PLE3_Google Docs

My final post for this practical experience includes a Google form. I wanted to experiment with creating a Google form and collecting the data into an organized spreadsheet. I always want to make my studies applicable to me and so I created a form about the implementation of the Response-to-Intervention that began this fall at my elementary school. I wanted to get some feedback from the classroom teachers about how it was going and what the most challenging part of it has been up to this point. Also, I wanted to collect some information regarding the collaboration aspect, all of which are elements of my action research. I have sent out the email and am awaiting the responses. I am really excited about the results that I will receive and how it will help direct me in my research. I also learned about to embed a form into a site and how to make it a live page. If you would like to see the form please follow the link.

Also, I was ignorant of the fact that there was a chat feature as a part of Google Docs. I was impressed by this and could see how this would be a great feature.

By the way, here is my certificate of completion of the Google Docs training course on www.lynda.com.

PLE2_Google Docs

While going through this course on www.lynda.com, I came to the realization that I needed to encourage my colleagues to get involved with this tool. So yesterday morning, I set down with our school secretary and discussed the possibilities of how this could make our lives easier. We have been collectively working on collecting money for Veteran’s Day t-shirts and recorders, with which we have to have an list of each student that purchased one. I maintain this document on my laptop in a spreadsheet, but I discussed with her how if I uploaded the document to google docs and shared it with her that it would eliminate me having to upload it and email it to her and would give her access to edit it if students bring money directly to her.

Notice that I found out simply how to sort all of my documents into folders, which really act more like tags than folders simply because all of the documents are viewed in the document list at all times.

Also, we compile a list of students who are less fortunate because during the winter months churches and nursing homes in the area buy for these students. Most of the time, the secretary and I are the ones working to put this together. Once again, I mentioned that this would be a great time to use Google docs. In fact, she was convinced that she is creating a gmail account and I have already uploaded the document to my account. The following is a screenshot of what we have started.

PLE1_Google Docs

So this week we were asked to post three times on a tool that we wanted to become more familiar with over the course of this program. For me, I choose Google Docs simply because we will be using this extensively in next month’s class. Prior to beginning this assignment, I was somewhat familiar with Google Docs, but my personality just requires me to know everything about a software or Web 2.0 tool. Therefore, I will taking an in depth look at Google Docs (docs, spreadsheets, forms, drawings, and presentations).

Here is a picture of my Google Docs page and some of the documents that I have already uploaded from past courses in this program and some that I will be using in my workplace.

With this said, I will be watching the entire course of Google Docs from www.lynda.com so that I can be familiar with all of the features.