Some of My Favorite Tech Tools for Course Integration

As another semester comes to an end and I reflect on the tech tools I used this semester, some are ones I have used in the past, and some I tried for the first time. I was teaching Educational Research this semester, which requires another whole toolkit than when I teach educational technology courses.

1) I made greater use of Google Forms to create surveys. Whereas I have used this tool in the past to collect input from students, I used it almost every other week this semester. Again, I embedded the surveys on my Google Site, but the increased frequency of use helped me on a more ongoing basis to assess student needs and what needed more emphasis in the course. I will definitely follow this pattern in the future of frequent use of the surveys. I also like the updates Google made to the Form templates, which allows for customizing the look and feel of surveys. Here is one example of a survey I created using the new look options.

2) In the past, I closed each course with a quick Animoto recap of students' research proposal topics. I did this again this semester. Right before the last night of one of the courses, I saw a post on Richard Byrne's blog about using YouTube's Slide Show creator in lieu of Animoto. I decided to try it out, using some of the same images I used in the Animoto version. The hardest part about using the Slide Show option as a first-timer was getting the timing right for adding captions. Here are the two final versions, one done with Animoto, and the other with the YouTube Slide Show feature. Neither is precisely how I would like finished product to look, but under the pressure of needing to prepare the presentations in time for the last class meeting, I compromised time for quality.

Animoto Version



YouTube Slide Show Option


3) Once again, I used Google Sites for uploading all course materials. Given I taught two sections of the course, one in a 15-week format and the other in an 8-week format, I needed two separate sites. Because Google Sites enables creation of many sites for free and the frequency with which I need to create sites, this tool serves my purposes well.

Quick screen capture of part of one of web pages on the site

4) Google Docs was a dream for giving feedback to students on an ongoing basis, especially in a writing intensive course, with different parts of the written project due on different weeks. Students also made use of Google Docs for us to share ideas. Further, we experimented with using Padlet for students to brainstorm topics for research study proposals.

This worked well, especially because students did not need an account to share their topics using Padlet. Here is our Padlet. Once we moved into more detail with our proposals, however, Google Doc worked better for sharing ideas.

Well, that is just a few of the ways I used tech tools in the course. Not a tech-based course, it was intriguing to see how seamlessly tech is integrated into a traditional of courses. I found using thee multiple tools much easier than Blackboard for a course management option. Students in the course also used tech in new ways for their presentations. One person used Kahoot to engage all of us, as well pulled out our phones to interact with a set of questions. Another demonstrated Class Dojo, as a behavior management tool, given her proposal was on the use of technology to minimize classroom behavior challenges. It was good to see that students on their own in a non-tech course opted to use specific tech applications for their presentations.

Survey about Some of Your Favorites

This is the survey I created while doing a screencast tutorial on:

• How to use Google Forms to create a survey
• How to embed the survey in a Blogger post. 

Please take a few minutes to complete this survey. Responses are submitted privately to my Google Drive, as you will see when you listen to the YouTube tutorial.




Here is the tutorial. Turn up the volume on YouTube, and set the volume on your device accordingly to follow along.

Sometimes, it is more convenient to use a survey in a blog post to collect information than to rely on posted comments. The survey allows for collecting the responses in a spreadsheet for review and analysis. Also, use of a survey in a blog post enables respondents to reply without their replies being public on the blog.

Google Docs for Learning: Way More than Meets the Eye

Susan Oxenovd created this great Glogster of multiple ways to use Google Docs. Click any object for details.



Let us know if you find this Glogster useful for finding new ways to use Google Docs.

Creating a Form with Google Docs

Here are some simple directions:

1) Go to Google Drive. Select Create. Select Form. Select a Theme. (Select a Theme is in the short menu bar at the top of the screen once you Select Form.)
2) Give your form a name. Type in basic directions for the respondent.
3) Begin to author questions. Note the question types: text, paragraph text, multiple choice, check box, etc. Select the appropriate type. Type in the necessary information. Suggestion: make all questions required. You can edit a question, using the pencil icon. Use Add Item to continue to next question. (Note the options to Duplicate and Delete, which are next to the pencil icon. Use Duplicate if your next question will be similar but just will need some wording changes. This option is handy if using the "check box" format, for instance, offering choices such as Yes, No, Undecided, because you won't have to retype the choices, but will just need to type in your question.)
4) Continue the process until all questions are entered. Remember you can use the pencil icon to edit any question.
5) When finished, use the option Send Form. You will have a URL for the form. One option is to embed the form. Select that option if you plan to embed the form in a blog post. However, if you were emailing the link to someone, you can copy and paste the long URL into a URL shortener, such as Google URL Shortener at: http://goo.gl/

Here is an example of a form I created and embedded in this post. Because I am embedding it, you will see the actual form and not a link to it. You need to use the HTML tab in Blogger to paste in the embed code. The embed code will paste in the form with a width of "760," which you can change. Suggested change for width: "375"

To view the responses to your form, go to Google Drive. Find the name of the form. Click to open it. You will see your responses in spreadsheet format (rows and columns). This is just the basics to get you started with forms. If you have further questions, type them in the comment section. Also, let us know how you might use forms in your teaching or professional work. Remember, you don't have to embed a form in a blog post or website to send it to respondents. You can send the URL, but if doing so, it is a good idea to  shorten the URL by using a site such as Google URL Shortener (see above).

Remember to complete the survey, you will need to use the scroll bar alongside the survey. If you were to send the form to someone, this would not be necessary. The respondent would see the whole form. I am inserting a link here for you to see the form in full. To do so, I copied the URL for the form in full, and using that URL, typed text and used the Link option in Blogger to make a hyperlink to that URL. Ice Cream Survey. However, for convenience, the option to embed a form right into a blog post, as done here, makes the process more immediate for the reader/viewer.






Here is a quick YouTube tutorial that reviews some of these basics.






Remember if you have lingering questions, use the comment feature, and also let us know how you might use Google Forms in the future. If you have already used Google Forms, share how you have used it with students or professionals.

Tips for Using Google Drive

If you're new to Google Drive or just looking for some tips to enhance your skills with using Google Drive, I highly recommend you check out this blog post my one of my favorite bloggers, Richard Byrne.

Google Forms

This is a sample of a Google Form. It is very rough, but it is to give you the gist of how to show others in the class how to access and use the form you created. You can also share the form with others by sending it to them using email. Their email is available in the class contact form.

Here is a link to the simple form I created.

I have also embedded the form into the blog, using the embed code that is available from the More Actions options in Google Docs.





By the way, I found an example of an excellent way in which one school is using Google Forms to get feedback from students about books they would like to see the school library stock as well as other information. Once the forms are created, they are embedded right into a wiki where students can submit their replies. Check out this blog post about the project:

Community Conversations Using Google Forms, Docs, and Wiki to Connect Outside of Your School

Image from: http://www.thedaringlibrarian.com/2010/09/community-conversations-using-google.html