Exploring Benefits of Technology in the Classroom

As an educator, one of the main benefits of using technology to organize, analyze and simplify data is the ease with which information can be shared. If I am using tools such as Google Docs, Sheets, Classroom, Calendar, Gmail, etc., I can quickly and readily access my own information from any of my devices, whether at school, at home, or elsewhere. However, if I were to keep my calendar, for example, on a paper planner, I would either need to remember to carry it to and from school each day, or I would need to wait to view or make changes to my schedule. By using Google Calendar, I can access information about my availability as well as my planned meetings and events from my phone, iPad, or laptop wherever I am. I can also easily compare schedules or share calendar information with students, parents, and administrators.

This ready access to information, both for myself and for others, is so valuable to simplifying a teacher’s busy life. In my experience, one very helpful technological tool for collecting, organizing, and analyzing data is Google Forms.

One of my first tasks at the beginning of each school year is to collect data from parents at Back to School Night. I like to provide parents with the opportunity to share about their child’s strengths, weaknesses, learning styles and habits, and prayer requests. Using a Google Form to collect this information rather than pen and paper give several key benefits. It allows the parents to spend as much time as they need on answering the questions, without being bound by the few minutes they have in my classroom that evening. Also, any  parents who were unable to attend the back to school night are given the opportunity to complete the form. Finally, I am able to compile and organize the answers electronically so that they are easily accessible throughout the school year.

Another helpful application of Google Forms is the weekly formative assessment. I like to regularly check in and see where my students are in their journey toward mastery of the material, and a Google Form offers a quick way to present them with a few questions. Since I want the results to be formative, it is very constructive to be able to provide the students with instant feedback, which Forms allows. I also then have access to the data on their performance for analysis that helps me to plan future lessons and review as necessary.

Creating differentiated assignments is another part of my regular workload where Google Forms makes my job easier and information more accessible. The “Go to section based on answer” feature allows me to design a single version of the assignment but as students walk through it, the question level can be tailored to their needs based on the results of each previous question. Again, like with the formative assessment, students have instant access to their scores, and I have access to their performance results, which can help me in meeting each student where they are in their learning. That information can they be easily communicated to parents and/or learning support specialists as needed. Google forms are beneficial for assignments and assessments in “providing various types of questions, applying the validation option, [and] watching students' progress” (Jazil et al, 166).

Educators can practically take advantage of the benefits of Google Forms by understanding its many features that enable data collection. The applications are many. In addition to the examples above, “Google Forms can be used in several ways to increase classroom environment benefits such as surveying students outside of class to learn about them as individuals, engaging them in class by collecting responses in the moment, and collecting their self reflections after a lesson” (Nguyen, 75). It is a valuable and applicable tool that allows educators to more effectively and efficiently collect, organize, and analyze data for use in their classes.

References

Jazil, S., Manggiasih, L. A., Firdaus, K., Chayani, P. M., & Rahmatika, S. N. (2020, May). Students’ Attitudes Towards the Use of Google Forms as an Online Grammar Assessment Tool. In International Conference on English Language Teaching (ICONELT 2019) (pp. 166-169). Atlantis Press.

Nguyen, H., Stehr, E. M., Eisenreich, H., & An, T. (2018). Using Google Forms to Inform Teaching Practices. In Proceedings of the Interdisciplinary STEM Teaching and Learning Conference: Vol (Vol. 2, p. 10).