Communication Tool #5: Google Forms

Google Forms can be used for a variety of purposes in the classroom and for educational professional development. In the classroom, they are a very useful tool for collecting data to check for understanding after lessons, goal setting, and collecting feedback/questions. Teachers can embed the Forms into e-mails that they can send right into student e-mail accounts’ inboxes. Or, teachers can post a link to the form on their website or blog for students to access. The student responses can be tagged with the student’s email logins and can be exported to a Google Sheet to organize the data.

Google Forms get a 4 for User Friendliness. They are very easy to use and are superior to collecting student responses by hand because the data is easier to organize afterwards. They also allow teachers to identify students who are struggling more easily.

Google Forms get a 4 for Safety. There is no outside public access and it can be monitored entirely by the teacher.

Google Forms get a 4 for Customization. Forms are a great tool for PD to collect ideas for workshops, to get feedback on workshops, or to use within workshops for various purposes.

Google Forms get a 3 for Cross-Curricular. They can be used for that purpose, but are not set up expressly so.

Google Forms get a 3 for Cognitive Differentiation. They can be used at different levels of the taxonomy, but are mostly used as a formative assessment tool.

	User Friendliness (Julie)	Safety (Lauren)	Customization for Educators (Brandon)	Cross-Curricular Application (Brandon)	Cognitive Differentiation (Julie)
EXCEEDS 4	Is more user friendly than traditional means/methods of teaching and/or completing standards, and/or can be used as an alternative method for students who struggle with the traditional methods of instruction/assessments.	Can be closely monitored by teachers/gatekeepers to ensure all participants (students, community members, etc,) abide digital citizenship standards with strict security measures and clearly stated privacy policies.	Can be customized to support collegial professional development AND classroom instruction, assessment, and/or reporting.	Can be used to develop units of study that tie in learning targets from multiple subject areas and connect to the world beyond school in order to increase relevance.	Can be used in all levels and a variety of processes of Marzano’s taxonomy.
MEETS 3	Can be used on a variety of devices and is easy to use for students and teachers.	Can be monitored by teachers/ gatekeepers and allows for opportunities to select/edit for instances of non-compliance of digital citizenship and with moderate security measures and a reasonable privacy policies.	Can be customized to meet the needs of individual educators according to grade level, subject area, class size, experience with technology, professional development needs, etc.	Can be applied to multiple learning targets across multiple subject areas and/or can be used to help design or support cross-curricular units of study.	Can be used for a variety of processes and levels of Marzano’s taxonomy.
PARTIALLY MEETS 2	Can be used on a variety of devices or is easy to use for students and teachers.	Can be monitored by teacher/ gatekeepers with limited opportunities to be select/edit for instances of non-compliance of digital citizenship standards and minimal security measures.	Can be partially customized, but not enough to fully meet the needs of individual educators.	Can be applied to only one or two learning targets in one or two subject areas and does not support the development of cross-curricular units of study.	Can be used for a variety of categories on one level of the taxonomy or a few processes on various levels of Marzano’s taxonomy.
DOES NOT MEET 1	Has several barriers which make it difficult for students and/or teachers to use.	Does not allow for monitoring by teacher/gatekeeper and permits disregard for digital citizenship standards.	Does not allow customization to meet the needs of individual educators,	Does not apply to learning targets in any more than one subject area.	Is limited to only a few categories of one process of Marzano’s taxonomy.