Day 98 - Meet the 2016-2017 Second Semester Student Help Desk Staff - Mr. Wong - BHS Help Desk

I am pleased to announce that we have ten new Help Desk Students and one returning student (Sarim Sajid, whose bio can be found here) on the Help Desk for the second semester. We have a wide range of abilities and talents in our second group. Some of their interests include journalism, film and media editing and production, game development, and online e-commerce. I’m every excited to see how they’ll support BHS on the Help Desk and with the various projects they’ll be doing this semester. Here are the biographies for our very talented second semester staff.

My name is Bilal Afzal. I am a junior and I wanted to join the help desk because I share an interest in technology and science. I know that by working at the help desk I will be helping out students and teachers with technology related issues and helping them understand and use it to their advantage. This brings me to what I aspire to become which is a doctor. Since I was kid I knew that by being a doctor I will be able to help other people who have life threatening or even simple problems. Some of my interests are drawing, reading, Star Wars, science, and a little philosophy. I also enjoy learning about technology and hope to learn more by working with other people and expand my knowledge.

Hello, my name is Paul Barbieri. I am currently a junior here at Burlington High School. What really interests me is sports. I play hockey and lacrosse here at Burlington High School and love being on a team with all of my close friends. I decided to join Help Desk because I really do not work well with technology and I really hope to change that and be able to help you with your technology problems. After high school, I will most likely join the military. However, after the military, I hope to become a state police officer here in Massachusetts. Some other things that might interest you are that I am on the boys' varsity hockey team. Also, I don’t play lacrosse competitively, I play more for fun so I am on the JV lacrosse team here at Burlington High school. Lastly, I have been in journalism since freshman year and expect to do it next year for my fourth and final year. I find helping people out is very enjoyable and journalism and Help Desk both allow me to do that, by helping people with their technology problems and by spreading recent news in the newspaper here at Burlington High School. I can’t wait for a fun semester ahead!

My name is Katherine Ellis and I am a senior at Burlington High School. This is my first year taking Help Desk. Outside of school, I am very interested in cheerleading. I have done it for thirteen years and plan to continue it in college. Inside of academics, I am very interested in film and media production. I have taken two film classes at Burlington High School and plan to study creative media and film production as my major in college. I can see myself with a career in this field of work and I hope one day I can have a job with film production of some sort. I decided to join help desk because if I am going to be working with film, I am going to need a lot of knowledge about computers and electronics. This is a very good class for me to begin my studies about electronics and how they function with. I also joined help desk because I want to be able to help teachers and my classmates whenever they are having problems with their electronics in the classrooms. I look forward to learning about technology in Help Desk this semester!

Hi, I’m Riley Gilberg and I am a senior at BHS. As a student athlete, I divide my time between practicing and school work. I play both Varsity Hockey and Varsity Lacrosse and these sports have been a passion of mine all of my life. For academics, I’m an honors student with an interest in business studies. When I’m not doing school or sports-related things, I’m often reading, spending time with friends and family, and running my company, Aboutime Watches.

I joined Help Desk because, as mentioned above, I recently started an online business, and during this process I was challenged with all sorts of online and technical barriers, setups and problems. By joining help desk I hope I can further my learning on any tech-related topics and also offer my knowledge to anyone who may need it. As far as technology goes, I have experience in website creation, search engine optimization, social media, photography, photo editing, general iOS interfaces, etc. As a senior, I’ll be attending Bentley University next year and look forward to studying business administration and entrepreneurship.

Hello, My name is Dakota Irvine and I am a senior. As many of you know, I came to Burlington in the 7th grade. My interests consist of politics, history and current news. There is always enough going on in today’s society to stay interested.I decided to come to help desk to understand the school’s technology, but I also want to become more acquainted to technology in the developing world. You can almost say I came to class from under a rock because I am not very tech-savvy, but I am willing and eager to learn. I work with an iPhone and iPad like everyone else, but I am hoping to learn some tips and tricks to help others. I also play video games on PC and PS4, but I’m not too sure how that will give me an upper hand. My career interests consist of the military and law enforcement. I have grown up in a military family, so I just want to continue the tradition. I am fairly social and outgoing, especially when given the opportunity to help others.  

