Access all learners with voice!

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In education, inclusivity and accessibility are crucial to amplify student learning potential and foster the development of essential social & emotional learning skills. Our choices must enable us to provide ongoing, personalized instructional support that meets every student’s needs.

Choosing Mote

Finding resources for our classrooms today should seem like an easy task, especially when there are so many options available. However, there are not any that compare with what Mote provides for educators, students, and families. There are amazing features in response to the need of the educational community. When we design our lessons and choose tools to facilitate learning, it is important that the tools chosen promote accessibility and offer versatility for educators in varying roles, grades, and content areas. Mote does exactly this and more.

Mote has something for every learner

Mote offers exactly what educators need to empower all students to access learning. We have the power of voice to provide feedback to our students, explain concepts and provide instructions, build relationships, and inform our school community about events happening in our classrooms and schools. And these are just a few of the many ways to use Mote but which have a powerful impact because of the use of voice to communicate tone! Students can listen to or read the message, transcribe it and select the playback speed. For any class, having this capability is tremendous for providing individualized instruction for students on any topic or concept that students might need some extra reinforcement or to include as part of a lesson.

Learning from one another

Mote offers choices for amplifying learning, and promoting accessibility and does so while also offering a supportive learning community to educators. The Mote Community is dedicated to collaborative learning and continuing to build on how Mote can be used to best meet the needs and interests of all students. Being part of a community helps us to continue to grow and share our ideas and learn new ways to bring Mote into our classrooms to amplify student learning and provide what each student needs to be successful.

Rachelle, Stacey, Alex (top), Lois, and Jon (bottom row)

If you joined in our discussion on May 4th, you saw a lot of wonderful ideas and examples being shared. In the roundtable discussion led by Rachelle Dené Poth, Jon Neale, VP of Education for Mote, and Mote Ambassadors Lois Alston, Alex Isaacs, and Stacey Roshan shared how Mote promotes accessibility and much more for educators, students, and families. Focusing on accessibility is so important as well as deciding which tools will best serve our students. We explored ideas for elementary, middle, and high school and innovative ways to use Mote in our classrooms. If you are looking for a good place to start, anything you choose would be great. I would focus first on accessibility.

Accessibility and SEL with Mote!

Translate in Real-Time: We can offer meaningful feedback to students and do check-ins with families. Choose the language and slow down or speed up the transcription!
Build student confidence in learning by leaving personalized messages!
Provide authentic, timely, and meaningful feedback to support all students regardless of where learning is happening
Foster student-agency as they respond to the feedback received
Facilitate peer collaboration through Mote and build relationships and positive classroom culture!
Foster SEL with the features of Mote – Check out the SEL classroom

So what can you create with Mote?

Individual messages to students to talk them through a challenging problem, to provide encouragement. Our tone and voice make it a more authentic and personalized experience! Stacey loves that Mote gives teachers the ability to explain instruction with both text and audio.

Why Mote makes a difference

With the power of voice, Mote enables us to teach lessons with clear and personalized instructions provided through Mote notes. Students can listen to the messages, play them as often as needed and have that personalized learning experience when they need it.

Visual Art peer critiques! Check out Stacey’s awesome Art example!

Teach lessons with instruction provided through Mote notes. Giving students the opportunity to learn a new concept or practice a skill and then try it on their own, having a Mote note with answer keys & explanation will guide them at their own pace and provide the support they need when they need it:: Check out Alex’s math lessons! Mote Audio in Google Slides

Create a class or school newsletter with Mote: Sharing information and with the power of voice engages the school community even more and helps with feeling connected to teachers and students. See Lois’ The EdTech Wave

Send Mote-ivational messages to families, colleagues and students. Check out the Mote + Canva SEL Room!

Creating a classroom space where students and teachers can listen to messages in one engaging and supportive learning space!

Creating Personalized Certificates: Check out Alex’s 3 Stars QR Mote Messages Receiving a certificate with a Mote message to explain the award and to offer encouragement makes a big difference for students!

