How do you get feedback on educational technology?

Identifying goals and audience prior to soliciting feedback for an educational technology tool is essential for targeted and effective improvements. Your goals set the trajectory—whether it is enhancing student engagement, streamlining administrative tasks, or elevating instructional quality. Understanding your audience will help tailor the types of questions you ask and the methodology you employ. For example, asking students may offer insights into user-friendliness and engagement, whereas teachers can provide valuable perspectives on curriculum alignment and classroom utility. This nuanced approach ensures that feedback is not just collected but is actionable, aiding in the refinement.

Formative feedback is often conducted best with simple informal methods. Teacher can solicit key information with a simple question to a group, "Who had an issue using this tool/platform?" or "What tip would you share with a new student/user about this tool?" Such checks can be frequent, low-cost, and provide highly accurate and relevant information. Summative checks often benefit from more systematic inquiry and analysis. But the research questions are generally similar: "Should we continue to use this tool?" "Are there alternatives that would reduce the resource consumption to users and instructors?" "Do we have the capacity to smooth over things that interrupt what we are trying to achieve?"

There are 2 essential elements for feedback to be relevant in education. 1. Psychological safety is a fundamental support that we as individuals must guarantee. No technology can replace it. It is the basis for generating safe and open environments, with transparent and effective communication. 2. Technology helps us to give and receive feedback, and to consolidate relevant data during the learning process. Data are measurable, and therefore are the reference for improvement. What is the result? By combining these two axes, psychological safety and technology, we establish a learning culture based on feedback. And this culture promotes growth.