Self Grading Forms

Well, this is my last post  for this class.  I have learned quite a bit. Thank you Dr. Pierce..  I am actually thinking about maybe trying to form a group a school to get together once a month just to talk about technology we use in our classroom.

Today we created a self grading online quiz.  It was very simple to do.  We just create an =If statement.  If statements determine whether a condition is met or not.  If you are a geek and want to know more...Click Here    Here is an easy tutorial I used to double check what I was doing.  I wanted to point out to my fans (Mom and Jenn) than an even easier way to do this(bypassing the IF statement) is to use Flubaroo.  Flubaroo is an add-on that you can attach to a Google sheet.  It asks you a couple of questions and Viola, your quiz is corrrected. It also alerts you to students that received a low grade and also questions that you asked but your students did poorly on.  IE: maybe it was a teacher error.

For my project, I made a simple quiz of Microsoft shortcuts.  I highly recommend you make a multiple choice test or some kind of test where they have to choose an answer.  I purposely did not do this for this test and you can see that if a student did not answer exactly as you told the program to do it is marked incorrect. Which means you need to go check your spreadsheet and fix any grades.  You can see a couple of kids got the question correct but were marked wrong

Check out my spreadsheet

Below is a sample with the same quiz but using Flubaroo. First you install Flubaroo then click     Add-ons --> Flubaroo--> Grade Assignment....EZ PZ

Here is what the Flubaroo spreadsheet looks like:

Here is my cool Quiz.  If you don't get a 100% you need to take my computer course

Numbers 1.7

Today we were given a scenario in which a professor wanted to know whether he should keep the prerequisite of a course.  In our case, the null hypothesis, which is the commonly held view, is students needed to take College Algebra before taking an Introductory Statistics course.  The alternative hypothesis, which is always opposite the null, would be that College Algebra is not needed as a prerequisite. We were provided pass/fail figures of students that took College algebra and those who didn't.   We then entered our data into the online Chi-squared calculator to analyze data.  In this case the Null was confirmed. Students should be required to take the prerequisite

A scenario that I could use in my computer class would be: Is it necessary for students to do the 3 sets of training sessions I require them to complete before taking a Microsoft Office Specialist test. 

This project is most closely related to ISTE-2  design and develop digital learning experiences and assessments.  We learned how to assess data which could lead us to best classroom practices.

Using Google Forms

Google Forms is a less known feature in our Google Drive.  Many people like to use it to gather data or create surveys.  I have used Google Forms quite a bit in the past to collect data from our football team and also to collect data from my classes.  I find it to be a great way to collect names, addresses, emails, cell phone numbers etc.  I also have used it to give small quizzes in my classroom.  After our last assignment, I plan to use this feature more.  Google Forms has also improved over the years by adding features like charts and graphs that weren't available in the old version.  This lesson also taught me how to use features that I have never used before including: like check boxes, drop down menus and linear scale questions.  In my opinion, Google Forms is much more intuitive and flexible to use than Survey Monkey.

Getting people to take the survey is a snap.  You can send your participants a link, post a link on your website, or even embed it in your website.  One of the great features of emailing it is, you have the option to just email the survey, there is not link to click, just fill out the survey that is embedded in the email and Voila, you are done

Click Explore

Google Forms allows you to review the results two different ways.  #1 you can have Forms create a spreadsheet for you which you can share with others.  I am doing a program evaluation paper for Dr Lukacs for RST 672 and was able to share the spreadsheet I had with my principal.   If you are looking at spreadsheet you can click on Explore on the bottom right

Spreadsheet

Or #2 You can just click on responses at the top of your initial survey that you made.  This provides you with ready made charts like the one located on the right hand side of the page.

Another feature i like is that Forms time stamps all responses.  This way I can tell if new responses came in after I have previously looked at the data

Here is a link to my spreadsheet  BTW Make sure to get get a "shareable link so others can see it. Below is my embedded survey. I generally would just share or provide a link but I wanted to show of my Google Forms wizardry.

Quizzing Works Part 2

Today we explored new quizzing options for our classroom and boy am I glad I did.  In a previous post, I blogged about how I love to use  ClassFlow for my classroom.  I also like to use Google Forms for surveys and an occasional short quiz.  Truth be told, I use Google Forms for football A LOT.  Check it out, if you would like to see a sample.