Hello, my name isAkash Kunchum, and I am a junior at BHS. I am interested in anything relating to technology, specifically computer engineering and video games. I decided to join the BHS Help Desk because aside from programming classes, there aren’t many other areas at BHS available for those who want to utilize and develop their skills in technology. I knew that by joining the Help Desk, I could do many things relating to my interests and help other people in the process. At the Help Desk, I hope to help improve the technological aspect of the school, either by assisting with problems involving technology or by solving the issues of other students who are looking for advice. In the future, my optimal career choice would be a video game designer, because I think that the video gaming industry is growing faster than most other industries out there, and I have a passion for playing and creating games. Aside from any technology-related information about myself, I also have a second-degree black belt in Kempo, Ju-Jitsu, and other mixed martial arts, and I have been practicing karate for six years now. I look forward to a great second semester at the BHS Help Desk!

I am Brendan Lucas, a junior in Burlington High School, and I joined the BHS Help Desk because I am interested in technology and there is much I can learn from the Help Desk; I also know that in the Help Desk I can assist students and teachers with any problems they bring to us. I have experience with building computers and some experience with Java programming. I also have a lot of experience with Windows and related software. I have been interested in technology since a very young age. I have been on the swim team for two years and have played piano on and off since elementary school. My favorite kind of music to play or listen to is usually soundtracks from movies, shows and video games. I have always been very interested in philosophy but have become more recently interested in science and politics. I spend a lot of time coming up with theories or explanations for things, so I want to study science in college (probably chemistry) and do research as a career.

What’s up? My name is Henry Lutwama. I’m a senior at Burlington High School and this is my second year on Help Desk. I will be working third periods and am excited to be part of this great team again. If you’re a tech guy then Help Desk is the right place for you to be because during the semester, you learn new things about tech you didn’t know and you get to help others with any technology troubles.  When I joined the Help Desk last year, I wanted to help people with their tech issues and learn more about computers. My “techpertise” is more in Android devices than iOS although I’ve been trying to extend it so I got myself a couple of iOS devices. Technology has been part of me for my entire life and it’s something I’ve loved and wanted to get more integrated in, and because technology is so helpful in our society and especially in our schools because it gives you a variety of resources and students don’t have to rely on the teacher for information all the time. Besides technology, I also play soccer and rugby. Although soccer takes a bigger portion of my time, I prefer rugby and it’s more entertaining. After high school, I am thinking about majoring in computer engineering in college and to pursue a career in technology. In a world run by technology for all aspects of life, from efficient work operations and management to social networking connections, it is no surprise that information is the foundation of our collective future. That being said, you connect with me through my Twitter handle @henrylutwama and can reach me on email @henrylutwama57@gmail.com

Hello, my name is Vibishan Wigneswaran and I am a junior in Burlington High School. Some of my hobbies consist of playing tennis, gymnastics, and PC building among others things. My incentive for joining Help Desk is the technological opportunities that it supports. Help Desk assists students in the production of team projects and other opportunities that are valuable after high school and beyond. Help Desk is valuable in its relation to my potential careers choices. Currently, I am inclined to pursue a career in engineering. Some interesting facts about me are that I have Canadian citizenship and play the euphonium and flute.

Hello, my name is Dan Xue, and I’m a junior in the Burlington High School. As a newcomer to Help Desk, I hope to become a valuable asset to the class through assisting students and teachers in their technological needs using my own experience. My interests include computer building, programming, graphical design, music, and swimming. I also closely follow politics, with a deep interest in modern world history. Aside from fixing problems with iPads, Chromebooks, and other various devices, I became a member of Help Desk in order to work in a personal development group, Cosmic Productions. Our current project involves using Java, Photoshop, and Sibelius, along with other integrative programs, to create and market a video game over platforms on both PC and console. I also hope to utilize the resources at BHS to create many more projects and activities and enhance the school’s relationship with technology. My career goal is to become an aerospace engineer, with a major in physics and engineering branches. If any teacher or student has questions about their devices, programs, or general tech, feel free to ask.

