Searching....I Never Knew That!

It's hard to believe October is almost over.  There are two big events happening this weekend.  The first is Halloween which will be celebrated on a Saturday (HOORAY!)  The second is Daylight Savings Time; yes we gain an hour of sleep on Sunday morning (HipHip HOORAY!)  Have you ever wondered why we mess around with the time?  This article should answer all of your questions.

We are going to be all over the place during class one this week, trying to catch everyone up.  Before we get started with any lessons, I would like to ask you to please take this one question survey created by one of your classmates.  Thanks for your help with this.  Some of you will be working on blogging vocabulary during class one while others will take a look at some advanced search techniques offered by Google.  No matter which topic, you will start off with a video.  Blogging exploration will begin by taking a look at Blogging In Plain English.   Searches will launch their lessons with How Search Works.  Both of these videos do a great job of explaining these two topics.  You will then be doing some work "old school" and "new school" combined.  The resources you need are below.

• Google Landing Slide Presentation
• Google Landing Presentation Recording Sheet ** Please make a copy of this doc and put it in your Google Drive before you start answering questions.

During class two you will complete a Blogging Activity.  This assignment can be found in Google Classroom.

image link

Let's Wrap This Up and Move Forward

Welcome back!  I hope you had a great vacation.  The Boston Marathon was very exciting.  Unfortunately no Americans took first place, but all of the athletes did a great job.  I had a "staycation" and got a lot of yard work done.  I also did a lot of planning for the rest of the school year, but don't want to solidify those plans until I get some feedback from all of you.

So what does this week bring for my technology students?....Feedback and assessment are on the docket.  Do you remember the 21st Century Skills Assessment you took before break?  Well, we found out we need to have students take both parts before we can receive any data.  So....you will be taking part two during class one.  Please go to Learning.com and using the log in information I have left at your workstations.  Again, I will be asking you to do your best and remind you of the importance of this data.  You will not be seeing this score, but your work does make a difference.  Catching up and getting this assessment done will most likely take most of Class one.

During class you will be giving me more feedback.  Due to our crazy winter, the schedule of our Genius Hour Project has gone out the window.  So I have created a survey to get some information from you to help plan the rest of our school year.  Please take your time with this.  You can find this survey as an assignment in Google Classroom.  Please be sure to submit the survey/assignment.

Once you have completed this survey, I am giving you the rest of this class to get yourself caught up and organized.  Please use the May Clean Up/Catch Up Checklist to accomplish this task.  Mid term report cards will be going home soon and I need to get grades in to X2.  Any work not completed and turned in by the end of this week will be a "0" and there will be no opportunity for make ups; this is your make up opportunity so take full advantage!!

Next Steps

This is our recovery week.  We will be trying to get everyone set up with their Apple ID's and accepted in to the Meraki VPP.  I know we will figure this out quickly.  We will start off our class with a very important survey.  As I explained to you earlier, there are many stakeholders involved in our school, and we need to share our iPad journey with them.  We need to create some baseline data as well, and this will be done with this survey.  Please take this survey seriously and ask me if you don't understand something.

Once you have finished this survey, you will take a tour of X2.  This is a tool/resource for you.  You will receive feedback from your teachers on your portal page.  You will need to add your teachers' pages to your X2 account.  We will also take a look at your calendar which is another way to help you keep organized.

The final step in our organization this week will be the final check on your Google Drive organization.  Did you create, name and share folders with all of your teachers?  You will also check your email and clean it up.  Please use the "Clean It Up and Organize" Google doc I have created for this task.

Have a super week!!!    ~Mrs. White :)

This One if For Mr. Petitt's Class

Mr. Petitt has created survey for his students.  Please read the questions carefully.  Be sure to "submit" when you have finished.  Take survey now.

Google Forms......Getting Started Finally!!!

Hello my Google forms explorers.  I will not be in school today, but Mr. Fisher will lead you through our lesson.  Please be sure to listen to him and then to read this blog post in its entirety before starting.  If you have not finished your podcasts or blogs you will not have time in this class to do so.  If you have questions about either of these assignments please be sure  to come and see me Thursday morning during homeroom.  You know where to find me (in the hallway.)

Let’s get started with today’s lesson.  You are very familiar with your Google drive.  You will be exploring another facet of this app today:  FORMS. You have already experienced othe “taking” side of surveys using Google forms.  Our assessments, the “Pop Culture Survey”, and your Student Blog Information Survey were all created using Google forms.  

Before you create the form/survey, you will need to create your questions.  This survey will wind up on your blog where the world will be able to take it.  We will play around with the results/data after vacation.  Let’s take a minute to think about surveys you may have taken.  It is important to keep surveys short and sweet.  No one wants to spend an hour taking a survey.  The ones you create will be limited to 5 questions.  There are many different types of questions you could create.

• Text — respondents provide short answers
• Paragraph text — respondents provide longer answers
• Multiple choice — respondents select one option from among several
• Checkboxes — respondents select as many options as they’d like
• Choose from a list — respondents select one option from a dropdown menu
• Scale — respondents rank something along a scale of numbers (e.g., from 1 to 5)
• Grid — respondents select a point from a two-dimensional grid

I would recommend selecting one or two types of questions for your first survey (multiple choice are a great one for starting out.)

