Scheduling Equipment - Try Google Docs

Since writing this post, I added a follow up here.

First...Some Resources
I put out a message on Twitter stating my intention to use Google Forms to create a tablet cart reservation system. I wanted to know if anyone had any tutorials or pointers for getting started. I received two messages. Martha Thornburgh pointed me to a Web 2.0 Wednesday Challenge created in Google Sites. I really liked her Google Doc presentation called Creating Forms and Surveys Challenge Tutorial. It helped me understand how the forms and spreadsheets connect. It helped me understand how to make the form public, too.

Christy Tvarok Green pointed me to a YouTube video called Quick and Easy Forms with Google Docs. I watched a bit of it after looking at Martha's presentation, but by that time I felt confident moving forward.

Happy Final Results
I put together a Saint Michael Tablet Cart Reservation form. It contains everything I think I might want to capture in reserving the cart: teacher name, date of reservation, help needed, and a place to type an 'x' to reserve the cart all day, and places to type an 'x' to reserve the cart by periods in the day.

In order to be able to check cart availability, I published the associated Google Spreadsheet as a public document.

Getting Around URL Problems
The biggest potential problem was publishing the URLs. I didn't want to type up a paper document or email the huge URL generated by Google. I decided to create a personalized TinyURL.

There is the ability to create a custom alias for a tiny URL. Now I have two:
http://www.tinyurl.com/sms-see-cart [and]
http://www.tinyurl.com/sms-get-cart

SMS stands for the school: Saint Michael School. I'm hoping the tiny URL is intuitive and relatively easy to remember.

Making It Easier on Me


As I was looking at the URL for the spreadsheet, the tiny orange chicklet caught my eye. I wondered what would happen if I copied the RSS feed into Google Docs. Lo and behold! Whenever someone reserves the cart, I get instant - up to five minute delay - notice of the reservation and whether or not the teacher feels that they will need assistance in their room. You can see a sample at the top of this post.

Downfalls
The biggest downfall was in the initial creation of the form. I didn't really think it through. I created it on-the-fly and made a different tiny URL. When I went to update the form, it did all kinds of crazy things to my spreadsheet. I ended up starting all over when I realized I didn't like the look of the spreadsheet and was too much of a novice to correct it.

I did learn, too, that I had to make the spreadsheet public so that the teachers could delete a row if they needed to reschedule the cart. Just to clarify things, most teachers do not use spreadsheets in the building. The first reservation needed to be reschedule and I walked the teacher through deleting the row with very little fuss.

Upside
All in all, if you're timid about getting started with Google Forms you should give it a try. There is an awful lot to be gained. The biggest upside, two teachers have used a Google Form and viewed a Google Spreadsheet this week. No training required.

Keeping Track of Wikis

The best part about collaboration on a wiki is that no one person has to be centrally responsible to update pages or comments. The difficulty arises when there are numerous collaborators. I've been trying to establish some best practices for myself when it comes to project management for all my students.

Winter Wonderland Project
I currently have three grade levels starting a three month project. It was put together by Amber Coggin, Nedra Isenberg, and Vicky Sedwick. I am really struck by the level of organization in this project. I am very hopeful that with so many participants, my students will give and receive feedback between several different classrooms.

Each of my grade levels will be doing a slightly different project based on their current skill set. My Kindergarten, first, and third grade students are participating. From what I can see, there are about 50 teachers who have signed up to participate with various grade levels.

Keeping Track of a Moving Target
The projects are not moving targets, but the ebb and flow of each web page is. I want to be able to point my students to the existing content so that they do not become frustrated clicking on empty pages.

A while back, I remember hearing Vicki Davis talking about subscribing to the edits and discussions on all of her wikis. In 2007, my students and I started dipping our toes in the waters of wikis. I was quite able to keep up with every change since I only worked with one grade level at a time. The students didn't seem interested in using their password outside of class.

In 2008, I expanded the reach of wiki users in my building to the second through eighth grades. It was still fairly manageable. It was the first time I worked on other teacher's wikis, too. In these instances, there were few participants. The Winter Wonderland project is a horse of a different color.

How To...
The method is so easy in Wikispaces. By selecting the Manage Wiki link at the top left side of the screen, you are presented with a variety of options. One of those is the Notifications icon under the Tools set.

There are three RSS feed options: monitor edits and discussions, just edits, or just discussions. Alternatively, you could sign up for email notifications, but I did that last year. The mailbox filled up and I felt overwhelmed.

I selected the RSS feed for monitoring edits and discussions. I copied and pasted the link into Google Reader. Now I have one stop shopping for everything that is going on in that wiki.



My Thoughts for My Students
This method will not help my youngest students. My current plan is to find schools as they begin participating and bookmark them to the school delicious account. Today I was able to bookmark a Kindergarten and third grade page. I will walk them through the entire wiki and they can explore on their own. I will want the students to look directly at these pages, so it will give me flexibility to quickly route the students to one point in the wiki.

What Else Can I Be Doing?
My question comes from my knowledge that there are far more experienced teachers using wikis out in the wider world. What are you doing with your youngest students to make working within a wiki as easy and streamlined as possible? What ways of working do you have as a teacher to balance directing your students at content efficiently?

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Sierra, Piero. "Winter wonderland." Piero Sierra's photostream. 2 Dec 2008. 2 Dec 2006.
http://farm1.static.flickr.com/108/311704005_8a41ff40bc.jpg?v=0

Connecting Google Reader and Classroom20.com

It's time to celebrate the one year anniversary of my blog! On July 15, 2007 I opened shop, as it were. What a better way to celebrate than to share an idea that came up in conversation today.

What Web 2.0 Tool Would You Show First
I came in to Twitter today and saw a question from Chad Lehman asking about first web 2.0 tools for new teachers. My answer was that Classroom20.com is a great tool. I think it alone can be overwhelming for anyone new to the idea of collaborating online. I mentioned in passing that if I like a particular forum topic I've taken to copying its URL into Google Reader so that I can easily keep up with where the discussion goes.

Steps That Make It Happen
I signed back on to Twitter later in the evening an saw a question from Chad. He liked the idea and asked if I had steps written down to accomplish the task. Here is the way I use Classroom20.com to get the most out of the forums.

1. When I join a Ning group, such as Classroom 2.0, I click on the Forum tab then highlight the URL (for example: http://www.classroom20.com/forum)
2. I copy and paste the URL into the Add Subscription link on my Google Reader page.
3. When I see a question that interests me in my reader, I click the link and go directly to that question over on the ning. In this case, classroom20.
4. I can read the entire question, respond if I have more information, and decide if I would like to have easy access to any other responses.
5. I copy the entire URL of the forum question and paste it into Google Reader. Now anytime someone answer the question I can scan through the response.

Saved-to-Date
A few questions have caught my eye over time. One question relates to using a projector in the classroom. A second question asks for suggestions on using Scratch with the seventh grade. A third question asks for suggestions on using name plates in computer class. In each case, I was curious to see the results that would be generated.

The next time you see a forum topic in a ning that catches your interest, copy and paste the message URL into your reader. It will look something like this: http://www.classroom20.com/forum/topic/show?id=649749%3ATopic%3A160798. It's become one of the ways I make the most of the time I take from my family to participate in teacher communities online. One year into the blogging process I can promise that the effort I make is worth every moment.

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Image Citation:
Sohlström, Britt-Marie. "Birthday One year old - no puppy any more." YIvas' photostream. 2007 Sep 2. 2008 Jul 14.
http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1074/1304642463_060c31dbe8.jpg?v=0