Five Ways to Use Google Forms in the Classroom

Google Forms is such a useful tool. Listed below are all the different ways Google Forms can be used by the classroom teacher.

1. Use a Google Form to collect parent and student information such as email addresses, phone numbers, and other general information. The hardest part is deciding what information you want to collect. After that it just takes a few minutes to create the form. Once created, copy the link to the form and post it on your website. Keep in mind how parents and students might respond to each of your questions. For example, when you request a name, you might want to do two separate questions, one for the first name and one for the last name. Otherwise, you might not be able to easily sort alphabetically later.

2. Use a Google Form to collect links from student of projects they have done online. This makes it so easy for grading later. I have used a google form to collect the URLs for student created animotos, glogs, toondoos, and prezi presentations. This cuts down on printing and organizes all of my student work in one spreadsheet. I simply have to click through the spreadsheet for class presentations or for grading.

3. Use a Google Form to survey your students. Perhaps you would like to know who they would like to work with when you are about to change groups. Maybe you want their opinion on a certain activity.

4. Use a Google Form to give a quiz. Write a few questions, post the link to your website and ask students to take a quiz. Be sure to take the quiz first so that the first line of your spreadsheet contains the answers. If your quiz is multiple choice, make it self grading. Click here to see a screencast on how to create a quiz that is self grading. For more information on self grading quizzes, check out Wes Fryer's blog Moving at the Speed of Creativity.

5. Use a Google Form as a sign up sheet for various things. For example, my daughter's band director asks students what kind of sandwich they want before the game via a google form.

BookBox - Display Your Favorite Books

BookBox is an easy way to display covers of your favorite books in your blog or webpage. This might be a useful tool for teachers to advertise required reading. Students might use it to show the bookcover when writing book reports for their classroom blog or wiki.

BookBox is very simple to use. All it requires is the title, author, or ISBN number of the desired book. I entered four of my favorite titles for my classroom reading, created a password, and clicked on save and embed. The site generated an embed code for me to copy and paste onto my blog.

My BookBox is located below. If you click on one of the books, it will take you to its Amazon page. This might be convenient in that it gives the student or parent more information on the book as well as pricing information. It is also good for Amazon. The creator of the site indicated that plans were in place to offer additional book stores in the future.

LIve Binder - An Online Notebook for Teachers and Students

Like most teachers my lesson plans are located in a three-ring binder. I have hard copies of any electronic documents, presentations and notes located in this binder. I also have a flash drive that contains all of my electronic items. Bookmarks of relevant sites to my curriculum are saved in Google Bookmarks as favorites. I have always wished that I could keep all of these nice and organized in one place. Live Binder is the answer to this wish.

Live Binder allows you to add text, upload files, and upload links to an online notebook. There are options to share the notebook by email or by embedding it on a blog or webpage. I found it to be pretty easy to create a notebook. It took me a while to gather all of my materials that I wanted to place in the book. The sample notebook that I created below is an AP Statistics unit that is a work in progress. I can easily update it with new items or remove outdated items that I no longer need. The link will always find the most current version.

Live Binder is still in beta and I hope that they add a few more features. I would like to be able to copy and paste pictures from my computer to illustrate some of my lessons. Pictures can be uploaded, but won't appear until they are dowloaded. Currently, pictures from Flicker can be added to illustrate the text. I would also like for there to be an option to turn my documents into ipaper. I could have gotten around this by uploading my documents to Scribd then uploading that link to my Binder. However, I was in a hurry and did not take the time to do this.

I see LiveBinder as a valuable tool for teachers. They can use it for personal use to keep track of their lesson plans as I did in my sample. A department could also display common items to all teachers to embed in their webpage for students and parents to access. The science teachers at McCullough Junior High School have created a Live Binder for their common science forms, links, and assignments. It is located at www.livebinders.com/edit?id=2440 This binder is private and requires an access code. The access code was given to students and is on the science teachers' websites. However, I will not list it here to maintain their privacy. It is nice to have the privacy option available for the content in Live Binder. My sample is public so that you can view it. There are also several other public notebooks at the Live Binder site. Hopefully, you will find this application useful for your classroom.

AP Statistics - Planning a Study

Creating Slide Shows Using Online Applications

My previous post involved sharing slide shows that have already been created. What if we want to create one with the WOW computers? Open Office is available on the computers, but there are other online options as well. Recently, Jose Picardo, a modern languages teacher at Nottingham High School posted information on his blog regarding five different applications for creating presentations. The applications he reviewed are Empressr, Google Docs, Prezi, Slide Rocket, and Zoho Show. At his site, he lists the pros and cons for each program. There are two obvious advantages to using any of these applications. One is that the presentation is accessible from any computer. The other is that presentations can be created collaboratively. Click here to view the Box of Tricks post.

Sharing Presentations Online

Slideshare is an easy way for teachers to post their PowerPoint, OpenOffice, and Pdf presentations online for students to access. Simply upload presentations at http://www.slideshare.net/ Presentations may be made public for everyone to view or private for just a few viewers. Share presentations with others either by copying a link or embedding the presentation in a blog or website. Assign tags for organizing and to facilitating a search for content. Slideshare also keeps statistics on how often the presentation is viewed. This gives the teacher information on whether or not the presentations are actually viewed. Above right is a snapshot of a slide show with information on the number of views and the tags that apply to the content of the presentation.

View the presentation below for more information on using slideshare.

SlideShare Quick Tour - Summary of features & capabilities

View more OpenOffice presentations from Amit Ranjan.

