Using A Google Form from Google Docs

I made a form for my students to fill out at the beginning of the term that will include all their vital information in one place and keep it in a spreadsheet. So I can get their email addresses, see how many times they failed the level, see their reported IELTS Score, hobbies, age, student number, and much more all in one simple spreadsheet. How do i get to google docs you ask? If you have a google account (which are free), follow these steps:
1. Download the file below to your desktop.
2. Access Google Docs with the tab on the very upper left corner where it says "Documents"
3. Click "Upload" then "select files to upload"
4. Choose the file from your desktop then "Start Upload"
5. Click "Back to google docs"
6. check the item and click "share" from the box you can choose how to distribute it (email as attachment or get the link to share)

To access the information after students have filled it in, just click on the "Bio Sheet" item and the information will come up. Here's a video to show you how. If you have problems or questions, feel free to email me.

Sample of Photostory

PhotoStory is a web-based application that creates interesting audio/visual files like the one below that a student did for me last semester. This is one way to post music or other audio on a blog.

How to Embed Audio into Blogger

Someone asked: Can I embed an audacity sound file into my blog?

It's actually a little complicated to do but it is possible to put an audio file in your blog. It's a lot like setting up a podcast and embedding it. Here a quick tutorial video I found that gives the step by step if you're interested.

How To Embed A Podcast Into A Blogger

View more presentations from Paty.Savage.

Gadget of the Week #2 - Sidebar Calendars

The Gadget: Forthcoming Google Calendar Events



The Location:
Go to the Gadgets button and do a search (calendars) and it will come up.



The Features:
This allows you to post events from a calendar that you set up in your Gmail account. You can adjust how many events show. Whatever events you add into your google calendar. They show up here



How to use it:
You need to go to your google mail and click on the 'calendars' link at the top left of the gmail window. Then follow the instructions to create a calendar. Fill in the dates of special events and their times. When you are done, you need to click on the calendar you created and click 'calendar settings' (look at the left sidebar on the calendar window and click on the dropdown from the calendar you made) and click 'share this calendar. This gives you the option to make it 'public' Once you have done this, add the gadget through your blogger layout tab as mentioned above. Adjust the height or number of events.



Possible Classroom Uses:
Obviously, if you are using a blog in class regularly for assignments, the students would have access to testing schedules as well as assignment schedule directly within the blog. Saves on printing paper and students can access it any time.

EXAMPLE IS IN THE SIDEBAR

Photos

Can I display my photos across the bottom of the screen rather than in sequential order?

Answer: Good Question. With the 'PICTURES' feature from GADGETS you can only post single photos and place them in your side or bottom bar (check the side and bottom bar now for current photos called test pic 1,2,3) If you notice the bottom bar there is a side by side row of pics as well, this is a gadget called Picasa Photostream. Your google account can easily access picasa (another google brainchild) where you can upload your pictures and have them viewed by others. It will display whatever is your most recent album. So, if you have some pics you want to have the students view in class, you can upload them to picasa and then they will appear automatically on your blog as long as you have the photostream gadget installed either in the sidebar, bottom bar or under the blog. Within the gadget setup you can also adjust the size of the photo and choose to let students access your other photo albums or not. To set up PICASA just go to GMAIL and click on the PHOTOS link at the top left of your screen. It's pretty easy to set up and use but if you have problems, let me know and i'll run a quick tutorial on it when i get a chance. - Don

Student Blogging to increase writing

What I would like to do is get my students to write spontaneously through the blog. I remember a session by Robert Turner about doing this. I just worry that I won't have time to keep up with students blogs if I get it going well. I also think that the site has to be exciting to catch their interest. Probably the key is in the kinds of things you ask them to contribute.

