Waffle Bytes

Google Forms underwent some radical changes in the last major overhaul.  In addition to being able to add images (all over the form), you can now include videos within your form for those taking it to be able to watch.  If you are a teacher, this means you can embed some video content right there in the form to then follow up with some understanding/comprehension questions.  Wow! If you prefer, here is a short video tutorial on How to Add a Video to Your Form . Here is how to add a video - First click on the question you want the video to appear BELOW.  Then click on the play button icon in the Add content bar - The Select Video window, you have 2 options - 1. Video search and 2. URL For the video search, where you can type in key words and then search for the video (PLEASE - if you are a teacher, preview the entire video you select from your search before having students watch it...) - Your search results will pop up below the search bar in a li...

Adding images to a form can be useful in several ways. Maybe your form is a math quiz having students identify the correct graph.  Maybe it is having students identify particular body parts.  Or maybe you are working with non-readers so are creating an image-based form.  Regardless of why, it is very easy to add images into your form. This post has how to add images to your questions.  Here is the post on how to add images to your form .  If you prefer a short video, here is one that shows  How to Add a Picture to Your Form Questions . To insert an image into a question title: Click on the question that you want the image to appear BELOW.  Then click on the image icon in that appears on the right-hand side- The Insert Image window will pop-up (similar to what it is with other Google Tools).  You have 6 options: Upload - an image from your device Take a snapshot - using the web cam By URL - paste in the URL of the picture Your...

Sometimes your forms have questions that you want the person completing it to answer.  In fact, you don't want them to be able to submit the form without answer that question (or questions).  It is very easy to require any of your questions to be answered prior to submission! If you prefer a short video, here is one on both creating a new question and requiring it to be answered . To require a question be answered: While in edit mode of your form, click on the question so it is also in edit mode. Look for the Required option in the lower right of the question - Click on the slider to make the question required (the slider will change to a color in your theme)- When you are not editing the question, a red asterisk will be displayed next to the question showing it is a required question -

There are times when you have to use similar questions on a form.  Instead of retyping a majority of the same information, the better solution is to duplicate the question and then edit the new question.  If you prefer a short video, here is one on both duplicating questions AND moving them .  Moving questions is in a separate blog post. To duplicate a question - Click on the question you want to duplicate so it is in edit mode. Look for the icons at the bottom right of the question.  Click on the duplicate icon (it looks like 2 pieces of stacked paper) -  Your question will be duplicated and put immediately below the original question.  You are able to edit the parts that need to be changed as needed - That's it!  This works for any question type.

One of the few blogs I read with regularity is A.J. Juliani's Blog - it's one of only a couple I get delivered to my inbox! His newest blog post poses a challenge - one that is open to ANY teacher!  I encourage you to check it out and think about stepping up to the challenge with a group of your students.  I've included some highlights below - if you would like full details, check out the original blog post here: Creating a School (on Mars) from Scratch . The hashtag #MARSchallenge with be used to share out what students are designing, making, and building this month.  If nothing else - follow along to see what others are creating! Image from A.J. Juliani Blog - used with permission. From A.J. Juliani's blog: This challenge is open to any teacher and group of students in a K-12 education setting. We provide lesson plans, student notebooks, power point presentation for each lesson, and a framework (the LAUNCH Cycle) for your students to tackle this e...

This is a very slick and easy to use way to create a random name generator by Flippity.net! And actually, in addition to being a random name generator, it is also a random group creator, and random seating chart - all in one setup.  For this first post, I am walking you through the setup.  In my next post we will look at what it generates and ways you can use it. To set this up for your students, follow these steps: 1. Get the template Google Sheet here. 2. Put your students' names in column A (replacing the ones that are there - you can add and delete as needed, it will adjust to however many names you have in that column).  My recommendation - just use student first names, not their full names.    3. Double-click on the sheet name at the bottom, and replace it if you want your class name when you view the generator.   4. Go to the File menu and select Publish to the web. Click on the Publish button. 5. Copy the link that...

Since Google Moderator disappeared this summer, I've been looking for an alternative that provides a way for my training participants to both provide questions, AND mark them up so we can see biggest needs.  I think I have finally found it in sli.do Sli.do allows the presenter to do polls (think Poll.Everywhere), but it has some additional features that make it so much more versatile!  The biggest features I was looking for was the ability to back channel in questions (think Today'sMeet) and then have participants "thumbs up" the questions they also have.  Sli.do does this. And they make it very easy for people to join what they call an "event" and do polling and the Q&A in the same place.  In my limited use, it is very flexible for a presenter and a participant.

Yesterday I noticed that several of the new features were enabled on our domain for Google Classroom.  Here are a few of the changes you might want to know about if you are just getting back in after summer break: 1. "New way to post to your stream"  Along with a new way to post, there are new icons in lower right corner - Reuse post, Create question, Create assignment, Create announcement 2. "Bump posts" - push any post back to the top 3. "Create Question" - create a form like question on the fly in your stream  4. "Calendar view of work" - view due dates for items from classroom in a calendar view. In addition to the view within Classroom, a secondary calendar is created in the user's calendar

Google Forms has been getting a little Google love.  Some of you have been asking about them, so I thought I would make sure to cover some that you might find useful. A quick down & dirty one that teachers have been requesting for a long time has been added to the top of your form options - ability to randomize your form questions. Now you can have your questions in a random order so that when giving it to a classroom of students all at the same time you can decrease the odds of them giving collaborative answers.  Note that if you use pages to organize your questions, the questions are shuffled on each page.  And, this is an all or nothing features - you cannot choose which pages of your form (quiz) are shuffled and which aren't.  Why do I bring that up?  Two examples - if you ask for student identifiers they would each need to be the only question on a page to keep it from being shuffled with other questions if you provide a graphic which is follo...

  Unbeknownst to many, there are various question types that can be added to Moodle to make quizzes more flexible - and more like some of the question types students may see elsewhere (read that - national testing...).  I'm going to demonstrate various question types over the next several weeks. Open University has created a whole host of question types.  Today we are looking at the "Drag and Drop Into Text" question.   Here is a video overview of how to set it up and use it: (This question types working on Moodle 2.1 forward; I am showing it running on Moodle 2.4. This addition must be added to your Moodle server by a Moodle Administrator.) Moodle Plugins - Drag & Drop into Text   Drag & Drop into Text   Documentation