Save time, produce high quality feedback and the students love it!
In the week that the Schools Minister, Nick Gibb called for a ban on mobile phones in schools (not really wishing to open that can of worms, but the full debate is here!) , I discovered a brilliant website that helps teachers to give specific and detailed feedback to students through the use of QR codes.
In this blog, I’ll briefly share how I’ve been using this feedback with my students and give some hints and tips on how it could be used more widely as a feedback tool.
I think the first thing worth mentioning is that Qwiqr (https://qwiqr.co.uk/) is a real feat considering its creator is a full-time physics teacher. Mark Waller (@EduWaller and well worth a follow!) set up this website to help him give better feedback to his students and I think it’s about to be a real hit.
What’s great about this app is that, once you’ve printed the QR codes, everything can be done via your mobile phone. The website itself is easy to navigate so there’s no lengthy set-up process or faffing required.
Once you open the website, you’ll be given a choice as to which bit of feedback you want to provide. This can be audio feedback, text feedback or even video feedback (see my previous blog for some tips on how to record useful feedback)
The added flexibility of being able to record videos is great for ‘walking, talking, mock’ feedback or marking commentaries. One of my colleagues, Sophie, regularly conducts ‘Sketchbook Tours’ in Art, and this programme is great for something like that. This enables students to see exactly where you require improvements/ changes.
It might be an idea to purchase a mobile phone holder like the one below, I’ve found this useful as it means I can do lots of pointing and explaining to support my explanations and my feedback on students’ work.
So, how could I use it?
- Talk through an exemplar piece of work so that students have access to a live commentary on a top-grade piece
- Compile a booklet of FAILS (First Attempts in Learning) to give feedback on students’ ‘first attempts’. Share this and use it as a reference point later in the course to show how far they’ve really come.
- Talk through a paragraph/ section of writing (how to write the perfect introduction/ thesis statements). Photocopy the codes onto revision booklets/ resources.
- Use it to scaffold a process/ task- ‘ I do, You Watch’, e.g. ‘How Miss________ would analyse a poem’, ‘ Tips and Traps of _____________’
- Record a process/ experiment/ demonstration
- To make information videos on key content or get students to make their own.
In short, I really like this website and I’ve noticed a positive response from students- here are some reviews that students have shared:
I’ve found this way of getting feedback useful especially because I got to see first-hand what teachers are looking for. It allowed me to know where exactly to improve not only in my own work, but in other students’ work, too.
Usually when teachers have written feedback, it’s sometimes hard to understand exactly what that means but this makes understanding the teacher’s/ examiner’s thought process easier.
Holly, Year 10
If you’re in a school where mobile phones are allowed, it would be great to be in the room whilst students are accessing their feedback- pausing, making changes and alterations, understanding and acting on your specific feedback. That can be quite a powerful moment in a classroom (it feels as though you’ve cloned yourself in all of your best feedback glory).
I’d love to hear from any of you who are trying this out too and what your experience has been.
Happy scanning!
