Notes from Millie D

Google Docs has done it again!  This week the team from Google Docs took their spreadsheets to the next level by allowing creators the chance to make forms.  

From the tech side creating a form is as easy as the picture shows.  The user creates a questions decides how it is going to be answered (check list, multiple choice, text, etc.).  Google Docs creates the form and the corresponding spreadsheet that the data gets dumped into.  You can choose to invite people to your form or have a url for people to access your form.  The great part is that they don’t have to have a Google account or an email address (key when working with elementary children) to access the form.  It almost sounds to go to be true.  Where is the catch?  I haven’t found it yet.  Did I mention it was free and you can build as many forms as you want (as space is available that is)? From the teaching side what a great way to make your class more interactive and responsive to your students’ needs.  Daily surveys about topics covered in class, survey projects covering mean, median, and mode, learning about students interests and dislikes, heck even online testing taking are just a few ways that this Google Docs feature could be used in class setting. Teachers can become data driven decision makers much easier now.  Using tools like SurveyMonkey or Zoomerang (which has a cost factor) are nice but there is still the extra step of putting the raw data into a  spreadsheet.  To many this doesn’t sound like a big deal but it is an extra step that many won’t do for whatever reason.  The integration of the form creation and the data spreadsheet is the power of the tool.  I believe teachers want to integrate technology but if there are too many steps or clicks teachers don’t have the time or energy to follow through.  The ease of the tool is the power just check out Voicethread.Just try the forms feature within Google Docs.  What do you have to lose? tags technorati : Google survey online voicethread integration