Topic 2 Ways to provide feedback to learners effectively (digital resources and tools)

Digital tools and resources for giving feedback are indeed numerous and somewhat dependent on the specific field of study. Most of the current offer is not free of charge. Some tools support oral and some written feedback options.

The list is indefinite and new tools are presented daily. Here we provide a short outline as to many different forms in use:

Jing– the video feedback platform

Jing is a free TechSmith product which can help you create screencasts and share them easily on the internet. Your casts will also be available on your screencast.com profile. TechSmith gives you 2GB free storage on Screencast and you can go Pro if this is not enough for your purposes. After you install Jing, the software’s toolbar appears on top of your desktop and can be accessed right from there while you are doing anything in any other programmes. So you can open a word document, start editing it and video the whole process for the learner to watch at a later time.

Knovio– the video feedback platform

If you have some time and want to create something really impressive, this is where you should look for it. Create a presentation of the feedback, play the presentation and use a camera to add your own video to the feedback. So your learners have the chance to see the online edition of their work being corrected while they can watch their teacher talking about it at the same time. Knovio has an iPad app which gives you the same functions there as well. It is primarily an application to help you add your video to your presentations which is a very useful tool for flipped classes but can also be used to provide extraordinary feedback video files!

Kaizena– the ultimate feedback platform

Kaizen means ‘good change’ in Japanese and is some sort of philosophy towards continuous improvement. This innovative online tool works seamlessly with Google Drive and Google Docs. If your learners send you first drafts through Google Drive, then this is the tool you shouldn’t miss. You can work on the documents on their website or you can add their add-on to your Google Drive and work on documents right within Google Docs. In Kaizena you can highlight parts of the document and record your voice in small segments. Kaizena has even taken a step forward and creates unique teacher URLs and this means the learners can request feedback on a specific part of their document and an e-mail is sent to the teacher to come back to the file and give the feedback the student needs. This is a two-way platform which means the students can listen to the audio feedback and record their own voice and reply to the teacher’s comment.

Evernote

Evernote is an amazingly diverse tool that allows users to create audio notes. To provide feedback, teachers can record their feedback as an audio note, create a public link and send it to the student. A teacher’s voice means a lot more to a student than the written word.

The Livescribe Pen

Another versatile tool, Livescribe pens allow users to take traditional notes and record the sound in the room at the same time. For the pen to work, you do need special paper, but users can then stop, rewind and playback audio that has been recorded. Teachers could create a “pencast” for each student so that when they tap a symbol or a set of words written on the paper (it also comes in sticky note form), they can hear the teacher’s voice. This is also a great solution for giving feedback to struggling readers.

 Schoology: Best known as a high-powered Learning Managing System (LMS), Schoology is, arguably, even better as a feedback tool. Like Kidblog, Schoology gives teachers and students the option to communicate in writing. Better still, Schoology has built-in media features, making audio and video feedback as easy as point and click.

Voki: Known as an animated podcasting site, Voki is vastly underrated as a feedback tool. Creating avatars and giving them a voice does take time, but students love the interactivity of Voki. Ask your most shy student to evaluate her work with Voki, and she’ll quickly come out of her shell.

Flipgrid – Terrific tool for recording short video responses to questions.  FlipGrid has been acquired by Microsoft and is now completely free!

PeerGrade – Run a “live session” for student peer review of work. Students sign in with a code, no email needed. They submit their work with a Google Drive link, a link to URL, text typed right in the app, or by uploading a file. They then give feedback on the work of 3 other students. And finally receive their own feedback.

Spiral –  Currently includes 3 types of student activities: Quickfire for quick questions and answers, Discuss for interactive presentations, and Team Up for group work.

Vizia – Import a video from YouTube or Wistia. At any point in the video, easily insert polls and questions to check for understanding. Students play the video, it stops where you’ve inserted a question. Students need to answer or skip questions to proceed. Results can be added to a Google sheet, along with student name.

Floop – a browser-based tool that eases the process of providing students with digital, interactive feedback on their paper-based assignments and it’s available on all platforms. With Floop, students can submit their assignments by snapping a photo of their worksheet or document and uploading it online. Teachers and classmates can post comments and mark-up a student’s document digitally. Students can see and respond to feedback instantly or ask questions privately in order to enhance their learning.