Wednesday, September 3, 2014

Google Forms Update!

FINALLY, you can customize your own Forms theme.  If you are like me, you are bored with the standard themes for Forms, well...Google is finally allowing you to customize your own theme.  Here's how it's done. In Forms, select the 'change theme' option and in the list of themes on the right of your screen go to the 'in this form' theme and select the customize option underneath.  Then, in the header image, select 'choose image...'  You can go the bottom of the insert image box and choose to upload, take from your albums, or select from your Google Drive.

Don't want to customize? You can select from Google's new list of 23 cool themes as well. Many of these new themes even contain gifs for those who want motion in their themes. Well, there it is guys.  Try it yourself and see how many cool forms you can create.

Best,
#mr.ford

Thursday, August 14, 2014

ADD-ON ALERT!! SUPER QUIZ!

If you are a fan of Flubaroo you have to check out Google's latest Add-On, Super Quiz! Oli Trussel O Trussell - Google+ is the creator of what many educators are calling Flubaroo on steriods! So what makes Super Quiz overshadow Flubaroo? Well, other than a more intense version of student feedback and teacher analyzation, Super Quiz boasts a self grading script like Flubaroo that automatically grades submissions immediately after they are electronically submitted without updating the instructor.  This means that late submissions are graded without the teacher having to manually activate the self grading script.  Perhaps the best part of Super Quiz is that it features a triggered mail merge option for immediate student feedback.  This particular feature has been unavailable in Google's new spreadsheets and has been a hold up for developers like Andrew Stillman-creator of Autocrat, G-Class folders and Doctopus; whose Add-Ons rely heavily on mail merge. Mail merge combines information from a spreadsheet with a pre created document to mass produce and personalize submission results.

Super Quiz is available as an Add-On Google in Sheets and is easy to install and the creator is readily available to answer questions and updates on Google+. To find out more and check out a video, click on the Google+ link above!

Best,
#mrford#techsavvyteacher


Saturday, June 21, 2014

SCRIPT ALERT!! AUTOCRAT!

Hey guys, I just finished making my first successful mail merge with autoCrat. autoCrat is another script or add on by Andrew Stillman that lets you merge results from a spreadsheet of a Form survey with a document template to mass produce individual returns or feedback from the submitted Form. Sound confusing? It's really not so once you have ran a couple of them yourself.

For example, this week I did a flipped class assignment and had my students give a YouTube Video Review on the assigned topic of Perfect Tenses of English. After filling out the form, I wanted to send my students an e mail confirmation resulting in a mail merge product. 

In their class blog, I pasted a link to a Google Form for reviewing a video (see below). Once the students completed the Form, I went to the response spreadsheet of that same Form and inserted Autocrat from the scripts gallery option.  Previously, I had created a shared document in Google Docs (see below) featuring carrots <<>> of where I wanted the information from the response spreadsheet to appear in their future mail merged confirmation. I also had to create folder for the final destniation storage of the final mail merged documents. After I ran Autocrat,  I checked my destination folder in Google Drive and found a mail merged copy of responses and the document I created for each Form submission by the student. Perfect!! Next, I emailed each student a copy their own individualized  email merged confirmation document.

I honestly feel that this script is probably more effective for administraation purposes versus classroom. I also understand that certain features that were available in the old Google spreadsheets, like automatically triggering return responses, are not available in the new Google spreadsheets so you will have to use an old sheets version if you want to have Google email the final mail merged documents to students without you having to do so.  To find out how to create your own mail merged document using autoCrat, check out this link to a video by Jesse Thorstad! http://youtu.be/xeRhzz4RuCA

Best,
#mrford#techsavvyteacher


My YouTube Video Review Form made in Google Forms



Shared document I created in Google Docs for mail merge

Final mail merged product via Autocrat

Monday, May 26, 2014

SCRIPT ALERT!! formLimiter!

