Assessments, Feedback and Technology

Feedback emphasizes strengths of performance and strategies for overcoming challenges. It is targeted and personalized to maximize growth.  How can technology support assessment feedback?  Here is one example.

Grant Wiggins (1998) contends that “assessments should be authentic, with feedback and opportunities for revision to improve rather than simply audit learning”.  There are many ways which technology can support assessment efforts specifically as it relates to providing feedback.  Robert Marzano in his book,  A Handbook for Classroom Instruction That Works, provides us with some questions to consider when planning for providing feedback.  Here are a few of them.

What knowledge will students be learning?

What will I do to ensure that students understand the rubrics?

What will I do to ensure that I provide feedback in a timely manner?

How will I engage students in the feedback process?

How will I monitor the impact of feedback on student learning?

What will I do to help students who are not responding well to feedback?

In his Seven Keys to Effective Feedback Grant Wiggens describes the need for feedback which is timely. Technology affords timely results and feedback to our students.   Several math practice sites such as That Quiz provide immediate feedback as students problem solve.  Many of the gaming programs provide instant feedback on student progress towards a goal so that corrections can be instantly made.

Video and audio recordings of work can provide very specific and transparent feedback to students as in this app. Educational App for Formative Feedback

The computer assists in archiving feedback and assessments with such applications as comments in Google docs.  Kaizena is another way to give verbal feedback to students embedded right into the google doc.  Here is a video to see how it works.  This type of feedback is authentic and is very specific to items on the student’s work itself.

Technology can also provide assessment results to teachers as they form plans.   I would suggest that this is a type of feedback...for teachers.  Teachers can easily aggregate assessment data as they create instructional plans for students. Here is a video I created demonstrating the concept. Accessing Standards Mastery Reports on NHPS Schoolnet .