Vicki Davis, co-creator of the award winning Flat Classroom project, recently blogged here about problems with Google forms. She had a Google form removed without warning. She was tracking logins for a collaborative project with the form. Google has offered no explanation or apology for the removal.
Davis' researched the problem and found similar reports by others. Google's 'Terms of Service' explicitly says that users should NOT include userids and passwords in their documents. One of the people who commented on Davis' blog hypothesized that the problem stems from phishing campaigns. She suggests that removing documents with userids is one way that Google protects its users.
I believe that Google could protect its users and provide a much better service to its users by alerting them before removing their files. However, this does serve as a reminder to all of us.
The cloud is not foolproof. You should have a backup of you data. Don't rely on the magnanimity of a corporate entity to secure your data. They will not be up all night retyping your paper if it is lost.
Showing posts with label GoogleDocs. Show all posts
Showing posts with label GoogleDocs. Show all posts
Wednesday, March 28, 2012
Tuesday, March 20, 2012
Google Forms - Tues. Tech Tips
GoogleForms is the newest aspect of Google that I am sharing with students and staff. Here are a few ways to use them:
Paperless quiz: Type up a few questions in a form. Our students don't have email, so teachers post a link to the form on their blog or in a wiki. Don't forget to include a "Name" question. Google will accumulate all the answers for you with one line in a spreadsheet for each student's answers. Here is an example quiz. Here is the GoogleForm you can modify to create your own.
Self scoring spelling test: Steve Kirkpatrick pioneered this idea. Make a form that includes a space for the student's name and then one blank text box for each spelling word. Then you create a spreadsheet with the correct spelling of the words and have Google compare the student's spelling to the correct spelling and count the correct answers. More detailed steps are given here.
Lunch orders: Our school's receptionist, Dawn Searls, used Google Forms to survey the staff about their lunch choices for catered lunch. So quick and easy to use - no more email responses filling her inbox or pieces of paper piling up on her desk. And she could send the file directly to the caterer with a few clicks of the mouse!
Surveys: If you want a lot of people to give their opinion anonymously make a public form and share the link. You can tabulate the responses quickly and easily in the spreadsheet Google makes for you.
Teacher Observations: Administrators can document their observations and email them to the teacher with a few clicks. Charles Nolan at Middle College shared his form with me earlier this week. It includes a script that emails the teacher the results of the observation when they are finished. Learn more about the formemailer script here - https://sites.google.com/site/formemailer/getstarted
Paperless quiz: Type up a few questions in a form. Our students don't have email, so teachers post a link to the form on their blog or in a wiki. Don't forget to include a "Name" question. Google will accumulate all the answers for you with one line in a spreadsheet for each student's answers. Here is an example quiz. Here is the GoogleForm you can modify to create your own.
Self scoring spelling test: Steve Kirkpatrick pioneered this idea. Make a form that includes a space for the student's name and then one blank text box for each spelling word. Then you create a spreadsheet with the correct spelling of the words and have Google compare the student's spelling to the correct spelling and count the correct answers. More detailed steps are given here.
Lunch orders: Our school's receptionist, Dawn Searls, used Google Forms to survey the staff about their lunch choices for catered lunch. So quick and easy to use - no more email responses filling her inbox or pieces of paper piling up on her desk. And she could send the file directly to the caterer with a few clicks of the mouse!
Surveys: If you want a lot of people to give their opinion anonymously make a public form and share the link. You can tabulate the responses quickly and easily in the spreadsheet Google makes for you.
Teacher Observations: Administrators can document their observations and email them to the teacher with a few clicks. Charles Nolan at Middle College shared his form with me earlier this week. It includes a script that emails the teacher the results of the observation when they are finished. Learn more about the formemailer script here - https://sites.google.com/site/formemailer/getstarted
Sunday, March 11, 2012
iPad Review
Over the summer our school received four donated iPads. We decided to use them with staff and bought two more for teachers. I was fortunate enough to have one of the first four to use. I was so impressed with the speed of this device! It is so intuitive and so many applications are available for education.
I started by using GoDocs so I could access all my Google Docs. I use a Google spreadsheet to track my computer inventory. We also have a Google document with our emergency phone tree. I loved being able to carry it with me and quickly bring up my spreadsheet instead of making notes when I was in classrooms and entering them in my spreadsheet later.