One of my favorite little scripts is formLimiter.  Have you ever given a Google Form quiz or test and ended up screaming at your students who refuse to turn in the damn thing at the end of class because they want more time? Have you ever sent a link of that Form to a student who missed the quiz/test and it takes them two weeks to a month before their responses end up in your spreadsheet because the student knew there would be no time limit to handing it in?  Have you ever used Flubaroo to batch grade an assignment only to have that one student tell you they just handed it in after you have already sent student scores back?  The reinforcement of deadlines in a Google Forms can be ever annoying. Well, with formLimiter, reinforcement of submission deadlines just got real.

Unlike most scripts, formLimiter is easy to set up for beginners in script using. It is pretty straight forward. After you install the script, select how you want to limit the responses to the form by time limit, total number of responese or spreadsheet cell value.   For me the time limit is most useful. I can select a date and time to set for deadline submission.  After set, the form will no longer accept submissions.  This is great mostly because it will train students to respect deadline submission time and allow the teacher to stay better organized.  You can even send a notification to editors when the time limit is reached.  For more on formLimiter or more scripts in Google Forms, check out http://cloudlab.newvisions.org/

Best,
#mrford#techsavvyteacher

Tuesday, May 20, 2014

APP ALERT!! MOBILE ATTENDANCE!

Mobile Attendance - Android Apps on Google Play
 Well, it's bee n a minute, but we (me) are back with another app that must be brought to the attentnion of every tech savvy teacher, and it's called Mobile Attendance by INNOVA Apps.    A few months back I was struggling to find an attendance app for my classroom. After a few trial apps, I settled with Eval Safety Attendance in The Google Play Store. I loved the idea of using QR Codes to take attendance from my smartphone and so did my students.  It was easy to use, but the reports didn't produce the spreadsheet format in Google that I wanted.  All that is different with Mobile Attendance. The spreadsheets are easy to set up, report in real time, and are shareable like any other Google document. The app creates QR Codes in Google Docs for print out. Perfect, everything stays in Google. The best part of the whole process is that students love to use their phones, tablets, or laptops to check in. I had my students take a photo of their personal QR code and save it to their phone or tablet homescreen for easy pull up.  If they forget their device at home, they should keep the original copy on them somewhere, but worst case scenerio, you can print up a back up copy of all your students' codes and  keep it on you as well.  The olny downside to this app is that the free trial only lasts for only two weeks, after that it's at least $6.85 a month (yikes!). Check the video below or click the link under the photo above to check out Moblie Attendance for yourself and see if you want to try it! Best, #mrford#techsavvyteacher


Wednesday, April 16, 2014

3 Ways To Use Google Forms in Your BYOD ESL Classroom

3 Ways To Use Google Forms in Your ESL Classroom
  • Tests/Quizzes
  • Surveys
  • Progress Check-Ins
Tests and quizzes. Google Forms is the easiest way to create online tests/quizzes for your BYOD or m-learning classroom. Choose from many colourful backgrounds and after naming your form, start creating right away.  Originally designed for surveys, using Google Forms as a test/quiz creator allows you to input videos, images, headers, and page breaks to make your form more interactive for your students.

Surveys.  Surveys are a great way to conduct peer evaluations on BYODs. Google forms lets you easily create evaluation surveys that are perfect for Public Speaking or Presentation classes.  Share the survey link via G mail or cross platform sharing apps like Whatsapp.  Surveys for peer evaluations allows students the power to critique their classmates and give valuable feedback.

Progress Check-Ins.  Using Google Forms to create survey Progress Check-Ins helps the teacher stay updated on the progress of student essays, presentations, or term papers.  Google Forms lets teachers create some pretty cool and personalized progress check-in forms that can easily be shared ans collected by Google.

Best,
#mrford#techsavvyteacher

Sunday, April 6, 2014

Techsavvy Tips for BYOD (Bring Your Own Device)

There are literally hundreds of articles about BYOD in the classroom, so I thought I'd throw my hat in the ring and share my experiences with you. As a paperless educator, BYODs are the common core for my flipped ESL classrooms as they are already common use and practice in the business world both domestic and foreign.  Employees of big companies and adult learners carry their personal devices into the boardroom and the classroom.  BYODs were first shunned from big companies and businesses for the obvious lack of control and security issues, but as more and more companies are taking advantage of secured cloud storage; school systems public and private are beginning to accept the idea that students can be responsible for their own devices and conduct in the classroom. Though the most popular BYOD is the smart phone, laptops and even the handheld gaming console are also popular BYOD devices.

