The Schoenblog

Does the size of a conference really matter? That’s a question that I spent some time thinking about this week. I had the pleasure of attending #EdcampLDR at the Hudson Valley, New York site on Monday and sit here typing away at the NJ #GAFESummit today. With these experiences, I’ve been thinking a lot about how we work and learn together in today’s education and technology conference culture.

#EdcampLDR’s Hudson Valley site was new this year, and was an intimate gathering. Last year, I attended the North NJ location, with around 200 other educators (I wrote about it in 5 Things That Make Education Conferences Great). It was BIG. This year, though, I walked in to see around 25 educators ready to learn. I’ll be honest: my first instinct was apprehension. There were few of the conference regulars and “big names” of education. Who would lead the sessions? Who would I learn from?

And these quick instincts were the wrong way to think about edcamps, for sure. Within minutes, I met educators who were eager to spend a summer day learning and growing. We didn’t have presentations; we had discussions. We asked questions, shared ideas, and solved problems. And it was awesome.

The workshop board at #EdcampLDRHV is filling up! Exciting! @FredEnde pic.twitter.com/A7L0Mb6Jkb

— Jessica Burack (@JessicaBurack) July 11, 2016

The big conferences are great--I sat in packed sessions at #GAFESummit today--and the more you can learn the better. But they can also be overwhelming sometimes. In a full day conference, sometimes my brain is full by lunch.

With #EdcampLDRHV, the half day unconference, with three time slots and only fifteen discussion-based sessions, the learning was slower with smaller groups. But it was more intimate, and maybe more thoughtful. I loved both experiences but I wonder how the 25-participant experience allows for different learning opportunities.

I’m starting to think of conference experiences like I look towards my teaching ones: sometimes whole class or large group instruction is best, but I truly enjoyed the variety of learning experiences my summer has offered so far.

@MrSchoenbart explains about his experiences at 2nd session on edcamp for PD #edcampldrhv #edcampldr pic.twitter.com/fuRwkId1DW

— Dan Kreiness (@dkreiness) July 11, 2016

Summer is a time to pause, reflect, and process, and these conferences have given me a great opportunity to do that. I’m looking forward to seeing continued growth for the summer weeks to come.

A Note From the Schoenblog

Faithful readers will notice that there’s only been one weekly post for the past few weeks. Summer’s been great but it’s also been busy with administrative internships, doctoral school, and so much more. I’ll be slowing down for the summer but expect a weekly post to continue. Then, look for a brand new Schoenblog 2.0 to premiere towards the end of the summer with new content, new series, and so much more.

Thank for reading and please continue to share, comment, and connect on Twitter @MrSchoenbart.

Thank you, Google. One of my favorite things about Google Apps for Education is the constant evolution of the products and the way they interact with the users. Google recognizes some of the challenges within the education world and actively tries to help us solve them. And with the new updates to Google Forms to create quizzes, they have really given us something important.

I love nothing more than building complex Forms, tinkering with Sheets, and developing automatic workflows for feedback, grading, and communication. I might write about Forms and Sheets more than any other topic. And I LOVE the customization and personal touch that I can put on every project with add-ons and formulas.

But I think Google just made it all a lot simpler for everyone, from the Forms newbie to the #GAFE veterans. Since I’m #NotAtISTE2016, I’m watching the announcements on Twitter and playing along virtually. This morning, the Google for Education blog announced four updates in the post, Updates from ISTE: 4 new tools to help teachers do what they do best.

Check it out out--they’re all exciting. But for now, I'm going to focus exclusively on the Google Forms quiz feature, which allows users to create quizzes that will be graded automatically and can deliver targeted feedback. This really could be the biggest game changer in communication and assessment for Google since the release of Classroom.

Find all of my writing about Google Forms here, or check out recent articles like Using Data for Better Learning with #GoogleForms, #GoogleClassroom vs #GoogleForms for Interacting with Student Work, and The Pros and Cons of Google Forms in #Classroom.

New Google Forms Quizzes

Here’s why the new quizzes matter: they are set up in Google Forms. Previously, we had to use add-ons like Flubaroo in Google Sheets to set up automatic grading, which were really effective but not the best with targeted feedback. Now, using just Google Forms, quizzes can be graded, students receive feedback, and data is analyzed automatically. This saves time, clicks, and manual programming, allowing teachers to spend more time on students and learning.

Does this eliminate the need for Flubaroo? My first instinct is to say yes, with the disclaimer that I’ve yet to try the quizzes with students but only in some isolated practice. However, Google is doing a great job of making their core apps more fully functional and dynamic to help transform teaching, learning, and workflow.