I retrieved my email on my iPad too, but accessing my folders was a little more cumbersome and messages I sent from my iPad didn't show up in my sent mail on the server.
I couldn't access files on my network drive. I also had some issues with the wireless connection in our school. The iPad would lose its wireless connection periodically and would sometimes stubbornly refuse to connect.
I couldn't print.
I love the integrated nature of the iPad though. It has a built in still and video camera. It is so portable that you can carry it anywhere and it is instantly on and ready to use.
When our Media and Technology Committee met this fall, they voiced very strongly their desire to put the iPads in the hands of students instead of teachers. I was inspired by the dedication of our teachers and chose to put the iPad I had been using into the group for students. Since then I have repurposed an AlphaSmart cart to house the iPads and I found some low cost rubberized sleeves for them. The next step will be reimaging the iPads and loading apps on them for students.
The iPad is an expensive device, but I think its innovative design and intuitive interface make it a natural for education. I can't wait to get it into the hands of our students! We will have an iPad cart with 5 devices that teachers can check out and use in their classroom. We don't have enough iPads to achieve 1:1, but I hope that we will still see some of the benefits associated with 1:1 programs. I certainly think using the iPads will increase student involvement and engagement as Holcomb suggests in Results & Lessons Learned from 1:1 Laptop Initiatives. As recommended by Bonifaz and Zucker I have given teachers access to the iPads before making them available to students. The Media & Technology Committee is working with me to plan the logistics of the rollout.
I am looking for ways to evaluate the cost and benefits of the initiative, any suggestions?
I started by using GoDocs so I could access all my Google Docs. I use a Google spreadsheet to track my computer inventory. We also have a Google document with our emergency phone tree. I loved being able to carry it with me and quickly bring up my spreadsheet instead of making notes when I was in classrooms and entering them in my spreadsheet later.
I retrieved my email on my iPad too, but accessing my folders was a little more cumbersome and messages I sent from my iPad didn't show up in my sent mail on the server.
I couldn't access files on my network drive. I also had some issues with the wireless connection in our school. The iPad would lose its wireless connection periodically and would sometimes stubbornly refuse to connect.
I couldn't print.
I love the integrated nature of the iPad though. It has a built in still and video camera. It is so portable that you can carry it anywhere and it is instantly on and ready to use.
When our Media and Technology Committee met this fall, they voiced very strongly their desire to put the iPads in the hands of students instead of teachers. I was inspired by the dedication of our teachers and chose to put the iPad I had been using into the group for students. Since then I have repurposed an AlphaSmart cart to house the iPads and I found some low cost rubberized sleeves for them. The next step will be reimaging the iPads and loading apps on them for students.
The iPad is an expensive device, but I think its innovative design and intuitive interface make it a natural for education. I can't wait to get it into the hands of our students! We will have an iPad cart with 5 devices that teachers can check out and use in their classroom. We don't have enough iPads to achieve 1:1, but I hope that we will still see some of the benefits associated with 1:1 programs. I certainly think using the iPads will increase student involvement and engagement as Holcomb suggests in Results & Lessons Learned from 1:1 Laptop Initiatives. As recommended by Bonifaz and Zucker I have given teachers access to the iPads before making them available to students. The Media & Technology Committee is working with me to plan the logistics of the rollout.
I am looking for ways to evaluate the cost and benefits of the initiative, any suggestions?
Wednesday, February 29, 2012
Dear Google
Dear John Google,
I love you! I create spreadsheets in GoogleDocs and encourage others to do so too. I send text messages to Google to get phone number information for businesses around town. I post videos on YouTube for fun and for my teaching job. I use GoogleChrome as my Web browser. When I don’t know how to solve a technical problem, I Google it. This blog is hosted by Google. I have three different Google accounts and I actually use them all.
But I feel like you have betrayed me, Google. I just read an excellent article from NPR about Google’s new privacy rules and it seems that Google isn’t the generous friend I thought it was. They are mining my email, YouTube activities and searches to provide more targeted advertising. Sorry, they say they are “providing me with more relevant ads.” Thanks, but no thanks! It feels more like they are snooping and selling my secrets to their REAL friends, their advertisers.
As Thomas Friedman put it in The World is Flat, “Thanks to the new industry called ‘search,’ individuals can now drill down and search out facts, quotations, history and the personal data of strangers as never before.” And it’s not just individuals searching out facts about me and you, it’s companies with deep pockets and their own agendas. I have blogged about this issue before here and here.