Some of the sites I checked out for this project include: Kahoot, Socrative, QuizStar and ExamTime.
However, the program I liked the best and was easiest to use was TestMoz.  It was super easy to use. I created my quiz in about 5 minutes.  Positives include: No password needed.  You can create multiple answer types and it is self-correcting.  There are some negatives as the user can not collect data about the quiz and if you forget your test code you can't recover your quiz. There is a $20 payment option if you would like these features.

Reading the 25 Principles of Learning article was a good reminder of many of the things I am already doing in my classroom.  However, the article about frequent quizzing was very interesting.  I have usually given quizzes at the end of a unit and check for understanding in an informal way while I am teaching the material.  Using frequent quizzing gives me another informal (and proven effective way) to #1 check for understanding and #2 increase learning capacity.  Check out this quote: Multiple tests slow forgetting better than a single test. Learners also benefit if they use test results as a guide for their own learning. 

This project is most closely related to ISTE-2  design and develop digital learning experiences and assessments

Audacity Project Music Through My Life

Today we made a podcast with Audacity.  Audacity is a free open source software platform that allows you to record and edit sounds.  The program is very straight forward to use but not as intuitive (at least for me) to use.  I got the hang of it after a while of fumbling around with it. Part of the reason why I had trouble with the program is that I am a linear person. Audacity allows you to overlay sounds on top of one another.  Listening to my podcast you will be able to tell I got better editing as the podcast went along.  I also had trouble modulating the sound of my voice.  There are plenty of online tutorials that were very helpful. I recommend watching the tutorials BEFORE you start using the program.  In my younger days, I fancied myself as a radio jock. This podcast is about the music I grew up with, what I thought about it, and how it shaped me as I grew.  It was fun doing the project but I found I was wasting time listening to the songs instead of doing my work:)

           MY PODCAST

Quizzing Works

I do not use too many tools that quiz my students using multiple choice methods.  In the past, I have used Kahoot! and found it easy and fun to use. I have actually made quizzes for my grandchildren who were then able to take the "quiz" using Poppy's cell phone.

What I have found and LOVE is to use is a program called ClassFlow.  ClassFlow is a great tool and can be used in a number of ways.  The program allows you to basically deliver a whiteboard to each student on their desktop.  The student can then either type, draw, or insert a picture onto the whiteboard and deliver back to the teachers computer which is projected onto the Promethium board.  I like to use this technique as a bell ringer or to check for understanding during a lecture.  This also helps to make the lecture more interactive.  Here is a link to a recent assignment.  I have the questions already pre-made before the class starts, but it is very easy to create a question on the fly and deliver it to the students.  If you look at the link, some questions require the students to get pictures from the Internet and some require text. Every student now must have some sort of engagement.  ClassFlow does have an app, but I find, when given the choice to use an app or a desktop for in school work, students like using the larger desktop

Hmmmm. I wonder if everyone is engaged.

I also like to use ClassFlow for current events.  Every student summarizes a current event, submits it to the teachers computer and Viola it is up on the Promethium board.  I, as a teacher, can pick which ever current event I choose to talk about.



Another way I like to check for understanding is to create blog posts.  (Thanks EDU 585) check them out here. Gordon Leadership Blog and  Gordon Law Blog

A Picture is Worth a Thousand Words

Today we learned how to create an Infographic.   An infographic is a visual representation of information, data or knowledge.  It is designed to present information quickly and clearly.  Anybody who looks at Twitter or Facebook is accustomed to seeing infograpghics in their feed. I usually see them in the context of college football teams trying to promote themselves or a player on their team.
Here is one from Boston College on the right




Infograpghics also can and should be used in an academic setting.  Here is an infographic I made of a scholarly article written by Dr Pierce.  I created the infographic using Canva.  Canva is a "freemium" model platform that allows you to make infographics among other items such as brochures or flyers. Although I am not sure that an infographic can or should replace a scholarly article, it does allow the student to get a quick peek at the "highlights" of the article. Perhaps encouraging the student to read further.  If not, at least he was able to garner some information from something he might have never read before.

On a side note, I plan to use infographics in a couple of classes.  I am doing a Business Law unit on different types of crimes and it might be fun to create an infographic on different types of crimes.

I also teach a Desktop Multimedia class so they also will be getting a dose of Canva too