1. Please log in to your Google accounts and go to your Drive.  
2. Once there, please “Create” a doc.  
3. Title this doc, “Survey Questions”

Now comes the hard part.....What will your survey be about?  What kind of information do you want to gather?  The possibilities are endless.  This survey does not have to be “school related”, but does have to be “school appropriate.”  Some possible suggestions for survey topics:

• songs
• music
• sports
• food
• school subjects
• “favorites”
• apps
• technology
• a combination of any of the suggestions listed above

Once you pick your topic, type a title at the top of the doc.  You will now write your 5 questions.  If you are selecting multiple choice questions, you will create the question and the choices, typing all of this on the doc.  You will then move on to the second question, and so on.  

For example:

                 What is your favorite season?

a.  spring

                       b.  summer

                       c.  fall

                       d.  winter

The example above is one question.  My survey would need to include 4 more questions like this one.  You may use only one type of question on the survey or mix up a couple different types.  

Please check your questions for spelling and grammar.  Remember, this survey will be on your blog for the world to see.  It’s your global presence, digital footprint.

Once you have finished the questions, you will go back to your Drive home and follow these steps:

1. Go to the “Create” tab
2. Select “Form” (second from the bottom)
3. Fill in the “Title” of your form in the first window which pops up.
4. You will then need to select a “theme”.
5. You will now be brought to your “form”.  Do not be confused as the theme will not show up at this point.   It will be a plain, white, boring form.
6. Scroll to the top of the page and “uncheck” the box “Requires Barnstable Public Schools login to view this form.”  You don’t want any boxes checked here.
7. A window will pop up with the statement, “This will make your form accessible outside of your domain. Are you sure you wish to proceed?”  Click “OK.”
8. You will now begin typing your questions.  You can copy and paste (using keyboard shortcuts:  ctrl + C=copy or ctrl + V=paste) from your doc in to this form if you’d like.  The question goes in the “Question Title” box.  Be sure to select the questions type from the drop down.  
9. Check the “required question” box at the bottom of the question.  
10. When you have finished the question you will need to click the “Done” tab.
11. Select “Add item” below to create a new question and follow the same steps.

             Check out the screen shot below. 
 

Please be sure to use the “Help” tab at the top of the page if you have any questions.

Once you have finished your survey, be sure to go back and check your questions and set up.  If you need to make changes, you will need to click on the pencil icon to do so.  Be sure to save those changes.

ILT #’s 10 and 11:  We will put these survey links on your blogs next class.

ILT #’s 4 and 1:   We will put these survey links on your blogs after vacation.

If you should finish this survey and have time left in class, please create a new Google doc.

Title it, “Survey Blog Post,” and type a new post which will accompany your link on your blog.   Please remember to follow the BPS Blogging and Commenting Guidelines when writing this post.

I hope you have fun with this new Google app.  It will be a lot of fun to see what responses you get to them when they are on your blogs.  

Resources for this lesson:

Create a Google Form-  Google Drive help page for “Forms”

Using Google Forms doc resource from North Canton City Schools - Eric Curts- great resource!

Google Forms Tutorial this is a video tutorial. Google forms have changed their look in the last month.  This tutorial shows the old form, but I still think it could be helpful to you.  Just know the forms you’ll be using look just a little bit differently.  The first 5 minutes of this tutorial are all you will need to watch for today’s lesson.

Technology Homework for Families

This week I am assigning homework to my technology students and it involves parents/families. This is a rare event, and I am hoping my students will take this assignment seriously.  I am trying to accumulate some data to better serve the families and students of our school.  I would like to ask our families to take a very brief, four multiple choice question survey.  This survey should not take any more than 5 minutes to complete, and it is completely anonymous.  The questions address knowledge and usage of some of the on line resources available to our students and their families.  The survey will remain open until Friday, March 22nd.  The results will be used to increase awareness and accessibility of these resources if deemed necessary.  I would like to thank families in advance for taking the time to complete this survey.  Have a great day!!

      Family Survey:  Resource Use

image link:  http://www.snapsurveys.com/blog/customer-feedback-survey-business/

So What Else Can You Do With a Spreadsheet?

We have looked at spreadsheets as a way to create a database, and explored how to use the function key and its many formulas to help us save time with calculations such as adding (sum) and finding percents. But what else can you do with a spreadsheet? This week you will check out Pamela Fox’s blog post, “Creating a Wordsearch Using Google Spreadsheet.” First you will need to brainstorm 15 words about a particular subject. It can be anything appropriate for school, but does not have to be school related. Once you have created your list of words, you will follow the instructions at the link above. Read carefully and think before asking questions. If you are using your effective effort strategies, you should be able to do this on your own. I will give you a couple of hints below:

Hint #1: Be sure to name your spreadsheet when you create it.
Hint #2: What is a URL and where do you find it?
**You actually can skip this step; as there is a gadget for wordsearches now.**
Hint #3: You may need to enlarge or expand your wordsearch by
grabbing a corner and dragging so you can see it all.

While you are working on your wordsearch I will be asking you collaborate on a class survey. When asked, you will stop working on your wordsearch, go to the shared form, and create a question for the survey. We will determine the topic of the survey at the beginning of class and have a quick demonstration of how to create questions using our Google forms. You will be completing another ILT classes’ survey in the next couple of weeks. We will then take a look at transforming the responses in to a chart or graph which could be imported in to a presentation. There are so many possibilities with our Google Docs!!!!

BIS Pop Culture Survey

The students working on our yearbook have created a survey. Please take this
BIS Pop Culture Survey.
Be honest with you answers and work independently. You will see the results in this year's yearbook.

http://www.mariashriver.com/blog/2011/06/pop-culture