A Blended Learning meta-exploration

Distraught at the idea that the Cohort 21 F2F on April 22 represented the official end of the year for this incredible professional development experience, I signed up for an online AQ course on Technology Integration with Queen’s University which began this month. I figured it would be a natural follow up to the growth I’ve already done this year, and would help me round out the spring term with a good challenge.

So far we’ve explored the foundations of technology integration in the classroom and just been looking at ministry-licensed software, web apps, podcasts, and e-learning. Still to come are modules on hardware, the learner, learning cultures, and program planning.

A recent task was to present information on the benefits and tools available for e-learning, so I decided to focus on blended learning specifically, as it related closely to my C21 Action Plan and my own interests.

I could have created a poster, brochure, or presentation, but, never one to want to take the easy way out, I had made it a goal that for every assignment or task, I would try to explore and employ a different web tool to present my ideas.  My original thought was to create a website to promote blended learning as a pedagogical tool, but for the size of the project, it seemed like overkill. I still wanted to do something interactive, though.

I’d heard of the idea of using the “Go to section based on answer” advanced function of Google Forms, so decided to try it in order to create an interactive exploration of blended learning.

Here’s what I came up with. Check it out and let me know how it goes!

 

The creation of this activity required quite a bit of planning, but, like many things, advanced planning led to smooth sailing when it came to actually building the form. Here’s the planning document that I used to organize my pages before I began building:

I can envision lots of possibilities for this tool for implementing blended learning (so meta, right?!). The ability to add images, video and text could make it a fantastic option for presenting content, checking for understanding, and revisiting areas of difficulty, all without any marking involved – a fully student-led and student-centred activity!

While planning, I referenced Sylvia Duckworth’s document “How to make a ‘Choose your own adventure’ story with Google Apps”, though obviously it was a slightly different process for presenting content rather than a story.

This was a fun experiment that I really enjoyed! I will definitely be looking for content that I can present to students through this format next year in Comm Tech!

 

Have you tried using the “Go to section based on answer” function of Google Forms? How did you use it? Can you think of other ways that you could try using this feature in your own teaching? I’d love to hear about it!