How to Use Quizzes

In the Forms settings, you will see a new option for Quizzes in the menu. These settings allow you to set the grading as manual or automatic and to allow respondents to see missed questions, correct answers, and their point values.



Once a Form is set as a Quiz, you can assign the correct answers to each question. The quiz features only work with multiple choice or checkbox questions. Notice the ability to assign different point values and to provide targeted feedback. When a student gets the question right, I gave positive feedback, and when they got it wrong, I gave a link to review the answer. I love the ability to include a link in the targeted response. 

autoCrat is a Google Sheets add-on that’s been essential to my workflow for the past two years. Recently, I had the opportunity to participate in the release event from for New Vision Cloud Lab’s autoCrat version 3 at Google in New York City. I gave an ignite talk about using autoCrat to automate grading and get more meaningful data so that teachers can spend more time helping students.

@MrSchoenbart days tools like autocrat help us maximize our time and help students. #nvthrowdown #NYCSchoolsTech pic.twitter.com/Q1vKKI9n2S

— Darlynn Alfalla (@DarlynnAlfalla) June 8, 2016

It was a great experience; we heard from the New Visions team, Google’s Jonathan Rochelle, and I got to watch a dozen powerful, informative, and inspirational ignite talks from other educators. The event was filmed and I hope to be able to share more pictures and video soon.

From the New Visions event photographer

Until then, I’ll share some brief screencasts and tutorials for using autoCrat. It’s a complicated add-on at first, but has so much power and potential. I’ve separated this edition of The Schoencast into three parts: an introduction to autoCrat and basic merging, sending and sharing merged files, and a more advanced look at merge features and the updates for version 3.

Why autoCrat?

If you read the Schoenblog, you know how I feel about Forms and Sheets. They have tremendous power for communication, feedback, and automation. But without add-ons like autoCrat, that power is trapped into rows and columns of data that aren’t always the easiest to read.

For some tips on viewing form responses in sheets, be sure to check out the last episode of The Schoencast here.

autoCrat helps us make sense of sheets. The add-on merges a row of data from the sheet into a customized Google Doc template, creating one doc per row. It can also share and e-mail these docs to anyone, providing valuable automation of file storage and management. Finally, it can be customized with dynamic merge conditions, triggers, and sheets functions (along with other add-ons like copyDown) to meet a variety of needs. Basically, autoCrat will take your sheet data and help you use, organize, manipulate, and share that data in more meaningful and efficient ways.

For more, check out the screencasts below. Also, check out the New Visions Cloud Lab autoCrat page and their brand new web site. If you need help or have questions, definitely leave a comment or reach out on Twitter, but the autoCrat Google+ Community is a must visit, too.



For this return to The Schoencast, I’m trying something different. Instead of filming and editing with Camtasia, I’ve created three independent screencasts with the Screencastify Chrome extension. The videos are simpler, raw, and done in a single take, but they walk through important setup and customization for new and old users alike.

Check out past episodes of The Schoencast, too: formMule, Automating Tweets from a Class Twitter, and Tips for Viewing Form Responses in Sheets.

PART 1: Introduction to autoCrat and basic merges

PART 2: Sending and sharing merges

PART 3: Updates and advanced features

I hope you found something of value in this edition of The Schoencast. Give autoCrat or another New Visions add-on a try and share your thoughts and uses in the comments or on Twitter @MrSchoenbart.

One of the most important goals from the #GAFE Impact Report was to determine how teachers were using Google Apps for Education in their classrooms and what they needed to use it more regularly and effectively. The more we understand about teachers’ use, perceptions, and needs, the better they can be addressed to increase teacher comfort and impact and affect student learning.

Most teacher and students saw the positive impact of GAFE on student learning, engagement, and the quality of work, but most teachers’ needs were not met. They needed more access, time, and training to really be able to incorporate technology meaningfully in their classrooms. I had hoped for the data from this study to support what I already knew to be true: we were making great steps forward but not doing enough to support professional learning and development in technology.

In this post, I will share an overview of what the teachers shared about their use and needs. While the data probably isn’t surprising, it is important as it validates what many of us already know: we need recursive, timely, and hands-on professional learning for regular and effective technology implementation in our classrooms.

This post is part 4 in my series #GAFE Impact Report, sharing data and analysis about student and teacher perceptions of the impact of Google Apps for Education. The results come from a 2014 survey I designed, implemented, and analyzed in my school. Be sure to check out Part 1: Overview & Infographic, Part 2: Comparing Surveys & Data, and Part 3: Summary of Findings & Analysis. Though limited to my school, I believe these results to be informative and representative of many schools in the early stages of GAFE integration. Please share your thoughts and feedback on these posts, the survey, or the findings in the comments or on Twitter.

