Annotate for MAC Users

Thanks to some very excited English teachers and a constant stream of emails from interested Mac users, we now have a version of Annotate for Word that runs on Mac Office 2004.

Yes, that was five years ago, but progress is progress.

With the latest release of Mac Office (2008), Microsoft dropped support for Visual Basic for Applications, which is what we wrote the older version of Annotate with (the Word 2007 version is written using .NET). But just as with Word 2007 on the Windows side of the world, many teachers haven’t bothered upgrading. So there are still a lot of Word 2004 computers out there, and we hope to help a lot of those computers help their owners create better feedback for their students.

The free version of Annotate for Word 2004 for Mac Office 2004 (we haven’t figured out a more elegant way to name the thing that is also specific enough) isn’t quite ready, but we’ve got a number of PRO users going already. So don’t hesitate to be in touch…

http://www.11trees.com/annotate-for-word.html

Annotate for Word 2003!!!

Feedback is central to a teacher/student relationship, and the more we experiment with existing feedback tools the more we feel that e-learning technology company’s have forsaken this crucial process for more glitzy tools – like streaming media drop boxes and VoIP solutions. But does a teacher need a wi-fi Skype phone in her classroom? Or a better way to give constructive feedback to her students?

As a small step towards remedying, I have been involved with a project called 11trees.com. 11trees.com’s first tool – available in free and PRO versions – is a customized add-in for Microsoft Word that makes it easy to add many of the typical comments teachers make to students on their writing (at least in high school and college) to a Microsoft Word document.

So many of us are collecting work electronically, or reviewing drafts that our students email to us, that it just makes sense to have a more legible, efficient tool to leverage Microsoft Word.

We released a version for Word 2007 (isn’t it almost 2009?) and many teachers and administrators have found us through Amazon.com, this blog, and kind mentions in a number of different publications and blogs. But we also heard from a large number of teachers begging us to build a version for the Mac or Word 2003.

Apple is whole other kettle of fish, unfortunately, although we are exploring a Mac Office 2008 version of Annotate. But Word 2003 was a no-brainer, since so many institutions and individuals have resisted – often for good reasons – upgrading.

Annotate for Word 2003 Toolbar

The Ribbon interface that is new to Word 2007 is the first major change to Word in many, many years. Most users find it daunting at first (where did my commands go?), but quickly get used to the new arrangement. Because features are grouped by their larger function, Word 2007 can be considerably easier to use than previous versions. The Annotate Ribbon integrates seamlessly with the Word 2007 user interface, and we recommend considering upgrading if you have the opportunity (many schools offer upgrades to teachers for free).

That said, Word 2003 works just fine, most people already have it. So we worked hard through the first couple of weeks of October to develop a Word 2003 version, which in some ways is superior to the Word 2007 version (hot-keys, for one reason).

So check out Annotate for Word 2003!

Annotate for Word 2003 Drop-down menu

Comment Inserted with ONE Click

Sophisticated Rubrics and and the Power of Feedback

We recently presented on a simple change to collecting work from students: ask them to include a cover letter, addressed to the instructor, with their submission of work. This cover letter should reflect upon the previous feedback they have received (from instructors and, most recently, their peer reviewers if applicable). It could also give the reader an overview of the goals of their work and specify areas in which they (the student) are most interested in receiving feedback.

We thought it useful to illustrate this process with examples.

The following example is from a college-level writing class where students were studying the effect of war on culture (and vice-versa). They were given the following assignment:

We will read some articles about Iraq, it’s effects, a history of horror movies, and a detailed account of the US involvement in Somalia.

Project 1 is an academic paper: formal diction, MLA citation formatting, credible research – the works. In four or five pages (1,000 to 1,250 words), you will make an original argument concerning the impact of art on war, or conversely war on art. By ‘art’ we mean the visual arts, music, film, novels – almost any creative undertaking. You can be quite liberal in your selection…just be prepared to defend the choice.

The key here is originality. Did Woodstock influence the Vietnam War? It’s probably easy to argue that it did (and also that it didn’t, since we were in Vietnam for another 6 years). Did the poetry of Wilfred Owen horrify the English so much that they avoided a second war with the Germans? No. And neither of these approaches would make a worthy paper.

Your four to five page paper must have at least three credible sources (not including the assigned work for the class).

It is worth noting that the students read several lengthy articles reviewing pop-culture icons (like the Saw series of films) that argued deep connections to more serious issues than the students might at first see. So they were set up to engage intellectually with material of their own choosing, and connect it to a war. There were several Harry Potter essays, but the results were satisfyingly diverse.

Here is an example cover letter from a student:

Example cover letter: Click for a larger image

Here is the rubric used to assess and respond to the student, as it appears in Waypoint (interactive rubric software – the rubric could be translated to a paper-based approach):

Rubric used to assess and respond: Click for a larger image

This student received the following feedback, along with an annotated document (created in Microsoft Word, then appended to the feedback in Waypoint), from the instructor:

Feedback to student: Click for a larger image

Needless to say, this kind of feedback is unusual in any educational setting – but the above was created in about 8 minutes, and the cover letter process (along with other tips and tricks) helps make sure the process is constructive and useful.

It is worth noting that this assignment was given in the middle of the academic term, so the students could be expected to learn from the feedback, then apply it in a final project that did not receive this kind of detailed feedback.

Annotating Student Work with Microsoft Word

UPDATE: Annotate for Word is now a commercial product (as of September 2008). You can learn more about the free and PRO versions of Annotate for Word by visiting www.11trees.com.

We’ve made considerable progress designing Annotate – an add-in for Microsoft Word. Here are some recent screenshots.

Annotate Ribbon for Word 2007: Citation Drop Down Showing
(click image for a larger version)

The above screenshot shows the different categories of comments available in Annotate: Commenting, Argument, Style, Organization, Citations, and Mechanics. Because citation issues can be so detailed, there is a drop down list with multiple choices. To insert a pre-written comment, the instructor simply highlights text, then clicks on a button in the Annotate Ribbon (or selects a more specific item from a drop down).

After clicking or choosing, a comment like the one below appears:

(click image for a larger image)

In the above example, the “Place Citations” button was clicked, and a simple Post-It note appeared in the text. Notice that the student’s work (the selected text above) has been pulled out, turned purple (a nice neutral color), and the note is automatically inserted. This note takes advantage of a including some additional Advice and a Reference to Purdue’s fantastic OWL site.