (using username@kindle.com)
• Using Send to Kindle for PC I can easily send one or more documents to the Kindle from my Windows computer (a Mac version is coming soon). Once installed the software lets me right click on the document’s name in Windows Explorer and send it to my Kindle or smartphone
• I can mark anywhere without requiring Internet access and send the document back when I am re-connected
• My typed comments are legible to others

Disadvantages:

• Adding feedback is slower than hand-writing or typing on a standard keyboard, which might limit the amount of feedback provided (I’m hoping this is faster on the Kindle Touch)
• Words can’t be crossed out or inserted, you can only add notes to highlighted pieces of text
• Limited options for the author to read the feedback after its been provided – Kindle, iPad and smartphones only
• How to manage large numbers of assignments would require consideration – bulk downloading them from a VLE and syncing them to the device would work, but how would they be delivered back to each student?

Another feature I noticed today was the dictionary automatically pops up a definition when I point the cursor alongside a word. This could be useful for learning languages and for students studying with English as a second language. I’ll write separately on this at a later stage.

 

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Picture sourced from: http://www.flickr.com/photos/wjlonien/6031032246/in/set-72157625188064373