GAFE Use & Impact

65% of teachers agree that GAFE has a positive impact on student learning and 35% agree that it positively impact teacher instruction. Interestingly, the disagree statistics were small (9% and 16%, respectively) and the undecided much higher. This made perfect sense as many teachers did not have regular access to technology to training to use it, so they were still undecided about the impact.

However, only 35% of teachers felt prepared to use GAFE effectively in the classroom and 40% of teachers say the have been able to use GAFE more than sometimes this school year. While the impact and positive perceptions are there, we needed to do more to increase training and access.

When asked which GAFE tools they were using, teachers most often responded with Drive, Communities, Classroom, and Sites.

What Teachers Need

Teacher need more access to technology and more training to use it effectively:




In written responses, almost every teacher wrote about the need for more training. According the survey results, teachers want training in the following areas:

• How to use GAFE with individual training for the different apps
• How to teach students to use GAFE and Chromebooks
• How to implement GAFE in the classroom for best practices
• How to implement GAFE for specific subject area classes or student populations
• Concrete modeling and examples of best practices 

Most commonly, teachers requested small group trainings over a long period of time during contractual hours rather than opt-in trainings outside of the school day.

One Year Later

It’s been over a year since the #GAFE Impact Report and a lot has changed since then. More and more teachers have access to technology and we’ve offered multiple cohorts of opt-in training along with differentiated sessions during professional development days as much as possible.

Next time I write about this survey and analysis, I’d like to address how it’s changed my views on professional learning and the ways we’ve evolved since. One day soon, I’d like to update the survey and try it again to see how the data supports the shifts I’ve seen in my school. As a technology coach, I have the privilege of visiting classrooms and experiencing this change but having the data to support it is always valuable.

Now you, dear reader, have access to it all: the Summary Report, Comparative Data, Infographic, Student Survey, and Teacher Survey. I hope it helps you improve professional learning to impact students through technology.

As always, please leave your comments below or reach out on Twitter. I would love to hear what you think about this study, your own ideas about GAFE’s impact, or ways to improve the study for next time.

This post is part 3 in my series #GAFE Impact Report, sharing data and analysis about student and teacher perceptions of the impact of Google Apps for Education. The results come from a 2014 survey I designed, implemented, and analyzed in my school. Be sure to check out Part 1: Overview & Infographic and Part 2: Comparing Surveys & Data. Though limited to my school, I believe these results to be informative and representative of many schools in the early stages of GAFE integration. Please share your thoughts and feedback on these posts, the survey, or the findings in the comments or on Twitter.

Data Summary

I like data. I could sit for hours building formulas, comparing charts, and analyzing the results of any given survey. And this is pretty easy with a Google form. That was exactly the plan last December when I intended to spend time working through the hundreds of responses for the survey. And then, of course, I got the flu. My analysis and conclusions took a lot longer than I would have liked but I’m happy with the results, both in the findings reached and my analysis, organization, and presentation.

For a nice organized Summary Report in a Google Doc, click here. This is what I shared and presented to my colleagues and administrators. In the future, I’ll write about more detailed results but the summary is plenty to get us started.

Below, I’ll highlight some of the key findings with selected graphics and data to back them up. Remember, the link above has much more detail if you are interested. I’m now eager to go through the process again to see how the findings have evolved as our tech integration and GAFE use has become a more regular part of instruction across the building.

• Students are learning from GAFE at OHS but through a range of different classroom experiences. Students report that only 37% of teachers use the tools regularly and 50% never use GAFE. Additionally, teachers are using many of the most effective apps only half as frequently as students.
• The use of GAFE is growing significantly. 58% of students think teachers are using GAFE more this year and 52% think it’s more important to their learning. Only 10% of students disagree with either of these statements.
• Some students and even more teachers are undecided about GAFE’s impacts. Few disagree with the positive benefits but teachers have an especially large undecided population--an average of 41%. Many teachers do not have enough experience or comfort with the technology and its classroom implementation.
• More students recognize the positive impact of GAFE when their teachers have received training to implement it in the classroom. Depending on the level of experience, positive results grew 5-9 percentage points.
• Only 35% of teachers feel prepared to use GAFE effectively in their classrooms. Both teachers and students report the need for teacher training and opportunities to learn to implement GAFE effectively. Almost all of the teachers say they need more training and access to learn how to use GAFE in classroom teaching and to become comfortable teaching with the technology. 

None of these findings surprised me, but they did validate the work I, and many of my colleagues, were doing. GAFE was growing, seemed impactful, and training paid off. Still, it’s essential to recognize our challenges in training and access.

