Comments

By Rob, January 11, 2009 8:02 pm

BTEC Science is a good course for many pupils, being portfolio based it reduces the pressure on pupils to perform in exams.  Pupils can also work independently through many of the tasks.  The nature of the course means that the admin can be a nightmare for teachers who run this course.
I have used Google Sites and Google Apps (together with Delicious) to gather all the resources and information in one place so students can check their progress and look up web links etc.
Task 1
Open a Delicious account and make a note of your username.  You will need to add all the bookmarks for BTEC Science to Delicious.  I’d recommend tagging them with a sensible name too, I use BTECsci.
Many people have already written good guides for Delicious – here is one specially for educators

Task 2
Create a spreadsheet to track your BTEC Assignments on using Google Spreadsheets.  You will need to enter pupil names or identifiers in a way that complies with data protection legislation.  I colour the unfilled sheets in red.  When pupils start an assignment I colour the cell in orange, and in green when they have achieved a pass grade (thanks to Dukeries school for the traffic light system).
When your sheet is finished you need to publish it using the share options (view only, auto-republish).  This will allow anyone to view your sheet – needed later.
Task 3
Create a blank site using Google sites.  This site will need to be viewable by anybody – so click the option to share with the world.  Give the site a suitable name (preferably something simple so you can give it to your pupils).  Pick a theme that suits you and create.
The home page is where your introduction/welcome goes so click on edit page and enter some text.
Creating a page for your spreadsheet:
Click new page and enter a suitable name (e.g. assignments) and then create at the top level.  When you get your new page click insert on the menu bar and then look for the spreadsheet option.
Select your spreadsheet and click [OK].
Create a page for your bookmarks
Click create new page, give it a name and create it at the top level as before.  When you get your new page this time you click insert go for the more.. option at the bottom of the menu.  This should bring up the Google gadgets menu.  Type in delicious and click the search button.  The gadget you need is called “Del.icio.us bookmarks” – click on it once.
This should bring up another screen that asks you for some settings.  You need to know your delicious username and tags to input here – here is mine…
Click ok and your links page is done.
Additional pages
You can create additional pages in the same way – these could have information/text on them (e.g. deadlines).  You can embed YouTube videos (for pupils to view at home) or even create a page of files (file cabinet option) for assignment briefs, documentation  and so on.
Navigation bar
Now all you need to do is edit your navigation bar at the side.
Click edit sidebar on the left – this should allow you to change the layout of your site.  I removed the [Recent site activity] panel and then clicked edit on the [Navigation] panel.
This brings up a menu which allows you to add pages to the sidebar navigation.  Click [Add page to sidebar navigation] and select one of the pages you created (e.g. links)
Whilst a page is highlighted you can change the order of pages in the menu using the arrow keys at the side.  Click [OK] when your menu is complete.
Your site is now available at http://sites.google.com/sites/yoursitename
If you are technically minded you can register a domain name (e.g. a .co.uk address for your site but I’m not sure of the benefits if you have picked a sensible name for your site).
If you are new to Google Apps or Google sites feel free to contact me using the options at the top right of my blog (or click here) and I’ll do my best to help.

Comments

By Rob, October 1, 2008 9:27 pm

I was conducting a question level analysis of our national curriculum tests, looking for topics where there were difficulties (and comparing how pupils with ASD performed in how science works questions).

Having devised a template on Excel I proceeded to enter data for my pupils.  Having completed the task it dawned on me that there would have been an easier way.

Once I had created the spreadsheet I could have used Google Forms and had the pupils enter their own data into the spreadsheet.  This would save considerable time with a large mainstream class, it is also a good way to collate other examination marks or even comments written on work.

Maybe next time I’ll remember to use Google Docs.

Comments

By Rob, September 28, 2008 1:00 pm

I’ve used Google Documents in class before but the need had never arisen for pupils to write on the same document at the same time. With collaborative working being an important skill in science, I decided to get my year 7 class to work collaboratively on the same document. Their task was to write a press release detailing their lab test results for their CSI topic. With all the pupils having SEN (we are a special school) , the amount of text was going to be small which makes the process a little quicker.

I created the document with a table to be used as a writing frame or scaffold for the pupils, giving them the basic structure to complete. I asked the pupils to complete a different section of the press release and colour coded the boxes so they knew which section was theirs.  I shared the document with the pupils and invited them to complete their section.

Pupils were fascinated by seeing the text of their classmates appearing as they entered their own.  The flicker you see as the page updates didn’t seem to bother any of them, in fact they didn’t notice it.  Pupils entered their text and we reviewed the completed document.

Not only was this approach far more productive than writing their own reports, pupils had to communicate with each other and tie their contributions together.  This wouldn’t have happened working individually.

Comments

By Rob, September 28, 2008 10:19 am

I’ve seen plenty of people using the more powerful Zoho content creator to make a ‘contact me’ page (and it does have plenty of powerful features including captcha and file upload).

I had heard of people using Google forms for data collection (e.g. Tom Barrett, Tim Dolan and D Goodwin) and I knew that Google spreadsheets can be configured to send email when updated.  Put the two together and you have a ‘contact me’ form.

Steps 
1.  Log on to Google Apps and create a form

2. Add the fields you wish your contact form to have

3. You can embed the code (click here to get it) in a blog post or a Google Sites page

4. Copy the link at the bottom of the page and make a note of it – this is the URL you’ll need to link to if you want people to click on a link and fill in your form.

5. Change the notification rules so you are notified of any submissions.

Job done!  I’m running both the Google Forms ‘contact me’ page and the Zoho one here if you want to see what they look like.