Kristianstill

This afternoon I delivered my first whole college ICT inset. I was anxious, I was cutely aware that a ‘technology failure’ would have a significant negative impact on my integrity and on staff confidence. To lead 60 of my colleagues on an ICT CPD session via (relatively new) wireless network on their staff issued laptops, left me buoyed but also relieved.

Q What ICT topic would you have delivered for wholeschool CPD on the first day back after the break?

Having thought quite hard about this issue I decided on the title ‘Working with Files and Folders.’ It was a simple topic but one with scope, but more importantly it was a topic that all staff encompass (as long as they use their network).

Next questions, ‘typically, why is wholeschool CPDs dull?’

Well its hard to personalise wholeschool CPD, I knew that I could not help everyone but I could get everyone to help one another…..? and that was my hook. Second I wanted to take a few calculated risks, I wanted to use teachnology, to showcase some of the tools we have been experimenting with. So here is my CPD session, help yourself.

Email links just before attending the session to the Online poll (polleverywhere)and Google Form. Create shortcuts on the staff shared area for safety.

No verbal introduction – French and Saunders – The Computer Whisperer.

The video set a light hearted mood. The staff where then asked to poll their ICT competencies before moving on to the small team quiz hosted via a Google self-marking form. The results were collected via a form, and although I thought having access to instants results was pretty impressive, I am not sure that it was such a hit with the staff?

We went through the answers and I side tracked on one or two additional College innovations that were highlighted by this task. I wish that I had planned and scripted this aspect more carefully rather than racing through the new College website, events calendar, document storage and remote access, helpdesk and shared resource on the Intranet. I finished with the results of our Everywhere Poll that strongly indicated that our staff have a positive outlook.

Was it a success? On the whole, I hope that the staff found the task practical and engaging. I’ll see what feedback I can gather over the next couple of days. I don’t think the staff were blown away – it was hardly the most exciting topic. In reflection I think that this activity may have been more powerful with 4/5 teams in a classroom run by three staff rather than 20 teams in the main hall. It missed the banter between groups and it was hard to manage so many teams.  In the meantime, help yourself to any of the resources.

The results are here.

I have started to source, tag and share my Moodle investigations, help yourself, Moodle tag @ Delicious. In addition to the Moodle site, there is a demo site, a Moodle blogger, a strategic deployment interview and some book references. I have joined Gideon Williams (Perins School) Moodle group for Hampshire, chatted with the ICT advisor for Bucks, now they are moving and shaking, spoke with Ian Ushers and a few other fellow teachers who have a professional interest in Moodle – at the same time slowly adding these names to my Twitter PLN. AT Hamble we have appointed a ‘Moodler’ 3 out of 5 days a week and continue to work with CTS on the deployment. Now I want to make sure we get the right install with the right plugins, thats means I have to develop my knowledge to be a lead practictioner for our College…… its about developing my Moodle Noodle.

Today I read and learnt about Conditional Activities. Now this a very motivating tool for students. Unlocking is something young people often experience in their gaming worlds. Complete XYZ and get a bonus level, the mystery room, new character, new move/power or end level boss. Exciting.

Other Learning Platform issues being discussed;

Integration with College MIS.

Visual appearance and skinning, this links with rebranding and renaming Moodle. Probably through student voice.

Accessing Moodle Moot.

Staff Training and wholeschool deployment and how this integrates with a Netbook progect and development on Sims.

Topic or Tool: Online Polling. This overview looks at when and how polls can be used. Polls are embedded in our College webpage but there are also web options. We use polls to monitor opinions from students and parents but also to encourage students to engage with the website. For example our students recently correctly predicted the outcome of the X Factor final.

What does it cost? For the most part FREE.

How it could be used for teaching? There are a range of options here.

Most Web polling software are free and they require no technical knowledge. Lets take a look at a few, but there are plenty more than that. Note the key differences are HOW users vote and How you interact with the site.

1. The very first polling software I used was SurveyMonkey. I used it to gather student feedback about the course. I then used this information to develop and steer the course. In the post 16 sector, gauging and responding to the students was very important. Still a very powerful tool, basic subscribers (FREE) are limited to a total of 10 questions and 100 responses per survey. So good for a cohort or group but if you want to go beyond 100 respondents, and up to 1000 or gain access many more features, there is a cost. 8/10

2. Micropoll- This web poll service doesn’t require registration and you can create a quick poll by simply typing all the possible choices in a text box separated by new lines. Great for quick hit question. Micropoll provides a variety of colored themes and you can embed polls in websites either as JavaScript or a Flash movie. You get to see poll responses on a world map and the paid version also supports SMS polls.

3. Google Docs – Simply fantastic. Create a new form in Google Docs with a range of questions styles. Its already been used to gather cross college data in our establishment. With the help of some online colleagues, we have added the function of instant grading. Here is a highly developed spelling test formwith extras, marked instantaneously – now I have your attention don’t I. Or how about lesson review forms for students to feedback to teachers. Here is a form for Unit 4 from the OCR Nationals, two groups in two separate rooms competed against one another. Tom Barrett does a great job with Google Docs. With the pros, come the cons. Poll embedding options in Google Docs aren’t very convenient and users can’t see the results after voting but you can convert answers to gadgets….. but that’s another meal.

4. PollDaddyis the most popular online polling software focused as an online solution. A free account from PollDaddy allows you to create surveys and polls for your website, blog and social network profiles.

5. StrawPoll – This is an interesting service that lets you run live polls on Twitter. Good for your PLN not necessarily for school.

6. Poll Everywhere – This could be a student poll, but also good for conference or staff CPD participation. I hope to work with Poll Everywhere in the New Year. Although fine as a web poll, Poll. Poll Everywhere also offers SMS Polls where people can vote though text messaging on mobile phones just like polls conducted on TV or radio. The basic plan is free though it only allows 30 votes per poll.

There are more, Notifu, Vizu Polls and Toluna. The question is, what works for you.

Which polling software is right for me?

All the services discussed above offer some unique options. For instance, Notifu allows polling via email while Micropoll lets you create polls even without asking for your email address. So, if you are doing a poll with students and want to use the result instantly or present the results go with Poll Everywhere, their ppt integretion is very neat.

If you are a doing a presentation in a conference room and need opinions of participants over a certain topic, try Poll Everywhere again, hoping everyone has either a phone or laptop they can join in with.

If you need polls for embedding in web pages, Poll Daddy, the free version of PollDaddy offers unlimited polls and unlimited number of votes, however you will need the Pro version for if you want to prevent fraudulent multiple votes from the same IP address.

For use with students and staff responses, I dont think you can beat the ease of Google Docs. Certainly if you want the students to fill in data, then Google docs rocks. Bring the data to life with Google Gadgets or Many Eyes.

Polling in action….