Feedback is a powerful learning tool. If you are not face to face with your class how well will this be provided?
This article is important in many levels. Firstly feedback is vital if we want outcomes to improve. Wiggins is quick to point out that there is a notable difference between feedback and advice. He also states that we must use all seven characteristics of feedback if we wish to achieve “robust improvements”.
How does this fit in with my philosophy and e-learning? Let’s go back to the cycle in the flipped classroom. Goal setting although teacher led was integral to the process of concept exploration. Set a goal and you know where you are going Therefore goal referenced feedback is a way of keeping students in the direction they want to go. Can goals be modified, certainly and isn't that part of Constructivist thinking? – Build and modify- to create the knowledge you need.
If feedback is to be transparent and tangible what better way than to link it to a model of what your goal is. Here is where technology comes to the fore. Look at the plethora of apps for students to use to present their knowledge or model their response to the project they are involved with. This is truly augmentation. This self-regulation to feedback can be compared to the feedback received from video games. It allows for a change in direction in striving for the goal. Brett Taylor’s insights into gaming as a learning tool in his Scoop about Learning Objects supports this argument. Grant adds that often as teachers we may miss what is or is not happening while we teach, as can student. By recording ourselves or keeping a record of discussions we may be able to look back and find that transparent, tangible feedback and shift our learning direction as needed.
This then becomes actionable feedback. What is working, and what is not? How can I make it work? This type of feedback can be discussed in a social setting through Blogging and reflection by the students, peers and learning coaches (teachers).
In order for the feedback to be ‘user friendly’ it must be perceived as do-able and in terms understood by the learner. What better than feedback from peers. The language is familiar and the understanding on a par with the student to whom the feedback is offered. In Gerstein’s Flipped Classroom, the Meaning-making quadrant offers the opportunity for user friendly feedback.
Technology is probably one of the better ways for timely feedback to be proffered. Time is allowed for reflection, thinking and reviewing the work. Presentations can be edited right up until the minute of presentation. It can be ongoing to allow for constant adjustment and readjustment of ideas and learning. This type of feedback was demonstrated beautifully in Eric Mazur’s U-Tube watched earlier in this course. His advocating of less lecturing and more problem solving, allows the student to actualize the learning in a way that is best for their level of development, whilst still encouraging the thinking process, higher level thinking and problem solving strategies that are meaningful to the student.
Finally consistent feedback keeps both the learner and the coach a symbiotic understanding of how each are travelling on their learning journey. For we are all learners. As teachers we modify our approaches according to the needs of the students from their feedback and as students we are guided by feedback to find our own way in the learning journey.