Day 24 - Presenting at the First National Digital Citizenship Summit - Timmy Sullivan - BHS Senior

This post first appeared on Timmy's Blog
Digital Citizenship Best Practices for College and Career Ready Students:

An Inside Look at the Digital Citizenship Summit

Having just arrived home from presenting at the nation’s first Digital Citizenship Summit, I am eager to share the highlights of today’s event. Unfortunately, I arrived a few hours late to the summit, as I was taking SAT Subject tests this morning. I did, therefore, miss the opening ceremonies and keynote. No amount of standardized testing, however, could keep me from representing student voice at the conference! Though I arrived late, I was still fortunate enough to meet several ed-tech superstars, as well as watch the amazing Sarah Thomas entertain us with her drone.

Presenting at the conference alongside Jenn Scheffer was an incredible privilege. Since we received our invitation to present, we have been eagerly curating resources to demonstrate the benefits of integrating social media into the classroom in an effort to produce college and career ready students. Using my digital footprint as an example, Jenn and I explored the various digital platforms available to students, such as Gmail, WordPress,Twitter, YouTube, Google +, and LinkedIn. Together, through personal anecdotes and professional sources, we challenged the myth of students being “digital natives” while demonstrating the need for social media exposure in academic settings. Digital role modeling for students, as we ultimately demonstrated, yields greater results in preventing cyber-bullying, as well as educating students on the principles of digital citizenship (without the lecturing!).

The power of technology never fails to amaze me. As I was presenting, I reflected on all of the personal, professional, and academic opportunities that have come my way in the last year because of my digital presence alone. To think, at this time last year, I was not even a part of the Burlington High School Help Desk! Never would I have thought myself to become a recognized presenter at several leading ed-tech conferences. Nor could I have imagined landing an online, summer internship with EdTechTeacher, learning and working on SEO and digital content comfortably from my host-family’s home in Spain. I am especially “mind-blown” by all of the professional connections I have made online- some of whom I have spoken with for several months, but did not meet in person until today! (Special shout-out to Marialice Curran, Susan Beardan, Meghan Davis, Sarah Thomas, Judy Arzt). All of these amazing aspects of the digital world- presentation opportunities, online work, and a strong PLN- would still be unknown to me if Burlington restricted social media tools in schools. As demonstrated in our presentation, students will emulate professional online communities if they are being demonstrated by their teachers and administrators. Safe searching does not amount from restricting digital tools, rather, from promoting an appropriate digital culture.

The Digital Citizenship Summit was an incredible think tank filled with the best “brain trust” in digital role modeling. I could not have asked for a better honor than to be featured as a student exemplar at a summit promoting such an important topic. Both Marialice Curran and Ryan David Polgar did an extraordinary job creating the Digital Citizenship Summit. I cannot wait to see what they have in store for next year!

Click the image below to see Timmy's entire presentation

Day 13 - Student Review of iOS 9 - Donny Boermeester - BHS Senior

The video below was created by Burlington High School Help Desk senior Donny Boermeester.

Day 66 - I Am Not A Barbie Girl - BHS Senior Kristin Johnson

This post first appeared on Kristin's Help Desk Blog

Almost every little girl growing up was given a Barbie doll, whether it was a princess, an everyday, or a career doll,  society has influenced girls to strive to fit the model of a Barbie Doll. On November 14, Buzzfeed, a blog covering current topics in entertainment, technology, and “life” in general, released an article on a book published by Mattel called “Barbie: I can be a computer engineer”.  Thinking this book would be written in order to encourage young girls to become interested in a technology field, I was very disappointed to find that Barbie had no insight on what to do. The book starts out with Barbie and her sister Skipper sitting in the kitchen. Barbie is furiously typing away creating a game that allows a user to use a cute little robotic puppy to complete tasks. First of all, Barbie had to create a game that had a puppy in it because if it was anything else, it would not be girly. Secondly, Barbie is not actually writing the program that will make the game run, she is simply designing it, she will “need Steven and Brian’s help to turn it into a real game!” Upon showing Skipper the game, a virus appears crashing Barbie’s computer. But have no fear, Barbie has her flash drive on her necklace because she has to accessorize. Barbie goes to plug-in the flash drive to Skipper’s computer, transferring the virus to that computer as well. If Barbie knew anything about computers, she’d know that when she plugged in the flash drive to her computer , it would transfer onto the flash drive.

