Technology and Feedback Design

This chapter provides a synthesis of recent research into how technology can support effective feedback. It begins by adopting a definition of feedback in line with recent advances in feedback research. Rather than viewing feedback as mere information provision, feedback is viewed as an active process that students undertake using information from a variety of sources. The results of a systematic literature search into technology and feedback are then presented, structured around the parties involved in feedback: students, their peers, educators, and computers. The specific feedback technologies focused on include digital recordings; bug in ear technologies; automated feedback; and intelligent tutoring systems. Based on this synthesis of the literature, benefits, challenges and design implications are presented for key feedback technologies. The chapter concludes with a discussion of improved feedback approaches that are likely to be enabled by technology in the future.