As a former English teacher, I have spent hour upon hour writing feedback on students' work and papers. There was a point there where I'd set myself up at my desk at home with a cup of tea or coffee and my favorite purple felt-tip pen. I'd end my comments with smiley faces with the hope that students would see my good intentions in my constructive criticism and be motivated to make the changes that I suggested. I hate to say it, but I would take it a little personally when students did not read my feedback, let alone make actual changes to their work according to my suggestions.
I should also mention that I work in a school for students with dyslexia, and therefore reading and writing are a challenge for most. Perhaps giving students a paragraph of handwritten feedback wasn't the best way to communicate with them in a meaningful way. But then, time just didn't allow for me to have an individual conference with every students every time a big writing assignment came around. What was I to do?
Technology is a beautiful thing. It allows teachers to be in many places at one time in meaningful ways. If I was still teaching students how to write essays today, I would definitely use more tools that allow me to give video feedback to students. Research is starting to prove that video messages are more effective that written ones because they carry more nonverbal cues, such as tone of voice and facial expressions. Check out this article from KQED's MindShift blog about the effectiveness of video feedback. You can also read the article on The Hechinger Report.
There are many simple and free tools that can help with video, or even audio, feedback. The middle school teachers at my school use a workflow iPad app called Showbie. Within the app, teachers can leave voice comments on students' work with the click of a button. Teachers can also use the screen recording feature (available in iOS 11 or higher) on their iPads to give video feedback as well. You can find it in the menu bar that pops up when you swipe up from the bottom of the screen.
On computers, teachers can also use free online tools like Screencast-O-Matic or Screencastify for the Chrome browser to create simple and shareable videos quickly.
Whatever the tool, it's important that teachers make sure that video feedback stays manageable. Develop an efficient system for sharing video files with students and make sure that you're okay with recording okay-quality videos that won't win you any Golden Globes. As the saying goes, perfect is the enemy of the good.
Trying out video feedback? Leave a comment below. Bonus: Send me some video feedback about video feedback! Whoa!
I love your "What was I to do?" it is a great teaching moment!
ReplyDeleteI wish this tool had been available when I too was spending hours and hours constructing thoughtful, approachable handwritten comments... that many of my students weren't reading. Thanks for sharing!
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