Skipper’s computer then crashes and she looses her work. Barbie promises that she will get both computers fixed when she goes to school. But before Barbie left, Skipper hits Barbie with a pillow, starting a pillow fight. Stereotype much? Having a pillow fight is clearly the right move in this situation. Barbie tells Skipper that she’ll bring their laptops to school so that she can fix them. Barbie is sitting after class and her two friends, who happen to be males, begin talking to her. Barbie explains her situation prompting Stephan to reply with “It will go faster if Brian and I help”. The amount of sexism behind that reply is unbearable. Barbie, as a woman, clearly can not fix the laptops herself.

The moment that Barbie hands over the laptops, Brian and Stephan instantly fix them as if it was as simple as pressing a key. Boys to the rescue!The following morning Barbie gives her sister her laptop and believes that it was her that fixed both laptops and not the boys. Following the return of the Skipper’s laptop, Barbie presents her cute puppy program to her teacher, who just so happens to be a woman. Barbie’s teacher is blown away by her work and gives her an A+ and even extra credit. Congrats Barbie, you’re clearly a computer engineer. Couldn’t write a program or fix two laptops but you drew a cute puppy and wore a cute top when you presented the game. So sure Barbie, you can be a “computer engineer”.

This coming January, I will have the honor to attend one of the most prestigious education conferences in the country. Along with my three other female classmates and my teacher we will be attending Educon in Philadelphia. Our conversation will be: Closing the Gender Gap in Innovation: Engaging Girls in STEM.

This is an amazing opportunity. Not only will it benefit me because it shows I am passionate about pursuing a technology related career, but I hope to inspire other girls to get involved in technology. There are not enough women in the field of technology. It is male dominated and in the 21st century it should not be that way.

As a girl in the technology field, I do realize that it is not always the easiest thing to be a part of. But that did not stop me. Over the past four years I have taken programming classes, been apart of the Burlington High School’s Help Desk, attended various technology conferences and even got the opportunity to tour the Google office located in Cambridge. Being a girl does not mean that I have to be just a house wife, I can be whatever I want. To all you girls out there that are interested in the technology field, do not be afraid to pursue your dream. Just because Barbie is not a computer engineer does not mean you can’t.

Day 59 - A Tour of the BHS 1:1 Program - Nikhil Thakkar - BHS Senior

This post first appeared on Nikhil's Help Desk Blog

Last week, I was afforded the opportunity of perusing through Burlington High School’s main office hallways, through the art and photography studio, into the heart of BHS math with Mr. Khan’s AP calculus class. The BHS Help Desk shirt, customized for each individual tour guide, was merely the beginning of an imaginatively free session of “touring,” a time when I was able to show teachers, administrators, and parents from around the world how BHS has implemented technology into its classrooms. 

I, as a tour guide played the role of the messenger, answering questions and giving a general rundown about how an iPad may be helpful in “navigating a simulated cell,” throughout a biology class, or reading “ebooks” for an English class, ultimately making highlighting and note taking more accessible and effective. We even learned how Mr. Khan uses Notability and different calculator applications for different functions in his math classes. Although I gave the tour myself, it was not simply I who was talking. Quite the opposite, no one was “talking,” because the tour was much better described as a “conversation” between administrators and tour guide, as I aimed to engage administrators with the tour rather than lecture at them. 