Kindle for iPhone

You may have heard of Amazon's Kindle, which is a wireless reading device that retails for $359. It is gaining in popularity because it is so lightweight and can store 1500 books. The Kindle didn't appeal to me at first because of the initial expense and because the books that I read most often come from the library. The only books I tend to buy are those that I use as resources in my classroom.

I recently discovered that the iPhone has a FREE Kindle application. In addition, there are numerous books available from Amazon for the Kindle that are free. Amazon also offers the option to read a sample of any book before you buy it. I downloaded the app and researched the Kindle book offerings on Amazon. All of the classics that are on high school reading lists such as Jane Eyre and The Scarlett Letter are available free of charge. Most of the other books are $9.99 or less. Plus, there are several promotional books by famous authors that Amazon makes available for free. I have downloaded several of these free books as well as sample chapters of books I am interested in reading.

I have to admit reading on the iphone is very pleasant. I love the flexibility of being able to read while standing in line or waiting for my daughter. The lighting in the background is bright enough to read in the dark, yet very comfortable on the eyes. It is so easy to hold the phone while reading and flip pages with a finger. The only thing that is keeping me from reading exclusively on the iPhone is the price of the books. I find it difficult to justify purchasing a book when I can check it out free from the library. However, I do plan to buy some books for my iPhone this summer when I travel. No longer will I be limited by the number of books my luggage will hold.

Using Google Docs In the Classroom

I was first introduced to Google Docs by my daughter's band director, Amanda Pritchard at York Junior High. Ms. Pritchard created a form that she posted on her website for band parents to complete. It was a questionnaire regarding email addresses and other contact information. I clicked on the link to the form, completed my information and submitted. I got a message that my information had been added to her spreadsheet. Instead of spending hours compiling a contact list from handwritten information, the band director created one form, added it to her website, and notified band parents to access the link. In essence the band parents collaboratively completed her contact list for her. This was amazing to me! I was instantly interested in finding out more about Google Docs.

I visited the Google Educators site and found this great slide show on how Google Docs can be used in the classroom. I also discovered that every teacher and student already has a google account through a partnership between Conroe ISD and Google. Usernames for students and teachers are the same as in first class. The password is *last 5 digits of their social security numbers. This means that teachers can create short quizzes by using a form and posting a link to their website. Students can take the quiz by clicking on the link and signing into their google account. When their answers are submitted, the teacher's spreadsheet will show the date, time, and username of each submission.

There are many more uses for Google Docs. The Common Craft video embedded below gives a great introduction on how to get started with Google Docs. For more ideas, be sure to watch the slide show for educators.

Organize a Lesson with Drop.io

I used drop.io to organize all of my technological tools that I planned to use during a recent WOW (Web on Wheels) study session. I loved it. Drop.io worked like a webpage, only much easier to set up and create. I quickly added links to the site to give us access to Web 2.0 tools I wanted to access. It took just a minute to upload the documents that described the tools we were using as well as the tools we used at the previous study session. I was also able to send the drop an email and upload a photo of my class. I even accessed the chat feature and left a quick note. I could have also recorded a voice message by phoning the drop. Creating this drop was so easy that from now on anytime I lead a class or inservice where technology is involved, I will use drop.io.

To view the WOW teacher drop please click here. This drop is not password protected. Visitors can add comments, documents, voice mail, links, notes, music and send an email. The only feature that visitors do not have access to is the delete option. Drop.io accounts are private and can not be found via a search engine.

Teachers working in teams could use a drop to share all of their documents. Many times I have heard teachers complain that they are filling up their email memory quotas by sending large documents or PowerPoints to each other. A drop.io account would solve this problem since each drop allows users 100 MB of storage. Each drop is a secure site and could be password protected. Plus, it is accessible wherever there is an internet connection. For more information, see the how-to video on the drop.io home page.

Choice and Differentiated Instruction

Malcom Gladwell, author of Blink, The Tipping Point, and my personal favorite Outliers, talks about choice in the video embedded below. The video reminded me of providing choices for students to learn information when differentiating instruction. In the video, Gladwell discusses how Ragu and Prego were missing 1/3 of consumers by not offering chunky spaghetti sauce. In the same way we miss a large group of our students if the only method we use is lecture. Also in the video, Gladwell discusses Pepsi's pursuit of finding the best Diet Pepsi. Pepsi employed Dr. Howard Moscowitz to discover the public's perception of the best tasting formula for diet Pepsi. Dr. Moscowitz collected a great deal of data, but came to the conclusion that it is not the best Pepsi that we should seek but the best Pepsis (plural). Similarly, there is not just one great way to teach and learn, but a variety of ways to do so. Education is not a one size fits all for either teachers or students. Ideally, we need a collection of best practices to use for every unit we teach. Both students and teachers will enjoy class more if they are provided choices in how they receive new information as well as choices in how they demonstrate mastery.


Our WOW carts and integrating technology into the classroom can become part of our collection 0f best practices. These tools provide another mode of instruction for students to both learn and demonstrate acquired knowledge. We now have so much more available to us as teachers than ever before. We have online flash cards, interactive posters, slide shows, streaming video, and online notebooks to name a few of the tools available. With all these choices students are sure to find rich experiences in the 21st century classroom.

Glogster

I have recently discovered several Web 2.0 applications to utilize in the high school classroom. One of these tools is called glogster. This application allows users to create online posters with uploaded or linked graphics. Users may add text, images, video, and sound. Posters may be published or kept private. Teachers can create accounts for up to 200 students. I quickly created a glogster poster with the course I teach, AP Statistics as a theme. It took only a few minutes to get used to using the available tools. I have embedded a copy of my glog below.