Google Forms in Schools

Google Forms are an often underused element of the Google Apps for Education suite. Here I will share 3 different examples that I have played with in my primary classroom.

Student Peer Feedback
As part of our oral language curriculum, students present fortnightly presentations to the class on a range of topics. There are a number of elements that we have focused on and following on from just having teacher assessment, we created as a class, the following Google Form as a peer assessment rubric. Students (with 1:1 devices), would complete the survey following the presentation, providing immediate feedback to the presenter.
*I initially created the template and then each student would create a copy, and share their link on the day of their talk. This way the feedback was only viewable by the presenter (owner).



Student Pre and Post Assessment
Thanks to Anthony Speranza (check out his great blog here) for inspiring my interest in this incredibly powerful use of Google Forms. At this stage I have only just scratched the surface, creating a pre-assessment (that will also be used as post assessment) for a 5/6 "Fractions" unit. Using Flubaroo add-on, the test is graded immediately and allows targeted teaching from the very beginning of the unit. Following the unit and with the pre and post data, effect sizes can be calculated. If this interests you, please read Anthony's blog and his slides from his presentation at ISTE 2014- it goes into great detail and truly outlines the power of Forms for a whole range of assessment- pre, post and formative.



Staff Feedback
A quick and easy way to gather feedback from staff is to design a form that can be emailed out with the click of a button. At the beginning of this year, new to my role as ICT leader and new to the school, I designed the following Form to get a snapshot of staff competencies, attitudes and uses of ICT.



I'm sure these 3 ideas are only scratching the surface of Forms and how they can be used in the school setting. Please leave comments and share any thoughts and ideas of how you have or could use Forms to enhance teaching and learning.

Cooliris 3D Photo Wall Tool

Here is a cool web 2.0 tool (also available as an iPad app), that displays photos as a 3D wall. Ideal for websites and blogs! No login required, just need to have your photos in a Picasaweb album (and make sure it is permissioned to public access) or you can also use Flickr.
Make your own at: Cooliris

Awesome Google Facts and Figures!

Source: BestComputerScienceDegrees.com

Encouraging Higher Order Thinking Skills

The concept of "Googleable vs Non-Googleable" questions was mentioned to me many months ago but I again stumbled over the reference to this brilliant concept.

Thanks to Ewan McIntosh for this insightful read:
http://notosh.com/lab/googleable-vs-non-googleable-questions/

Here is an example I conjured from a from a Year 6/7 unit on Ancient Mediterranean History I taught this year:
Googleable Questions
Who was Julius Caesar?
Did lions really kill Christians in the Colloseum?
How far and wide did the Roman Empire spread?
When were the pyramids of Eqypt built?
What food did they eat in Ancient Greece?
....you get the point!

Non-Googleable Questions
Why were killings of Christians allowed in Ancient Rome and wouldn't be allowed in 2013?
Which ancient society's legacies (inventions) have had the greatest impact on modern society?
Why are modern buildings not built in such a decorative manner as they were in ancient times (e.g. Greek Acropolis etc.)?

You can start to see why the internet itself is not innately a tool for deeper thinking, but it relies on the teacher to structure the unit appropriately. Use the internet for sourcing information and build upon that to reach that higher order thinking that we all strive for in our classrooms. Gone are the days of "integrating ICT" purely on the fact that students are using a search engine to retrieve information. The unit above could include an assessment in the form of a blog that students post their persuasive arguments and allow comments and rebuttal from their peers.

Youtube in the Classroom

Many teachers (or Principals more often than not) are anxious about the dangers of YouTube. What if little Johnny watches a naughty video or little Sally stumbles across some foul language?? Ban YouTube!

My previous school banned Youtube (on the Principals orders) and I'm sure its happening elsewhere.

Check out the following resource developed by Youtube that is a series of lessons aimed at educating students to use YouTube responsibly. It is aimed at ages 13-17. As the lessons are Google Docs you can open, then save a copy and modify as you see fit for your own setting. The lessons have links to videos to further enhance the message:

Curriculum: Understanding YouTube & Digital Citizenship
http://www.google.com/edu/teachers/youtube/curric/index.html

Another resource created by Google that is more broadly aimed at cyber safety/citizenship:

Google Digital Literacy and Citizenship Curriculum
(targeted at Grade 6-8)
http://www.google.ie/goodtoknow/web/curriculum/ 

Reflections on Web 2.0 Tools

Web 2.0 tools are here to stay and the big question is this...will they be used to do "old things new ways" or "new things, new ways"?  

( I did steal that quote from someone, but can't recall where or who!)

I think that there are so many amazing, engaging, exciting and interesting Web 2.0 tools, but unless they are used to actually change the focus of pedagogy, they are not fulfilling their potential. These tools are the medium that we, as educators, can use to actually change the fundamentals of how a 21st Century classroom operates. How can it be different (and in lots of cases already is beginning to be)?

Some key ideas to be considered...each one could have a thesis written:

• collaboration
• student engagement
• critical thinking
• student centred, personalised learning
• constructivism
• teacher as facilitator
• flipped classroom (very interesting TED talk by Salman Khan)
• global classroom

Learning Communities & Constructing Knowledge Together (Module 10)

Google Sites provide your one-stop-shop for collaboration and learning communities!

Students can easily create their own Google Site and use it as an ongoing "digital portfolio". For easy access (both for fellow students and the teacher), I create a page on the class site with link to each students individual Google Site: 

What about Wikis I hear you ask?

Well, a Wiki is just a webpage that allows multiple authors....this can be easily done using permissions and sharing in Google Sites. You can even specify "page level permissions" so that within a whole site, just one specified page can have multiple authors/editors (therefore you have a wiki).

What about Blogs?

Blogger.com is fully integrated with Google, therefore the they can work in perfect unison (see my previous blog post on Blogger)