Welcome to Day 8 of the 2020 Appvent Calendar.  Today we will share a feedback tool called Mote.

As with many of the entries on the calendar this year and a hallmark of many a good edtech company or app, today’s entry has really come into its own in supporting both a reduction in teacher workload, and evidence-informed uses of technology, and has made things more accessible for learners the world over.

A Google Chrome extension, today’s entry on the Appvent Calendar is the super-useful feedback tool, Mote from JustMote

What is Mote?

Mote is a feedback tool that once plugged into your Chrome extension, quickly and easily allows you to leave audio comments and feedback for your learners. More works in the same way across many of your favourite Google Suite tools such as Google Docs, Sheets, Slides and Google Classroom. In order to use Mote, simply install it into Chrome and when looking to leave feedback, simply:

– highlight the word or section you wish to leave feedback on,

– choose the comment option

– press on the Mote icon which will have appeared

– record your audio feedback for your learners

Mote – A Feedback Tool

It is that simple!

Once you have left your feedback, all you then need to do is leave it there for your learner to listen and respond to.

Mote offer three tiers of access to the tool, with additional features unlocked in each tier. What I love is that even if you go for the free option, the time-savings and high-quality accessible feedback you can leave your learners is still truly available to you. Your biggest concern here would be that you only have 30 seconds to leave feedback which may compel you to look for one of the premium packages, but given that you still have unlimited Mote recordings available to you, this might not seem worth it.

Anything else?

If you were to stump up for a premium package, there are two options available to you:

Essential and Unlimited. At these price points, if you are a school which is making heavy use of Google Suite and you want to leave accessible and impactful feedback that will help you reduce your workload, either of the two premium packages are attractive. Given how much time you would gain back and the cost-saving to benefit improvement this would bring you, Mote’s offer seems quite compelling.

With a paid option, not only will your recording time increase to 90 seconds but you will also gain additional functionality such as transcription, so that your learners can not just hear your voice but read that functionality back too.

Alongside the transcription feature, you will also gain access to what Mote call ‘STEM mode’.

STEM mode is the same as the basic transcription feature but is super-useful for those teachers of STEM subjects where you will have to leave either scientific feedback, e.g. chemical equations, or feedback related to Mathematical equations, e.g. 2x + 4x = 3y

And if you make a mistake, or the transcription comes through not quite correctly, it’s a simple click or two to fix it in the Mote transcript editor.

What’s new?

Another great feature for unlimited users on Mote is what they call their ‘Motebook’. Motebook is a feature whereby you can save frequently recorded feedback which is then easily reusable for multiple groups.

So for example, let’s say you teach 5 Year 7 groups and you need to leave them all the same message in Google Classroom – perhaps it’s a homework, perhaps it’s a common misconception, perhaps it’s a reminder to bring in some special equipment for your next lesson – there are many scenarios where, as teachers, we regularly have to leave common feedback comments.

Simply record your Mote audio note once, then simply reuse it with all of your other relevant groups: it’s that simple.

The steps to complete this are very easy too, and in a world where there’s often no need to reinvent the wheel, check out this brief video which demonstrates how you do it:

Hot off the press:

On Monday, Mote launched a new feature into Mote which I think is absolutely superb. They call it the ‘Motepad’ and essentially it allows you to repurpose your Mote notes into other apps. Simply go to your Motepad, find the Mote note that you wish to share into another app, from there you simply gain a URL which you can copy and then simply paste into any other location that you desire. Hey presto!