A few prime examples of questions included: How do students use their study period? How are iPads used in foreign language classrooms? Is Burlington a BYOD school? I’d like to address each of these questions in their respective order, the first of which lends itself to explaining the truly open-minded, innovative ideology behind constructing the Burlington curriculum. 

Walking into the library, administrators witnessed a Google-like “lounge” area, where students seemed to be heavily focused on their iPads. I won’t deny that students play games (in class and out of class), but I will argue that students have learned individual responsibility not only for their lives but for their education; the underlying principle is that distractions, by definition, will always exist. However, it’s the idea that we need to learn how to effectively deal with these distractions that Burlington advocates for. Thus, throughout daily 45-minute periods, students are not only working, but they are also taking charge of their education and learning invaluable life skills, the most conspicuous being time management. 

The second question is one of my favorites, as I am a prospective linguistics major (yes, yes I know linguistics isn’t the same as languages). iPads are used heavily within foreign language classrooms as they allow for intensive involvement with reading, writing, speaking, and listening (especially the latter two). We were able to witness first-hand Señora DeSousa’s Spanish classroom using the iPad for a listening exercise. Personally, I find the iPad’s extremely effective and useful, as they launch students into the real world (as they listen to real interviews and read real newspapers). 

Lastly, BHS is not officially a BYOD school, however this doesn’t stop students from bringing their own Mac’s (and yes even Windows at times) per their own convenience. Burlington doesn’t restrict. It only opens doors. Ultimately, like in any school, it’s up to the student to take those opportunities or not (and see whether those opportunities resonate with them).  Being in the spotlight was…well…empowering. I experienced profound joy in knowing I have the power to advocate for and perpetuate Burlington’s ideology of intellectual freedom. As an avid public speaker, I had the most trouble with reigning my thoughts in at the end of the hour long tour as I had so much to say and so little time to say it. Nevertheless, this experience proved extremely invaluable and I sincerely hope to showcase Burlington and all of its talent to even more administrators in the future.

Best regards,

Nikhil

Day 48 - Why is App Smashing Efficient and Easy? - Sarah Costa, BHS Freshman

This post originally appeared on Sarah's Blog
In our high school digital literacy class,this past week we have worked with many different apps, trying to make them work together to create awesome work. We used Chatter Pix and FaceQ to begin making our Digital Literacy PSA (Public Service Announcement).

Made By FaceQ

FaceQ/ Chatter Pix- Make Your Avatars Come to Life!

First, we used FaceQ to make an avatar that represents our own physical appearance, then used Chatter Pix to make it look as if our avatar was talking and saying our line for the PSA. Personally, I thought Chatter Pix was very cool and creative, and it was very easy to use. I thought that FaceQ was super fun to use because there were so many options and I enjoyed being able to play around with the different features. Also, it was very effective because when I was finished, I ended up with a cute picture that resembled my appearance very well. According to ‘The Gamer with Kids,’ , FaceQ is more involved and shows individuality, rather than the common emojis.

Aurasma/ Pic Stich- Make Your Pictures Interactive and Fun!

Aurasma is also a very cool and involved app to use for educational purposes. I think even though it is very easy to use effectively, it is a more advanced app based on what it can do. If you have an Aurasma account, you can scan any picture that is in the account, and from that motionless picture, pops up a video that will explain the picture or has to do with it. I think Aurasma is very interactive because it actually requires you to scan a picture with a device, rather than just clicking a button. Overall, I enjoyed this app and I hope to use it more in the future for other projects. Pic Stich was also very easy to use and it worked, just like we needed it too. We only had to put a picture of ourself on one side, while there was a picture of our avatar on the other side, and it cause us no problems. By using Pic Stich, we had our photo collage in a matter of seconds.

Google Apps- Share Your Ideas!

We used Google Drive and Google slides to being everything together, and make the finishing touches on the final PSA project. The Google apps were very efficient because they let everybody see their classmates work so that they would a ll look the same they would look very professional and finished. Lastly, we used Google classroom to export everything to our teacher and share all of our final ideas with each other. Overall, app smashing was effective, and helped us understand how to do things easier, and efficiently. Check out edtechteacher’s website to see how people do things similar with a variety of apps!