I am taking action TODAY, because apparently it will be a lot harder tomorrow. I am going to stop Google from tracking my search history. And I am going to get into the habit of logging out of Google before I do a search. I already check my email from a third party application so that part is already done. Here are some tips about how to limit your exposure while still enjoying Google.So, Google, I am not breaking up with you completely but this is no longer a relationship of complete trust and I might start seeing other people. That cute guy, Bing, called just the other day.
Tuesday, February 21, 2012
QR Code Spreadsheet
One primary purpose for many blogs is "illustration of technology related tips" (Duffy & Burns, 2006). This is an ideal application for blogs because the author can incorporate the technology or a link to it in the blog. Interactivity is one of the qualities that makes blogging unique (Herring, et. al).
Tammy Worcester is one of my favorite bloggers and conference presenters. She posts brief, easy to follow technology tips on her blog periodically. Recently she posted about a quick way to create QR codes. QR codes are those block like barcodes that have started showing up in our society. I notice them most often in magazines, but you can see them almost anywhere from a carton of strawberries to a billboard. They are a graphic shortcut to a URL. You need a device with a camera, Web access and the software to interpret the code. Smartphones, tablets, and iPods can read QR codes.
In Tammy's tip she uses GoogleDocs, one of my favorite 21st century tools for students, to automatically generate a QR code. Teachers could use this capability to provide students with a shortcut to a video explaining a task or topic. A QR code could also be a shortcut to an online handout.
To create the QR code in a GoogleDoc spreadsheet you need this formula (=image("https://chart.googleapis.com/chart?chs=150x150&cht=qr&chl=" & A2) where A2 is the location of your URL.
You can see my document here https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/pub?key=0Ap3SPq0QEf6odHBHcEVhM19fX09KMHE3NlFaVUFoUkE&output=html. I am SO excited to use it with kids and teachers!
Tammy Worcester is one of my favorite bloggers and conference presenters. She posts brief, easy to follow technology tips on her blog periodically. Recently she posted about a quick way to create QR codes. QR codes are those block like barcodes that have started showing up in our society. I notice them most often in magazines, but you can see them almost anywhere from a carton of strawberries to a billboard. They are a graphic shortcut to a URL. You need a device with a camera, Web access and the software to interpret the code. Smartphones, tablets, and iPods can read QR codes.
In Tammy's tip she uses GoogleDocs, one of my favorite 21st century tools for students, to automatically generate a QR code. Teachers could use this capability to provide students with a shortcut to a video explaining a task or topic. A QR code could also be a shortcut to an online handout.
To create the QR code in a GoogleDoc spreadsheet you need this formula (=image("https://chart.googleapis.com/chart?chs=150x150&cht=qr&chl=" & A2) where A2 is the location of your URL.
You can see my document here https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/pub?key=0Ap3SPq0QEf6odHBHcEVhM19fX09KMHE3NlFaVUFoUkE&output=html. I am SO excited to use it with kids and teachers!
Saturday, February 18, 2012
Are My Students Wiki Editors?
I have a classroom wiki (http://littlebeavertech.pbworks.com/w/page/18078873/FrontPage) that I love! It keeps my Web resources organized and easy to access just as Lamb (2004) suggests. Duffy and Burns (2006) suggest wikis can allow teachers to share resources and teaching methods. I collaborated with our literacy coach on a set of literacy pages (http://littlebeavertech.pbworks.com/w/page/33177620/Literacy%20HomePage) that teachers throughout my school use regularly. I have invited several teachers to edit and love their contributions! But I wouldn't DREAM of letting my students edit!
Well, that's not entirely true. I did an experiment two years ago with students writing a wiki page based on their research, but it didn't go too well (http://littlebeavertech.pbworks.com/w/page/18078864/Chapman-Human%20body%2C%20bones). They spent more time waiting for their turn to edit the wiki page than they did editing. They also had to share user ids from one class period to the next and this caused conflict about who had actually entered or deleted things in the wiki. So I gave up and kept the wiki editing for teachers only. So I cringed at Duffy and Burns (2006) suggestion of the power of wikis to enable collaborative content creation, peer assessement and formative evaluations. Was I missing the boat on the power of wikis?
