I have used Google Forms for the past two years in my work. Like anything I had my fair share of "learning" with it as a tool. Think giving a group of teachers editing privileges to the form instead of the actual form! What a tool in our tool box though, easy to make, easy to organize and track data. I utilize forms at least a few times a week (either checking data or creating new forms). Primarily I have used them as a way for teachers to provide feedback on professional learning, share their ideas and thoughts on where they want to go with their learning. My greatest struggle with them has been how to compile the data in a meaningful way for next steps. When working with our Lead Teacher group at elementary, there are usually 18-20 responses at a time, that is much more manageable. But when dealing with a larger group like the Piloting Teachers for ELA/ELD there were 82, and that was a much different objective. In the past I have taken the comments via the Summary of Responses and then put that into a Wordle, giving me an overview of what was the most common theme in questions I had asked. Again, the Pilot feedback was much high leverage and I had to work through the best way to portray the data for the Board recommendation. I learned how to create graphs right from the columns in sheets, which allowed me to manipulate what those graphs look like so they could be more in line with the Secondary group of teachers for consistency. I am currently exploring more Add-Ons within google, as I feel that has so much potential. Roll Call is one that I have worked with, which allows you to create tabs for specific Sites, grade-levels etc...I look forward to exploring more of those in hopes to enhance the data sharing experience. Autocrat is a great one that Mr. Marsden shared with us in the last class, and I am working through the best way to use this one in my work. I think I will also explore using this with my enhanced action research I am currently working on. I think presenting the data in a captivating way is half the battle. No one wants to comb through columns and rows of data in order to get a picture of what the overall feel of something was. I am open to other suggestions, I feel like this program has opened my eyes so much to the possibilities out there even just within the G-Suite. I look forward to enhancing how I use Google Forms and from hearing from others in my cohort how to use it with students.
4 Comments
Social Media, the greatest invention of our time, or is it?
Social media is an untapped resource in my mind, that said you need to understand the best way to use it. To date, I have really just used social media as a means of communication with friends and family. I have also found the pitfalls in it, with those who project a "social media image" that is very different from their reality. Only through this program have a I begun to use it as a tool for communication and collaboration. I am now on Twitter #mrslitearcy4fun, and I am gaining so many new insights from other teachers and leaders in education. In my mind, the greatest downfall with teachers, is that many times we just shut our door and get to teaching. We don't share those resources we have developed, found, and spent hours refining. Social media is a perfect way to do that. I have used Teachers pay Teachers, and I have used Pinterest a lot, and both of these tools have started to break down those walls between our classroom. But what I find very interesting about Twitter is the educational background that is missing in those tools. I am a WHY person, and Twitter is a perfect place to find that why, and maybe even the how. So far I find it a lot like Wikipedia, you look up and all the sudden an hour has passed and you clicked through 10 different links. A good kind of rat hole! Some of my colleagues write educational blogs on a regular basis, and I have thought about that because it is a great way to share out thoughts on best practices etc...That said, it is a lot more time and energy that I don't have know. Twitter, because of the constriction of 140 characters or less, provides a place for some quick concise sharing with a link to more if you want to explore. What are the critical issues for using it as a tool in education? Well, I think like anything, some of it you want to hear and some of it you don't. Find the people and organizations to follow that will give you that information, and block the others. I also think, like many things on the internet, we have to be cognoscente of digital rights. As teachers we "bend" the rules a bit too much with using information, images, graphics from the internet. We have to be a model for what a digital citizen looks like, and to me that is attending to others rights, images and information can be copyrighted and we must adhere to those rules and quote/cite source where appropriate. Now, switching gears...what if I were to come across an inappropriate post made by one of my students outside of the school? First, I won't handle it online. Providing a post in response only perpetuates and validates it more. I think addressing it with the student in a safe, respectful manner is the best. Depending on how inappropriate the comment, I would first ask the opinion of some of my co-workers, then would share with the Principal. If it is something that is really blatantly inappropriate, I think talking with the student first and then potentially having them share it with parent would be best. It needs to come from the student, they need to have some accountability and understanding of their digital footprint. I would begin with a co-worker to first ask another opinion, and make sure that someone else is involved in the conversation. To me, this makes it safer in that you aren't handling it yourself, and allows from any biases to be removed. Now after this post, you can see when structured the right way, I believe social media can really be an angel for us tired, multi-tasking teachers! |
AuthorKarly Miller Archives
May 2017
Categories |