Leaving Voice Comments to Google Docs via Kaizena

This post was prompted by Hazel Owen's post here. New technologies should make it much easier for all our students to access their learning effectively. Universal Design for Learning is one of the key terms I am trying to understand and apply: How can we design learning environments and learning aexperiences to meet the needs of all our learners? I have shared a presentation on Google Forms for UDL with colleagues before, but we can also adjust Google Docs to meet needs of some of our learners better.

If your students are writing text in Google Docs, you can leave written comments in Google Docs. Using an app like Kaizena, you can also leave voice comments. Why use it? Do you students find it hard / boring to read your comments? Would you like to give your comments some personal touches? Try this:

Installing Kaizena:

• Go to My Drive, click on Create.
• Select connect more apps at the bottom.
• In the new window, type voice into the search bar. Choose Kaizena, then click on connect.

Using Kaizena:

• Select the Google Doc you would like to leave a voice comment for.
• Right click it (Command click on a Mac?). Select Open with, Kaizena.
• The GDoc now opens within Kaizena (it has a dark side bar on the left and the fonts look a little different, but the GDoc remains the same in Google Drive)
• Select who to send the comment to (within the side bar)
• Highlight any area within the document and you get a little Menu with options:

         You can leave a voice comment, a written comment or attach some links / resources.

• By clicking on the green button above the highlighted area, you can review your feedback or add some more. While you are recording, you can scroll through the document though it pays to tell the recipient that you are scrolling while recording because the voice comment itself is linked to the area you had highlighted.
• When you are finished, select the button "Send Feedback to" in the left side bar. You get the choice of adding it to the GDoc as comment or emailing it.
• The feedback will be visible under comments back in the Doc in Google Drive:

If you would like to hear my ramblings on above doc, you can find it here. Please feel free to share some ways of how you use Kaizena or another voice comment app :)