Day 168 - If You Like Socrative, You’ll LOVE Kahoot - Nathan Rippin, BHS Junior

This post originally appeared on the BHS Student Help Desk Blog

With summer vacation just a few weeks away it can be easy for students to become distracted, but teachers are still focused on preparing students for final exams. Many teachers look for ways to make review sessions fun and engaging and use tools such as Socrative. As an alternative, teachers can try the free, web-based, device agnostic classroom response system Kahoot.

Kahoot allows teachers to create quizzes, discussion questions and surveys. From a student point of view, I’d much rather play a game of Kahoot against my classmates versus complete a review worksheet. And if asked to compare the two, I think Kahoot blows Socrative out of the water. I found it to be intuitive, more like a game show and very exciting.

Getting Started with Kahoot

Teachers create a free account by selecting their role (teacher) and entering the name of their school. Next, teachers provide their email, select a username and password and click “create account.”

Create an Account. All you need is a Username, Email, and Password

Teachers can create quizzes, discussions, and surveys

Creating Kahoot Quizzes 

Creating a quiz in Kahoot is a simple process. Teachers select “quiz,” give their quiz a title and start building questions and answers. Questions are limited to 95 characters and responses are limited to 60 characters. Teachers simply click on the correct response and that answer will get marked as correct and turns green, while the remaining responses will be marked incorrect and are red. Once the quiz has been created, teachers are taken to a screen where they can easily rearrange the order of the questions. Next, teachers select the settings for their quiz. Teachers select which language they want for the quiz (there are 24 languages to choose from), whether it is public or private, and the primary audience (school, university, business, training, event, or social). Teachers can also describe the quiz, use tags, and set the difficulty level to either beginner, intermediate, or advanced. Finally, teachers can select a cover image for their quiz. One of the experimental features that’s in beta is embedding a YouTube video to be displayed in the background of the “lobby screen” as players join the game. Once teachers have selected all of their settings, they select “done” and are ready to share their quiz. Kahoots can be shared with students via social media through Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Google+, or email. Teachers can also select “play now” and students will be able to start playing the game right away. Teachers have several options for game play including randomizing the order of answers and playing music in the lobby while players are joining the game. There are also several advanced options including showing players the details of your wifi network.

Teachers can share their quizzes with students through social networks

Creating Kahoot Surveys & Discussions:

Teachers can create surveys with an unlimited number of questions to gain valuable feedback from their students and gage knowledge of a subject or view on a certain topic. Likewise, teachers can use Kahoot to facilitate a discussion or start a classroom debate. The process for creating surveys and discussions is almost identical to creating a quiz.

Create a survey to gather opinions and date from students

Create a discussion question to spark a classroom debate

Kahoot From the Student Perspective

To play a Kahoot game, students will go to the website Kahoot.it and enter the pin number to join the game. It takes less than two minutes for students to join a game of Kahoot. Students can play from their iPads, Chromebooks, iPhones, or Android devices. This is the login screen that students will be directed to play the game.

The student will be prompted to enter a room number code (show in the screenshot below).

Once students have entered the teachers room, the game prompts students to select a nickname. This can be anything they choose. Next, they’ll be ready to join the game and start playing.

Once students are logged in, the teacher will see the names of the students as they join the game.

Once students have joined the game, they select their answers by matching to the color and shape of the  questions on the board.

Teachers can also embed images into their questions. Below is an example of a question that was created using an image. Kahoot is also experimenting with allowing teachers to embed videos.

Once students select their answer, feedback is almost immediate. Students receive scores based upon their answers and time to respond. The rankings are adjusted accordingly. Teachers can set time limits on the responses to questions; either 5, 10, 20 30, 60, 90 or 120 seconds. The harder the question, the more time a teacher may want to give her students to respond. Time limits can also create a competitive atmosphere that will get students excited to respond quickly. 