What Students and Teachers Think About GAFE & Learning

GAFE has a positive impact on students’ learning.

GAFE has a positive impact on teachers’ instruction.

GAFE helps improve the quality of student work (in-school).

GAFE helps improve the quality of student work (homework).

Needs Assessment: What Teachers Want

There are too many OHS teachers undecided about the impact GAFE has on teaching and learning. Many simply don’t have enough experience or practice with the technology.

• 77% Agree: I would use GAFE more if I had more training.
• 72% Agree: I would use GAFE more if I had more time.
• 42% Agree: I would use GAFE more if I had more access to the technology.

For now, please share your thoughts on the data, questions, or your school's implementation of GAFE in the comments or on Twitter.

This post is part 2 in my series #GAFE Impact Report, sharing data and analysis about student and teacher perceptions of the impact of Google Apps for Education. The results come from a 2014 survey I designed, implemented, and analyzed in my school. Be sure to check out Part 1: Overview & Infographic. Though limited to my school, I believe these results to be informative and representative of many schools in the early stages of GAFE integration. Please share your thoughts and feedback on these posts, the survey, or the findings in the comments or on Twitter.

Once the inspiration for this study hit, I knew what I needed to do. Ideas, questions, and complications circled through my mind for a few days. I listed my ideas, tried to put them in order, and to figure out what I was really looking for. Who did I want to survey? How? Where? Why? What was I going to do with the data? I had some answers to these questions and more ideas than I knew what to do with. Little did I know it at the time, but a lot of this process was what led me to my current doctoral studies. With the #GAFE Impact Report, I learned a lot of survey design, methodology, and data analysis, which helped focus my interests back towards further studies.

Luckily, I had some friends at work to bounce ideas off of and quickly made some decisions. I would create Google forms for all teachers and students. Students were easy; I could ask my English teacher colleagues to assign the survey, either in class or for homework. I decided to collect usernames in my domain so I could ensure unique responses from each students and let teachers know when their students had all completed it--although their responses remained private. For the teachers, I e-mailed a different Google form with a plea for their help. I explained my goals and purpose and asked that they complete the form over a two-week window. I then followed up in person with some departments, and after a lot of leg work had overall success. Although my administration okayed my work, it was important that I ask for honest feedback and data as a colleague and not as a forced or mandated survey from a supervisor.

The surveys took a while to design and finalize, and I’m pretty happy with the questions I asked, even now. By Thanksgiving or so, I was ready to roll out my baby.

Survey Design

Thankfully, my friend and mentor Tina has her PhD. She had the knowledge, experience, and insight into survey design, methodology, and motivating busy teachers to respond, which I sorely lacked. I didn’t need a doctoral-level project here, but I wanted to make sure that my study was fair, purposeful, and meaningful. She helped me decide on a mixed-methods approach, including both quantitative and quantitative questions.

The quantitative questions provided the hard data and were required. The qualitative ones asked for supporting responses, and some were optional. I wanted to make the survey easy for responders, with the hopes that this would give me more in depth responses. And it mostly worked. There were some topics, like the value of electronic feedback, that were important to me, but ultimately proved to be too much. I wanted to survey to be clear and focused, so I tried to connect everything back to the impact of Google Apps on Teaching and Learning.

Students

The students survey asked about when, how, and why they used GAFE, and about its impact on teaching, learning, engagement, etc. It took most students about 20 minutes to complete.

Find the student survey here.

Teachers

The teacher survey asked almost all of the same questions for the teacher's perspective but had an extra layer. All students at OHS had used Google to some degree, so all of their responses were valuable. But for teachers who had never really used GAFE in their teaching, some of the questions were designed to fail--or at least collect vague or incomplete data. I can’t expect a clear understanding of the impact of GAFE if a teacher hasn’t used it in his or her teaching.

Instead, I used the page branching feature in Google Forms to differentiate the questions. The first page is the same for all teachers and ends with the question: How often have you been able to use GAFE in your classroom this year? Teachers who answered always, often, or sometimes continued with an evaluation of its impact. Those who replied rarely or never followed with questions about why they hadn’t used it and what they would need to use it more.

Find the teacher survey here.

What impact does #GAFE have on teaching and learning?

Last year, this was the question on my mind. I had just left GAFE Summit NY, one of my first conferences, and was awed at how much everyone was talking about the positive impact of Google Apps for Education (GAFE), Chromebooks, and technology. I attended great sessions, watched my Director of Technology discuss our district’s Chromebook rollout and professional development models, and I even presented about how GAFE has changed my teaching and my students’ learning. But I left wondering about the real impact, which at the time meant numbers for me.

The Plan