Then I began to wonder if I wasn't using a Wiki of sorts with students. I began using GoogleApps with students about a year ago. Our school district created Google accounts for students and teachers who wanted to join the pilot project. A brave teacher, Cathy Bowman, agreed to take the adventure with me. I showed her the basics that I new about GoogleDocs and suggested that her students would like being able to start a document at school and finish it at home. Cathy and I moved slowly, first showing it to the students on the projector in her classroom before sending home permission slips. Then we scheduled one entire session on logging in. The students took to it like ducks to water and were pushing us to do more, faster. Soon they were sharing documents, commenting on each other's writing and creating documents faster than I could take attendance.
Are GoogleDocs one page wikis? They seem to fulfill many of the descriptions listed by Lamb in "Wide Open Spaces: Wikis, Ready or Not".
Well, that's not entirely true. I did an experiment two years ago with students writing a wiki page based on their research, but it didn't go too well (http://littlebeavertech.pbworks.com/w/page/18078864/Chapman-Human%20body%2C%20bones). They spent more time waiting for their turn to edit the wiki page than they did editing. They also had to share user ids from one class period to the next and this caused conflict about who had actually entered or deleted things in the wiki. So I gave up and kept the wiki editing for teachers only. So I cringed at Duffy and Burns (2006) suggestion of the power of wikis to enable collaborative content creation, peer assessement and formative evaluations. Was I missing the boat on the power of wikis?
Then I began to wonder if I wasn't using a Wiki of sorts with students. I began using GoogleApps with students about a year ago. Our school district created Google accounts for students and teachers who wanted to join the pilot project. A brave teacher, Cathy Bowman, agreed to take the adventure with me. I showed her the basics that I new about GoogleDocs and suggested that her students would like being able to start a document at school and finish it at home. Cathy and I moved slowly, first showing it to the students on the projector in her classroom before sending home permission slips. Then we scheduled one entire session on logging in. The students took to it like ducks to water and were pushing us to do more, faster. Soon they were sharing documents, commenting on each other's writing and creating documents faster than I could take attendance.
Are GoogleDocs one page wikis? They seem to fulfill many of the descriptions listed by Lamb in "Wide Open Spaces: Wikis, Ready or Not".
- anyone can change anything - you can make your GoogleDoc public and anyone can edit then
- "softsecurity" can be employed for GoogleDocs shared by many people or made public
- common way to use wikis is to create an agenda and then turn it into meeting notes - teachers at our school are using GoogleDocs for their PLC agendas and notes
- training is minimal - users new to GoogleDocs typically only need a few minutes of instruction
- creating a page is much easier than using a typical HTML editor - creating a document in GoogleDocs is VERY quick
- ease students into writing for public consumption - students can easily share their writing with a small or large group of readers, giving them read only or edit privileges
Wednesday, November 28, 2007
What's New from Google - Patrick Crispen
Googlebots from Patrick Crispen
The Googlebots send Google a complete copy of the entire Web page.
http://netsquirrel.com/ - to see his old presentation on how Google works and gets a page rank
Patrick gives permission to use his presentations under Creative Commons
Google 411
Call 1-800-goog411 will text the directions or map to cell phone, doesn’t offer residential information . . . yet
Google Mobile Maps is a dowloadable cell phone application, see real time traffic information; google.gmm; more cell phone stuff mobile.google.com
in google maps set location and then type ribs in [location]
Google Research Tools
books.google.com
full text searching of thousands of books – adding ~ 3,000 books a day
Google has scanned and you can search the content of books to let you know where the word you are searching for occurs in the book, but won’t let you read the book online (with a few exceptions)
scholar.google.com
limits searches to peer-reviewed papers, theses, books, abstracts and articles
news.google.com
news archive search – can find out where the article is and then you have to go to your library and get the real document. look on left hand side for the timeline
Google notebook www.google.com/notebook
browser add-in that lets you save information from the Internet onto a virtual 3x5 card, highlight information on web site, click on the star it adds what you wanted to your Google notebook page. on your notebook page it has all the information you nee to cite the resource
on advanced search there is a choice under usage writes to specifically look for Creative Commons materials
common facts can be searched using plain English
Google will make basic mathematical calculations
3*5
1 light year in miles
1 cup in teaspoons
1 dollar in euros
define smoots
weather:
movie [zipcode]
Google Productivity Tools
could create a classroom set of email addresses on gaggle.net
Google Docs has Powerpoint now too
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