Google Forms are Magic: 4 Ways You Can Bring this Magic to Your Classroom!

As a Digital Learning Specialist/Technology coach, one of the questions I have come across is…”is there one app that can do everything?” Cue Frodo and the Ring reference now.

As one colleague, used to say, “there is no silver bullet”.  Like the mythical beauty of a Unicorn or the massive intensity of the Chimera, an app to “control all apps” simply doesn’t exist.

However...

There are a few apps that I would consider Magic.  Magic apps, in my opinion, provide opportunities for teachers to provide better, more quality learning experiences in a less amount of time.  Magic apps are tools that cause the teacher to rethink how they teach and provide a platform for deeper student understanding.  

At face value, looking at a screen shot of Google Forms, you would say, “Great another survey tool”.  This is true, you can make a survey in Google Forms.  However, you can also create a choose your own adventure lesson, a digital BreakoutEDU, a self-grading quiz, an information database and an infinite loop that can only be escaped when you find the right answers and KNOW the content.

Magic.

Here are four ideas on how you can use the Magic that is Forms.

The Loop:

 Imagine a quiz that your students take where they have to get the correct answer to move onto the next question.  The wrong answer sends them back to the beginning. If you think about how video games are laid out it is the same principle. Mario runs, Mario falls in a hole, Mario starts over at the beginning of the level.

Eventually, as a player, we learn, we figure out the path and move to the next step. Same can happen in your next assessment!

Why would I use this idea?  Students can no longer slide by with a 75...they have to get a perfect score to finish...even if it takes them 30 times!

What type of questions work with this?: Multiple Choice, Drop Down questions

Response Validation:

 Within Forms, you can set the response validation to be a specific answer.  In doing this, students will be notified with a red bar that their answer is incorrect

Forms can do that.

Why would I use this idea?  Imagine you have students doing a review at home on paper.  You need a check to make sure they did the review.  You assign a handful of questions from the review on a google form with response validation.  Students try to submit the answers, but can’t because they are wrong.  The student thinks, “mmm I should get more help because this doesn’t make sense”.  

What type of questions work with this idea?  Short answer (1-2 words/fill in the blank)

Choose Your Own Adventure:

Remember the days of choose your own adventure books?  “If you want to fight the dragon and save the princess, go to page 56.  If you want to run away and hide, go to page 80”.  The story could be different every time.  

Using Google forms, you can create your own learning adventure that guides students depending on their answers.  What if you created an entire lesson that was a student centered adventure? Students experience learning through a path of choices through a form.

Are you up for the adventure?

What type of questions work with this idea? Multiple Choice, Drop Down, T or F, etc.

Self Grading Quiz:

Why would I use this idea? I want to collect data on my student's understanding without spending time grading my 90 exit tickets.

What type of questions work with this idea? Multiple Choice, T or F, Drop Down, etc.

Do these look interesting to you?  Curious about how you could build off these ideas?  Contact your friendly neighborhood DLS to chat about the amazing Magic that is Google Forms!