Viewing Public Kahoots
Kahoot is a space where teachers can share and see what their colleagues are doing all over the world. From kindergarten to a advance level college class, Kahoot has publicly shared projects that will fit into any curriculum. According to Mrs. Scheffer, Kahoot might also be a way to spice up a department or faculty meeting.

Final Review

Overall, Kahoot is an awesome new way to bring fun and (educational) games into the classroom. I believe that it is the future of studying and classroom engagement. And if you still want students to review for your final or another major exam using a worksheet, you can send it to them via Google Drive. Students can complete a traditional review worksheet independently at home and send it back to their teacher via a Google Assignment Turn-in Form. If you need any help setting up your first Kahoot quiz, survey, or discussion, Help Desk students are available to assist you. You can also contact Mrs. Scheffer to schedule a time to meet with her to get started with Kahoot.

See For Yourself
To see how simple it is to set-up and play a Kahoot game, you can watch a three minute tutorial by clicking here.

Day 156 - Streamline Workflow Using Google Forms - John Vallerand, BHS Senior

This post originally appeared on the BHS Help Desk Blog

Google Forms in Classroom

One of the most powerful and versatile applications in the Google Drive suite is Google Forms. Forms is the ideal way to create surveys and is perfect for submitting assignments to teachers. Forms can also be used by coaches and club advisors to organize and manage information about their players or members. As part of the Help Desk course, we use Google Forms to submit all of our assigned work. Our instructor, Mrs. Scheffer, created a form for all of us in the Help Desk program. The form, titled “Help Desk Assignment Turn-In,” was shared with us and we access it through Drive on our iPads or on a computer.

 Using Google Forms to Streamline Workflow

Using Google Forms is convenient for both me as a student and for my teacher. After every assignment I complete, I submit my work by copying and pasting the URL of the file into the form. Mrs. Scheffer then opens the spreadsheet linked to the form and has access to not only my files, but all of my classmates files in one convenient location. All of our folders have been shared with her and she has editing rights. But rather than access our work through clicking multiple folders, she can click on one link in the spreadsheet. We have found this workflow to be the easiest and most streamlined method to submit and access work and it allows us to be paperless. Mrs. Scheffer uses the comment feature in Docs and gives us feedback on our assignments. We then edit our documents based on this feedback and submit for a final grade. We recently went through this entire process when we completed our career portfolio projects. Mrs. Scheffer is the only teacher I have who is using this workflow, but I think it’s one that other teachers should consider and see how they like it. Forms can be made private so that the teacher has full control over who can submit responses. The timestamp can be controlled by teachers which is hugely important because it prevents changes to the date and time of submitting work.

 Creating a Form

Creating a Form is a simple process. First, you choose a theme and give your Form a title. As you can see from the screenshot below, there are themes students could use for both academic and personal reasons. For example, if I was throwing a graduation party (June 8th is right around the corner!) I would use the balloon theme.

Adding Questions

The next step is to add questions. There are nine different types of questions you can choose from including multiple choice, text, and check boxes. You also have the option to determine if each question is required.

Once your form is complete, you’ll want to choose the confirmation page settings before sending the form to recipients.

Sending and Sharing a Form

There are several options to choose from when sending and sharing a form including email, Google+, Facebook, and Twitter. Forms can also be embedded into blogs, websites, and emails. Just like with Google Docs, Forms can be shared with others for collaboration purposes and these additional users have editing rights.

 Benefits of Google Forms:

• Add themes
• Choose a destination for the responses to go
• You can validate answers
• You can share your forms
• Manage responses
• Allows students to feel more confident that their work is turned in correctly

Looking For More Ideas?

Below are three links to additional ways Google Forms can be used in the classroom. If you wish to give the Form work submission a try and want assistance in creating and embedding the form, please don’t hesitate to come see us in the Help Desk for one on one help.

Creating a Google Form (from the Google Drive Support Center)
10 Ways I Use Google Forms in my Tablet Classroom80 Interesting Ways to Use Google Forms to Support Learning (includes a Google presentation with ideas)

A Tour of Google Forms