Provide School-Wide Bulletin Boards: Themed Bulletin Boards and Positive QR Mote messages

App Smash!

What’s better than app smashing, especially when it involves Mote! Check out the Canva Virtual Classrooms with Mote Player Integration.

And now, learn about the latest integration with Wakelet! You can now embed Mote voice notes into Wakelet collections which will help you to save time, boost engagement, and connect with your community!

Some final tips from our amazing panelists Alex, Lois, and Stacey.

Is there a learning curve when getting started with Mote?

Stacey says: You can get up & running as soon as you add the Chrome extension! One truly beautiful thing about Mote is how easy it is to get going & how intuitive it is. Though it’s not required for students to install the Chrome extension to listen to your voice notes, it’s optimized when everyone has Mote installed.

The #moteminutes playlist on YouTube is a wonderful place to learn how to get going: Check out Stacey’s Walkthrough to get started! Leaving Voice Feedback (with Automatic Transcription!) in Google Docs using Mote

According to Alex,” I was quickly able to hit the ground running after installing the Mote Chrome extension last spring. I had no issues inserting audio motes into my Google Slides to add detailed explanations and warm greetings for my diverse learners. Since then, Mote has become even easier to use, and new integrations with platforms like Wakelet and Twitter have offered my students more variety and accessibility options.”

How does Mote enhance accessibility when facilitating learning in hybrid or fully virtual environments?

Alex says that Mote enhances accessibility in these virtual environments by offering translated audio messages to be sent with little effort. Students can then use these motes to help them approach math problems, understand multi-step directions, and receive updates about class news.

What are your ideas for an educator just getting started?

Stacey: Install Mote and use it to create a voice comment on your next Google Doc or Google Slides

Lois: Start implementing voice Motes in the platforms that you are currently using like Google Workspace for Education. For example, leaving a voice Mote in Google Classroom to welcome students each day would be an easy way to start and a great way to connect with students.

Alex: My best advice for someone starting with Mote would be to send a positive Mote message to a star student and their parent/guardian. The personal touch of a voice message compared to a simple email has made a big difference in my ability to form a stronger bond with my students and their families.

Boosting student engagement and SEL at the end of the year. What ideas can you share?

Lois: SEL + Mote classroom: This room is fully integrated with the Mote player in Canva. Alex and I hope that other educators will use this template to create their own digital SEL space in their classes. We also hope that personalized Mote messages will better assist students in emotional times of need.

What is your favorite way to use Mote?

Alex: My favorite way to use Mote is implementing QR audio motes. Not only have I used this function to create welcome messages outside of my classroom, but it has also allowed me to create more personalized certificates to celebrate student achievement.

Lois: My favorite way to use Mote is to enhance school-wide bulletin boards. Helping teachers create QR Motes has allowed for a more interactive experience for teachers and students when they scan them.

Why Mote makes a difference

Mote helps students to build essential SEL skills, while more meaningfully engaging in the lesson which leads to better content retention. Alex says “Mote has made a difference in my practice by enhancing my feedback and making it more authentic, meaningful, and personal. I am very thankful for how Mote has allowed me to make stronger connections with my students while providing them with memorable moments in my math class. The platform has also saved me time and helped me offer easy-to-understand messages to my diverse groups.”

For Lois, Mote has made a big difference in her practice as a Tech Coach. Using Mote audio messages for monthly EdTech Wave newsletters has allowed her to further explain what is shared on each slide. In addition, using Mote in Wakelet has allowed me to use my voice to leave a message in my collections. I love how Mote is now integrated in Wakelet where voice transcripts allow for more accessibility.

Designing a lesson and creating resources that support students whenever they need it is critical. Mote enables us to do just that.

About the Author

Rachelle Dené Poth is a Foreign Language and STEAM Educator at Riverview High School in Oakmont, PA. She is also an Attorney, Edtech Consultant and Speaker and the Author of seven books about education and edtech. Follow her on Twitter and Instagram at @Rdene915.