Barbara

Step by Step Setup a Blog for Class

A. Pre-Class day 1 - Set up a FILTER and LABEL in Gmail.

1. Go to your gmail account for class and click on SETTINGS>FILTERS>CREATE A NEW FILTER

2. Type a unique filter name that your students will be able to easily type CORRECTLY (ex. abc123, Prada, Gucci, etc.)and type it into the "SUBJECT" box

3. Click NEXT STEP

4. Click SKIP THE INBOX and APPLY THE LABEL and from the dropdown box NEW LABEL

5. Type a Label name like FALL A 2009 L7

6. Click CREATE FILTER

B. Create a blog

1. Go to www.blogger.com

2. If you have never created a blog before, you should see a button CREATE A BLOG . (If you have a blogger account, just click CREATE A NEW BLOG from the dashboard window)

3. In the ‘new blogger window” you will need to choose the name people will see in your blog entries and comments.

4. In the next page, you will choose your blog title and URL (you must CHECK THE AVAILABILITY of the URL but not the title)

5. Choose your template and click CONTINUE

6. et voila, you have created a blog

C. In Class DAY 1 - Instruct all students to go to http://www.gmail.com/ and create a gmail account (available in arabic as well) and send an email to your gmail address with the filter name you chose in step A2 as the SUBJECT.

D. Pre-class Day 2

1. Send a reply to each students email so they will be added to your contacts list.

2. Send a blogger invitation to each student with these 7 steps:

a. Go to blogger dashboard

b. Click SETTINGS>PERMISSIONS

c. Click ADD AUTHORS

d. Click CHOOSE FROM CONTACTS

e. Click once on each student’s email address and add to the list

f. Click DONE

g. Click INVITE and you have now invited everyone but they have not accepted (to be done next IN CLASS)

E. In class Day 2

1. Have one student connect to the overhead

2. Have her follow these easy 4 steps to show the others

a. Open the email from you with the invitation (should be on top)

b. Click the link in the email

c. Fill in her gmail password

d. Click ACCEPT INVITATION

3. Have other students follow along

Finally

At the same time, view your Settings>Permissions page to make sure all students are becoming authors. Troubleshoot students who may be having trouble. Once all students have accepted the invitations you will see their names in the list as ‘authors’ whereas you will be the ‘admin’ Any students who have not accepted the invite or have had technical problems will continue to be in the lower list of ‘invited’ Also, remember that you can add authors anytime by clicking SETTINGS>PERMISSIONS>ADD AUTHORS and adding their email address (separated by a comma if there is more than one) and clicking INVITE.

Blogger-ing WITHOUT Gmail

Some asked if it is possible to make a blog if you don't have a gmail account. It IS possible and the video below shows how. This is the same step your students would have to go through if you sent them an invite to their Groupwise address. They would be creating a 'google account' before they actually can use the blogger. Again, I advise all students to sign up for Gmail simply because it makes things easier to administer each class if you start everything fresh. Obviously, that's up to you.




Note: the tool used for recording the screenshot and audio above is called camstudio 2.0. It makes an .avi file of whatever you like from your screen along with audio or onscreen text. A tool that has a lot of possible classroom applications and better...it's 100% Free and pretty easy to download and use. You can get it here. - Don

Gadget of the Week #1: Text

The Gadget: Text

The Location:
Go to Layout>Add a Gadget and search "text" (currently it's the 3rd item in the 'basic' list)

Features:
This allows you to place any kind of text into your sidebar or bottom bar. As you can see, I have added a little blurb about the purpose of this site. Feel free to email me with other suggestions.

How to use it:
simply type the title of what you want (see suggestions below) and then type the text. You can format the type and color as well as add a link as I have done with email in the example to the right.

Possible Classroom uses:
1. ZU Honor code in short form in the sidebar.
2. Teacher office hours
3. Blogging expectations
4. Class motto
5. Any kind of text that you would like to always be visible no matter how many posts come in.

Each week, I'll try to post information on a gadget that I either use or discover as useful. If you discover a gadget and think of some uses in the classroom, use your authoring privileges and post an blog similar to this. I also welcome suggestions in the comments section. - Don

Welcome to Zubloggeriffic

Thank you all for taking the time to learn about blogging. I hope you found our sessions useful and take to heart some of the suggestions with your classes this semester or in the future. Be sure to take some time and do some blogging on your new setup as an administrator and perhaps share it with another person on this list so that you can get the feel for how easy it is.

Also, I have set up this blog with all of you as authors. Feel free to play around with it and try to post something about your new blogging experience from the perspective your students will be using it. Please, contact me if you find that something you are trying is confusing and I'll try my best to help out. As the semester gets started, I hope to make some blog posts about different features of blogger that I am using and how i'm using them in class.

Good Luck and Happy Blogging.