Using technology in today’s society : A perfect example

20 09 2008

As the previous post refers to Google Forms being used in schools to cut out the misery of paper based labouring when collecting data, the same can apply to society as a whole. An example in my home town of Bournemouth left residents seething. Livid. Ballistic. Straining at the leash. Rabid even. And I would have had some special words myself for the people who arranged this traffic survey.

This from the local paper:

“NUMPTIES”, “brain-dead”, “jobsworths” and “survey monkeys”. And these are just the printable insults hurled at the people who organised the Spur Road traffic census, which caused giant jams north of Bournemouth on Thursday.

Twenty-four hours after the clipboards were packed away, Bournemouth motorists were still fuming about what one described as “the farce of the century”.

And from this article:

 

bmth

THERE was misery for thousands of motorists caught up in a six-mile tailback caused by the latest traffic surveys…

…The delays continued throughout the day, with the survey running from 7am to 7pm.

How, in this era of technology, was this allowed to happen! 

How about a simple Google spreadsheet form embedded on a simple website address. Let’s say 80% of those motorists use a computer at home or at work. Are they more likely to respond with useful data if they see a well advertised website along the way : *** Traffic Survey – Improve our roads – Visit www.bournemouthtrafficsurvey.com***? Would you feel more likely to respond to this manner of communication rather than being forced against your will to be stuck in a traffic jam on your way to work….?

The local council could/should also be compling a *mailing list of the willing* who are happy to recieve local information/newsletters via email. A big job, but once it is set up, it is set up. 

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Google Forms as a classroom survery tool…

18 09 2008
    

form

Imagine a paper based survey….we’ve all done them. Imagine wanting to survey your class (or entire school) for feedback on a project. Compose the form, print the form, photocopy the form, give students time to complete the form or let them do it at home, students lose the form, forget the form, the dog eats the form and so on. It’s an exercise that is often for a teacher (or indeed entire school) barely worth the effort. 

Now lets picture the Google Forms alternative. A form is generated and is linked into a spreadsheet which maps the results. Forms can be viewed and completed online and invitations for completion can be sent via email (forms can also be embedded directly into emails or webpages). The resulting spreadsheet containing the data can then also be viewed online, or shared so that others can edit and save the document. 

This idea is all thanks to Tom Barrett’s blog post Using Google Forms in the Classroom. As pointed out by Tom, online forms are nothing new but the simplicity of GF and the way they integrate so smoothly are appealing. A school can send out forms by email to parents (or to students email accounts) or embed the form onto their website. Then just sit back and relax whilst the data tots up in your spreadsheet. Beautiful! 

I want to try my own form and spreadsheet example both for me and you to learn about the possible pitfalls of using this technology. 


 
Please view the spreadsheet which is collecting the data here.

Some fantastic forms and ideas for using GF are available on Tom Barrett’s blog, I’d also like to hear any more or also some other ideas for school wide use when gathering data.

Edit: To get the form to display properly on the page I had to change the “width” tag in Google’s embed code. Don’t know if this is an edublogger thing or what.

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