In the classroom open air feedback is great, but can we use digital tools to capture feedback and make it even more timely and relevant?

Design, Feedback, and Iteration are a way of life in the industry outside the walls of education. No project is ever perfect the first time. Here we will explore ways in which we can make feedback an integral part of the classroom and use some great digital tools to make it even more helpful!

John Paul "JP" Castillo                                  Home        Learn More        Standards        Inspiration​    About the Author        

Students and teachers alike can create a culture of feedback in their classroom. 

At the end of a project the "big reveal" can sometimes be super awesome, like when you watch a big summer blockbuster for the first time and somehow social media managed to not spoil the ending for you. But sometimes the "big reveal" (often) lead to "oh, it would have been better if..." situations or " I wish I would have thought of that earlier" outcomes. Building feedback into the classroom culture and the projects themselves can help alleviate some of these issues as well as help improve the work students are producing overall.

In my project I explored and researched different ways students give and receive feedback. Use of digital tools in my own classroom is already present and students were producing work. Students were learning how to use the tools, but the quality of work was not exactly where I wanted it to be. Through researching studies on feedback in the education environment and action research with my own students - we will see how the different types of feedback, and when the feedback was given, and by whom affected the outcome of student work. 

We will also explore some really great digital tools and use them in different ways to bring feedback into your own classroom!
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Veteran students of Vintage High's Advanced Digital Media Class

Capstone Video

Action Research

​Over the course of two semesters, two rounds of action research took place. Students were involved in two separate projects where feedback was built into several stages of the project. The first project centered on a Project Based Learning (PBL) assignment where students were tasked to create a poster campaign around the school’s cell phone policy, avoiding tardiness and anti-vaping. At several points in the project feedback was given by their peers and towards the end industry partners, community members and campus administration were invited to give their feedback as well. Feedback during this project was given both traditionally with guests and peers orally giving their thoughts as well as digitally through digital forums and online blogs. 

Students then participated in several surveys to determine which type of feedback (oral vs. digital) they found the most helpful and which did they prefer to use the most. The second round of action research centered on the student’s final group project in which they had to write, direct and produce a 3 to 5 minute short film on the genre of their choice. This project allowed them to demonstrate their basic understanding of film, editing and storytelling.