I swear by Twitter chats for professional development and building my PLN (personal learning network). If you’re not exactly sure what a Twitter chat is, check out my post about Twitter chats that includes a key to participating, or check out the resources on my Twitter page. Hands down, these hour conversations and idea sharing are some of the most exciting and renewing parts of my work week. I’m constantly getting new ideas from other educators on Twitter and excited to bring those ideas to my own district.
I’ve been thinking for a while about how I can better organize all the sites, new tools, ideas and blog posts that are shared during these fast paced hours. I usually favorite a ton of Tweets during the chat to help me go back and look at the sites later that evening or over the next few days at work. But usually, I end up having to scroll and scroll and hunt for those favorites because I’ve participated in yet another chat, or I didn’t get to it fast enough and I’ve favorited a bunch of other stuff.
So I thought it might be a good idea to write a quick blog post after each Twitter chat to summarize what I got out of it and what I want to check out. I also hope these summaries may encourage someone a little hesitant and skeptic to join Twitter and participate in a chat by seeing just a snip-it of the awesome stuff shared online.
Tuesday night was #GAFEchat, or Google Apps For Education chat; last nights topic was specifically on Google Forms. #GAFEchat takes place on the 1st and 3rd Tuesday of every month from 9-10 EST. They have a great Google Site set up with all the chat topics and archives that I recommend checking out if you are a Google user! The entire archive can be found here, and an archive of each question with just those answers pertaining to that particular question can be found here. Thanks to Kelly Fitzgerald for hosting- she really has her Twitter Chat game together!
Here are some of my big takeaways and ideas from the chat:
- Eric Curts encourages constant feedback on his work by including a link to a feedback form in his email signature. This is such a great way to get constant feedback!
- Carol Huard keeps a QR code displayed in her room at all times that links to a nomination form for “class heroes.” What a great motivator and positive reinforcement!
- Bret Biornstad combines forms and QR codes to create a class library checkout system
- Eric Curts uses Forms to control access to info. He has the user fill out a form, then in the confirmation message they get a link to the needed site or file.
- Students can create their own forms for audience feedback during presentations, shared by Ross Berman.
- Lynn Kleinmeyer shares the Form summary of responses (charts and graphs) when they are finished to spark discussion with her students.
These are some of the blogs and websites I want to check out that were shared:
- Nickie Sattler’s website: http://www.edtech4schools.net/.
- Learning style inventory form that calculates and emails results to user shared by Eric Curts (I attended one of Eric’s sessions at OETC, and I’m really glad to have him in my PLN now!).
- Forms Add Ons:
- Form Ranger– generates student drop down lists
- Form Values– stores commonly used answer lists
- Choice Eliminator– removes an answer choice once someone selects it
- Autocrat– you make a doc template then connect to Forms to auto run the document when a Form is submitted; I’d love to pair this with Kaizena for feedback on paragraph responses
- Google presentation: 81 interesting ways to use Forms in class shared by Marlene Harris.
- Dan Krutka shared a link to Katrina Kennett’s Edcafe Blog. According to Kennett’s blog, “An EdCafe is a way to structure class that promotes student choice and ownership over learning. The model was inspired by EdCamp conferences, where participants build the schedule and choose what sessions to attend. This bottom-up approach shifts energy, engagement, and opportunity for exploration to the students, and transforms the teacher into expert facilitator instead of gatekeeper/manager.”
- Alice Barr shared a link to a blog about a student planned and led unconference.
- A list of add-ons shared by Kyle Beatty.
So these are just some of the big things I took away from #gafechat Tuesday night. There was so much other stuff shared, so I encourage you to check out the archives! To see a comprehensive list of twitter chats and their schedule, go to bit.ly/officialchatlist.
Did you participate in #GAFEchat? What would you add to the list? What do you think of Twitter chats?
Tech To You Later!
-Katie