PPS Instructional Technology

It is no secret that I love Google Forms.   Paul Murray and I frequently share our love of this easy to use data collection tool with our teachers and others around the state, like in this presentation from miGoogle 2013.  One of the problems I have with data collection, however, is what to do with all the information, and make it manageable, once you have it collected.  I often look at spreadsheets full of Form responses and wonder, "There are 200 responses here!  How am I going to make sense of all this?"  Thankfully, there are some really amazing add-ons and tools that, with little effort on the users part, can make the data come alive. Tool #1: Add-on - autoCrat As a teacher, I collect information from my students/families every year.  Information such as names, parents/guardians names, preferred email address, preferred phone number, best way to contact parents/guardians, etc.  This information can be easily collected with a Form at open...

Back in March of 2014, I shared with you that Google expanded the functionality of docs and spreadsheets with the addition of Add Ons ( Google Docs just got better! Google Docs introduces Add ons ).  At the time, there were only a couple of Add Ons for each program since it was so new.  There are now numerous Add Ons and they have expanded it to Google Forms as well.  Over the next couple weeks,  I will be sharing with you some of my favorite Add Ons, along with how they can be used in the classroom. Let's collaborate!   Is there a add on that you can't live without?  Share your ideas and how you use it in the classroom and I will share it out for everyone! Getting Started Haven't checked out add ons yet?  Open a Google doc or sheet.  Click on the Add-ons menu and select Get add-ons.

One of the things that I often hear when training on Google Docs is, "How do I insert ClipArt?"  I then usually have to go through the steps of inserting an image, or pulling in an image from another site.  Well it just got a whole lot easier to insert ClipArt in to your Google Document thanks to the Open ClipArt Add-on! To add this to your Google Docs account: Go to the Add-ons menu at the top of your Google Document.   Click "Get Add ons" Select "OpenClipArt" Now the next time you want to add clipart to a Google Document all you need to do is go to the Add-ons menu and select "Openclipart" and "Search Clipart".  A window will appear on the right side of your screen for you to search! Yeah!

In previous posts I shared how to share documents with your students using a distribution list and the GClassFolders script that can be found in the old version of Google Spreadsheets.  Here is one more way to share documents with your students, and possible my new favorite way! DOCTOPUS In the new Google Sheets you will find the Add ons menu.  This menu allows you to add features to your spreadsheets and documents, much like the script gallery used to allow you to do.  The great thing is that the new Doctopus add on is very simple to use and walks you right through the process.  The added bonus of sharing documents through Doctopus is that you can set up templates for your students to use, as well as grading them using the Goobric rubric feature. Check out this video to learn more, or check out Doctupus in the Add ons store :

I will be the first to admit that, despite the fact that I use Google Docs every day, it isn't the most full featured piece of software I have ever used.  There are many times when I would like to insert a graphic organizer in a Doc, or use a spreadsheet to easily create a mail merge.  Well, Google is changing things up and has introduced the Add-Ons menu to Google Docs and the New Google Sheets.  This new menu allows you to select certain tools that you want to use with your Google Docs.  Here is a brief introductory video: In addition to the Add-ons listed in the video above, LucidChart has also been integrated into the add-on gallery.  LucidChart allows you to create mind-maps and other graphic organizers.  I love this tool and have used with with students as young as second grade.  What I am really excited about is that I now can have my students insert their graphic organizer right into their Google document they are sharing with me.  I ca...