Working from home -- I sent out my first Google Doc survey to building teachers last Friday. After reading Ginger's and Liza's blog posts re. their first experience with Google Docs I decided to put a very short "teaser" survey together to
:: invite teachers to a quick orientation session - required to claim their iBooks
:: practice & find out if and how it works - the people part and the technology
:: model "working smarter, not harder" by going paperless
:: give teaching staff a taste for a more elaborate staff survey coming their way soon ->
-> a survey I've created with the objective to establish a launching pad for a building-wide PR campaign to adopt & teach with innovative 21st century tech tools - our school is one of the first to become wireless and paper is becoming a scarce commodity so this is my window!
Survey Take-Aways
1) Not bad for a first even though not everyone responded. I had announced the iBook Orientation Sign-Up event with a conventional "coming your way" email and could have insisted that everyone had to respond ("just click on the link"). I could have also put something to that effect in the header of the Google Sign-Up form or could have added a gentle "must respond" nudge in the pop-up selection box, but I didn't. Live and learn, next time.
2) Groups in Gmail? I need to figure out how I can set up groups in GMail - typing individual email addresses leaves room for error. I also need to figure out how to organize the Inbox and other GMail/Doc interfaces - they are pretty cluttered and confusing.
3) After I ran my next survey (the BIG one) by a couple of "converts" in the building I decided to give it a rest, revisit the survey questions and roll it out after the holidays (as suggested) when teachers are less stressed and more receptive (I hope). I want to make sure that I'm asking the right questions for the feedback I'm seeking. Will Richardson's "Teachers as Learners - Part 32" blog post ("On My Mind", anno 2006) shows that even the right answers do not always constitute useful feedback so if I miss the mark to some degree I feel I'm among experts. How and what I will roll out will all depend on the passion with which the survey is received. As for when, I'm not throwing in the towel. Unfortunately there are pockets of what Will describes in his "think-aloud" blog "Teachers as Learners - Part 27" as the "T" factor. I can totally relate but do not have the freedom (and luxury) to think aloud.
Google Calendar
HELP!! Google Calendar is getting the best of me! I have been playing with Google Calendar because I want to put the lab scheduling on auto-pilot. My plan is to post a shared & interactive weekly lab calendar on my school blog so that teachers can sign up for lab time directly from their computers. I need an online, shareable calendar that allows me to customize times and tasks during the school day. I'm running into a couple of problems that make me think that Google Calendar is not my ticket. Week days can be modified but I can't figure out how to change the times - no, school doesn't start at 7:00 a.m. nor does every teaching block start on the whole hour. I'm about to abandon Google Calendar and looking for alternatives. There must be something out there I can use.
Anyone out there with calendar ideas?
I have struggled with the same issue for our Achievement Center. We need to schedule computers and staff members. So far I have not found a calendar that has the flexibility we need. For the past 3 years I have kept reservations on a custom Excel spreadsheet. The disadvantage of that is that the file is at school so I/we can't access from home and I sometimes need to. I tried uploading the Excel template to Google Docs but all the formatting I included doesn't display properly. My next idea is to design the spreadsheet in Google Docs. Maybe we can discuss in class?
ReplyDeleteGinger
Hi Ginger - Working harder to work smarter .... but don't give up yet. Yes, let's remember to ask Alice. There may be a way to customize Google Calendar once you have a Google Apps domain. Our district Mac/Network tech is running tests to establish a district-wide domain. He seems to think there is a way and if he finds a solution, Google or other, I'll definitely share it with you.
ReplyDeleteLooking forward to Saturday!
Janny