One of the things that has always made my life difficult is grading essays. Well, that is what I get for loving literature and deciding to teach it. :-P I have always been on the lookout for ways to cut down on the amount of paper that I have to take home, but essays always seemed to beat me. I have used
Turnitin.com for paper collecting, but need a desktop to grade the essays because they do not have an iPad solution. I want to be able to grade papers on the go. I want to be mobile. Well, the makers of
ShowMe have now made that possible.
Markup is a really cool app that allows me to grade essays by hand. You can find great information here on their
Kickstarter page. The concept is pretty simple. Students email papers to the special Markup email address registered to you and you can grade the essay. It is best to use a stylus when going through the paper. Once the essay is complete, the graded essay can be emailed back to the student. I love the email feature of the app because it is a seamless way to send papers back and forth. It also works great for me because I can cc my Evernote account on the email and store a copy in a digital portfolio. This is awesome. I hope there is a way for Markup to have a "send to" Evernote option so I can just save the paper in Evernote quickly and put it in the Notebook with the tags I want.
I love the app because it is straightforward and easy to use. As a teacher, that is what I am looking for in an app. Markup is the perfect accessory for the teacher looking for a paperless solution for essays and an option to grade on the go. The app is only going to get stronger as Markup receives more feedback from educators. If you are looking for something different that can make grading easier and less messy, pick up Markup.
Price:
$1.99 - iTunes Store
This is the best news I've heard since our school decided to provide each teacher with an iPad! I am thankful that I have a way to avoid "Oh, I turned that in" from certain students who have trouble keeping track of their assignments.
ReplyDeleteVery cool! Is there an Android equivalent?
ReplyDeleteThis is good news - I've been waiting for an iPad solution. I've used Turnitin, and currently use Google Drive (the students submit their work to an electronic inbox using Google Forms). However, these both only work on the laptop. The only thing I will miss with this solution is a text expander useful for comments I frequently make (spelling, grammar, etc.)
ReplyDelete