I first employed BYOD when I was expected to deliver quality ESL material to a large group of students with very little or no technology.  During my interview with my first ESL company, they boasted to me about their use of technology in their classrooms. They even showed me a room with a whiteboard and overhead projector; only to find out that was their ONLY room with a whiteboard and projector and you had to reserve the room a week in advance.  I also got tired of standing in long lines to use the crowded copy machine or have my printed documents disappear into thin air after I sent them to the printer.

Though I have successfully managed to flip my classroom by way of BYOD, it doesn't mean that I haven't been met with obstacles along the way.  I have been met with resistance by both administration and my own students when I first implemented using smart phones in class.  I had challenges trying to share information to all students with different devices.  Poor Internet connection always ruined my day. And you can only imagine how I felt when a student just forgot to bring their device to class.  

So if you are thinking about starting your own BYOD classroom, or already have started yours, here are a few tips I would like to share with you from my experience.


  1. Slowly impliment BYOD into class. Sure, your excited  about BYOD, but not everyone else is. You'll be suprised to see how your  admin, co workers, and students will show resistance towards BYOD.   You'll definatly want to be ready to answer a bunch of questions and face criticisms. Your best bet is to create a policy for BYOD in your classroom, register your students for a Google account if they don't already have one, and create a classroom circle for your students in your Google Hangouts account for sharing.  
  2. Create your own BYOD policy for your classroom. I'm very liberal with the use of BYOD in my classrooms, but establishing a policy for using BYOD, like a class syllabus, makes it clear and cut what is expected/tolerated of the students use of BYOD. If you don't already have one of your own, here is a link to a nice list of sample BYOD policies. 11 Sample Education BYOT Policies To Help You Create Your Own
  3. Use cross platform sharing applications. Cross platforms are ideal for sharing links, documents, audios, videos, and messaging. Apps for phones like Viber, Tango and Whatsapp are popular with smart phones, but not compatible with many pads, notebooks, and laptops.  Your best bet is to utilize Google. Not only is its messaging system, "Hangouts" available on Apple and Android products, you do not require your student's personal phone number to register. You simply use their Gmail address.
  4. Take advantage of cloud storage accounts. Once again, Google folks! Cloud storage systems like Google (Drive) and Dropbox allow your students to pull their work from any device and free themselves of hefty laptops and those easy to lose jump drives.  
  5. Don't be afraid to use social media. Social media outlets like FB, Twitter, YouTube, Blogger, and Glide are great tools for creative assignments and finding resources outside of the box. Use blogs as a place to display student writings.  Share or make YouTube videos to help students understand grammar points,  Have your students create a survey with their FB friends. Use Glide for a one-on-one video debate. Use Google Hangouts for a video conversation and then make it a YouTube video on your YouTube page. There are so many ways you can use Social Media in your BYOD classroom. Get creative. Here's a link to my current class blog via Blogger.  EF Atlanta B2.1
  6. Be ready for things to go wrong. With technology, things WILL go wrong. Sometimes,  emails won't get delivered. Some devices just won't be compatible no matter what you do.  Internet connection will be slow. And yes, some of your students will spend more time on their own social media sites rather than their classwork. Be prepared by using alternative resources, and if worse comes to worse, there's nothing wrong with making paper copies of resources before class starts if you can foresee the problem ahead of time. 
  7. Be consistent.  Start with one aspect of BYOD and stick with it.  The worst thing you can do to your class is start them out with the idea of BYOD and then two weeks later, bring them back to paper and pencil.  Pace yourself and stay consistent. You as the instructor are their key to success. No computer, smart phone, or Mobile device can replace the leadership of an instructor.
Best,
#mrford#techsavvyteacher