Collecting, Analyzing and Graphing Data with Google Forms

Over the past couple of weeks, I've had several inquiries about ways to conduct online surveys and collect online data.  In each case, I've pointed people towards Google Docs and its Google Forms feature.

Spellingcity.com Adds Custom Sentences

When I first reviewed and recommended spellingcity.com last, fall, I suggested that one of its shortcomings was that it didn't allow the teacher to create his/her own context sentences.  That has now changed.

Tiling Windows

Those of us old enough to remember Windows 2 and 3 have little reason to pine for the "Good Old Days" of MS Windows, but one feature that was readily available in those versions was the ability to tile windows.  With one or two mouse clicks, one could easily arrange all active windows within a neat grid on the screen.

Inkscape - Vector Graphics for the Masses

Vector graphic software is probably one of the most underutilized technologies in education.  For those who may be unfamiliar with the term, vector graphics are images that are defined or created by lines, curves, polygons and fills rather than with individual dots the way bitmap graphics are defined.  The digital images produced by your camera or scanner are bitmap graphics; the images produced by CAD (Computer-Assisted-Drafting) software and other drawing programs (Corel Draw, Adobe Illustrator, Inkscape, Blender) are vector graphics.

Olympic Resources - wikispaces.com

Once every two years, as either the Summer or the Winter Olympics approaches, teachers usually try to incorporate the event into their classroom activities.  My colleague Rob Geiger passed on this site on wikispaces.com which provides teachers with links and activities related to the 2010 Vancouver Olympics.

While it's not definitive, it should serve as a good starting point for teachers.  Examine the menu on the right side bar to navigate the site.

Google Docs Allows Uploading and Sharing of All File Types

Many of you are probably already aware of the power of Google Docs, which provides the ability to create, share and collaborate on text files, spreadsheets, and presentations, all online.  Collaboration is probably Google Docs strongest suit, but up to now users were limited to storing and sharing files in Google Docs native formats or as PDFs, which were not editable.

Today Google announced that they will soon be expanding the Google Docs service to allow uploads of all file types, subject to a 250MB/file size limit.  Storage space for non-Google Doc files will be 1GB, making it comparable to the average USB thumb drive that many of us would otherwise carry.

The service expansion will be rolled out over the next few weeks.  If you are a Google Docs user, you can expect to see a notification within your Docs page some time in the near future.

One of the great features of this service expansion is that users will now be able to share many different types of files (Word, Excel, graphics, ...) with others, either as individual files or through shared folders.  While this isn't as powerful as the real-time collaboration of Google Docs themselves, it still has some interesting possibilities for teachers, administrators, and students.

Useful Gmail Labs Features

Most people who use Gmail find its interface improves their workflow over other email solutions.  But the folks at Google are constantly fiddling with Gmail to add improvements and customizations that might make the interface work even better for the user.  Many of these add-ons are experimental, so they are tucked away in the Gmail Labs section of Gmail.  You can access Gmail Labs by logging on to Gmail and choosing Settings > Labs. Once you have installed any Labs feature, you can access Gmail Labs by clicking on this icon () which will appear in the upper, right-hand corner of your Gmail window (to the left of "Settings.")

I asked my Elearning  colleagues to share some of the Labs features that they have found useful and compiled that with my own list.  Here are the results.  It's quite an extensive list, so we've placed asterisks beside the ones we believe are most indispensable.