Artifact #1: Using Google as a Collaborative Site (EEND676B)

The work I am most proud is from the Using Google as a Collaborative Tool assignment. In this assignment, I used Google three ways:  Google Forms to “Choose Your Own Adventure,” Google Docs to write a complete narrative from the Google Form and Google Drawing to create a cover page for the story. I loved all three parts of the project, but what really made the idea sing was the use of the Google Form to “Choose Your Own Adventure.” I can’t take credit for the idea. I just knew I wanted to use Google Forms, but in a way I never have before. Appropriately enough, I did a Google search to find innovative uses of Google Forms and I stumbled across the “Choose Your Own Adventure” concept and it was love at first sight. But like any relationship, it was love-hate. It was so difficult to make the form work. It was truly a Tim-Gunn-make-it-work moment. I first had to have an idea of the overall story and the different avenues it would take. But the more ambitious the story became, the harder it was to create the form. For every new choice I created, I had to have alternate story paths. I finally realized I needed to simplify it and find ways for story plots to circle back to similar spots or I would never finish the Google Form.  I was so determined to make this work, failure was not an option. I kept telling myself, WHEN I figure this form out...not IF I figure this form out. Ultimately, I did figure it out and it exceeded my expectations.

A “Choose Your Own Adventure” could be used in so many ways in the classroom. It could be used as an informal assignment to build skills for a larger assignment. Or it could be used as a collaborative activity, and groups could work together to create their own “Choose Your Own Adventure” stories. Or it could be used as the springboard to a formal narrative assignment as addressed in Common Core standards. The features used to create the “Choose Your Own Adventure” could also be used to create similar forms, but with different functions. For instance, teachers could create a quiz that lets kids advance to the next question as long as they get the answer right, but as soon as they get an answer wrong, it sends them to a review video and a new question.

I feel like every time I complete an assignment for this course, I learn something new. I’m constantly pushed outside my comfort zone.  Using Google Forms to create a story would never have occurred to me had it not been for this course, but now I feel like I have all these new tools in my teacher toolbox and I’m not afraid to use them.