Surveys

At some point over the summer, I learned about Survey Monkey. I created a survey for the first day of class for sixth through eighth grade. I am planning on having the students collaborate across three classrooms on the topics of plagiarism, copyright, and Creative Commons.

One question I asked is specifically aimed at this topic. The results were interesting. The first set is 39 seventh grade responses. The second set is 21 eighth graders. All entirely unscientific in nature, but it does seem that most students just want people to look or listen to their work. An overwhelming number also don't have a feel for why they should worry about this. It will make a good follow-up after we go through the wiki project. I'd like to know if their feeling change.

Question: You may choose more than one answer. How should people be able to use YOUR content on the Internet (both what you create at school and outside of school)? They should be able to:

• only look or listen to it. (57.1% - 12 students)
  
• share, distribute, and remix it as long as they give you credit EVEN IF they make money from the new form (0%)
  
• share and distribute but NOT remix it as long as they give you credit EVEN IF they make money (4.8% - 1 student)
  
• share and distribute but NOT remix it as long as they give you credit AND don't make money from your work (9.5% - 2 students)
  
• share, distribute, and remix it as long as they give you credit AND don't make money from your work (9.5% - 2 students)
  
• share, distribute, and remix it as long as they give you credit AND don't make money from your work AND use the same rights that you've given others (9.5% - 2 students)
  
• share, distribute, and remix it as long as they give you credit AND use the same rights that you've given EVEN IF they make money from your (0%)
  
• Do I really have to worry about this? (42.9% -9 students)
  

• only look or listen to it. (61.5% - 21 students)
  
• share, distribute, and remix it as long as they give you credit EVEN IF they make money from the new form (15.4% - 6 students)
  
• share and distribute but NOT remix it as long as they give you credit EVEN IF they make money (5.1% - 2 students)
  
• share and distribute but NOT remix it as long as they give you credit AND don't make money from your work (5.1% - 2 students)
  
• share, distribute, and remix it as long as they give you credit AND don't make money from your work (7.7% - 3 students)
  
• share, distribute, and remix it as long as they give you credit AND don't make money from your work AND use the same rights that you've given others (10.3% - 4 students)
  
• share, distribute, and remix it as long as they give you credit AND use the same rights that you've given EVEN IF they make money from your (5.1% - 2 students)
  
• Do I really have to worry about this? (46.2% - 18 students)
  

I also surveyed their use of social bookmarks, social networks, wikis, blogs, RSS readers, and other tools. I think I will use SurveyMonkey again this year. One last interesting note:

Would you like your teachers to use an online survey like this in other classes?

Seventh Yes (65.8% - 25 students) No (34.2% - 13 students)
Eighth Yes (76.2% -16 students) No (23.8% - 5 students)

So, as a once or twice a year thing, it probably will be a useful tool.