Wiki

This is the first time I have ever created a wiki site. It is an exciting and interesting experience. With the help of the Atomic Learning tutorial on Sites, I finally figured how to create a simple wiki site. Here the link to my wiki. I have been manipulating the different format options, such as Heading, Sub-heading, and Horizontal Line, setting background picture, color and so on. I added Twitter and Google + Share button as my gadgets. I also learned how to setup external links, insert images into web page, if I want, I can also insert table of contents, Google Document, Presentation, Spreadsheet, Drawing, Folder, Group, Map, Video, so much more into my page. In addition to all these features, I can change the page layout. In my wiki, I chose two column (simple) layout, laying paragraphs on the left column, and pictures on the right one.  By going to the Manage Site in the drop down menu of the More, I can customize the themes, colors and fonts of the Entire Page, Site header, Content area, Content area gadgets, Sidebar gadget and Horizontal navigation. You can see I chose light green as my background color and I also changed the color, font and font size of my pages.

Here is the screen captures of the history of revisions of my wiki. I can use this feature to keep track of the changes that have been made in the wiki. The feature allows me to revert to previous versions. With this feature, I can edit the wiki as much as I want without worrying about messing it up.

I can see how wiki can be very useful for my class. I can use this site to share Chinese culture with my students. With limited classroom time, it is impossible to share everything with students in class; however, wiki can break down the classroom walls and provide a perfect place for sharing cultures and also helping with their Chinese language study. 

Google Form

This is the first time I have ever tried the Google Forms and it turns out to be such a great tool. I checked out the link Tutorial -Self Grading, and then followed it to make my first self-grading quiz Chinese Test 1 for my husband. He actually likes it after the sample test and even asks me to make this kind of test more often to help him with his Chinese. I am so surprised to hear that. I think Google Forms can be a great tool with ease of use to enhance students’ learning. If I want to design a quiz, all I need to do is to create a new form and type the questions, choose the question type and then I can send the form to my students. There are different question types I can choose, such as text, multiple choice, choose from a list, checkbox, scale, grid and so on. I can view the summary responses to see what percentage of each question the whole class made. Then I can decide whether I need to reteach some of the content or it is time to move to the next subject. With Google Form, I can design a survey with ease. I still remember I had to use Word Processing application to design a survey in college, email to the participants and then count the result manually. It took so much time to do the whole process. I wish I could have used Google Form and Spreadsheet back that time, and then it would be so much easier.

Another great feature of the Google Form is that it puts all the responses into a spreadsheet automatically. I can modify, rearrange and analyze the response without affecting the original form responses. I can use the spreadsheet to do self-grading. All I need to do is to know how to use right formula to get the spreadsheet going. This is the link to the spreadsheet I made to self-grade the Chinese Test 1. Google Form and Google spreadsheet can really make my life much more productive.

Google Forms offers an easy way for schools, students, teachers and parents to connect with each other. For example, Schools can design surveys to evaluate teachers’ performance; schools also can send home a parent survey to gather information from parents about certain aspects of school life; teachers can create forms that will track specific students’ grades, behavior, and assignments; teachers can also email the parents the information of students and share it with other teachers, so much more with Google Forms and Spreadsheets.

The CCSS requires that students will “present information, findings and supporting evidence. ” Google Forms is a great tool that students can use to gather real information from peers, parents, and the community and to use that supportive information to make decisions or form conclusions about a certain topic. Another Anchor Standards requires students to make strategic use of digital media and visual displays of data to express information and enhance understanding of presentations. Students can use Form to design a survey and send it to the participants. After the participants took the survey, all of the responses were collected in the attached spreadsheet. Students then can use spreadsheet to organize, analyze and interpret data as well as turning numeric data into a chart that graphically illustrates the relationship of the numeric data. With the ease of use feature, Google Forms can help students meet and excel the requirement of the CCSS.

Google Spreadsheet

I have learned a little bit about spreadsheet back to when I was in college. My major is something to do with finance, so I got a chance to learn how to use spreadsheet like Microsoft Excel to collect data, analyze it and apply to decision making. I really enjoy having spreadsheet, because it really helps me organize personal information, especially financial data, such as income, budget and much more.

This is the first time I have ever tried to use Google spreadsheet but it turned out to be a pretty good experience. Google Spreadsheet is kind of like simplified Microsoft Excel, simple and ease with use. However, it does have its own special features. Just like Google document and Google presentation, Google spreadsheet is an online application and is cloud-based storage. Users can access to the spreadsheet from any computer or mobile device that is connected to the Internet. With this feature, users do not have problem with leaving the most up -to- date version at home. Moreover, it provides share feature to allow users collaborate with each other.  

However, Google spreadsheet does not have as many features as Microsoft Excel. For instance, Excel has a lot more layout choices than Google spreadsheet. I think if someone wants to make really professional spreadsheet, then more sophisticated applications, such as Microsoft Excel, Apple Number will be better choice.

I feel that it is not too hard to learn how to use the basic feature of the spreadsheet, but when it comes to the advanced spreadsheet features, it is kind of hard to grasp it.

The requirement of CCSS states that all grade levels share the standard of representing and interpreting data. A shared Spreadsheet is an excellent tool to use to meet this standard. For instance, one of the CCSS of Math is that students need to learn how to design a survey and analyze it. Students can use the Google document to design the survey and use the spreadsheet to collaborate on their survey data, share it, as well as receive comments on it from an authentic audience. This would be a great way to promote the use of higher-order thinking skills that can increase students’ critical and problem solving skills.


Here is the link to the  Google Spreadsheet.

Google Presentations

I am very excited to see how Google Presentations work after using the Google Documents. I am pretty sure it shares some features with Microsoft PowerPoint, but I am more looking forward to see how they function differently.  After I checked out some tutorial videos on http://www.atomiclearning.com/highed/en/la_tip_bsd_gdocs. The following are some comparisons I made between Google Presentations and Microsoft PowerPoint.

First, the Google Presentations is Free, which means more people can access to it. While it costs some money to buy a Microsoft Office Suite in order to use the PowerPoint.

Another difference is that the Google Presentations is online and in the cloud, which means users can access to it with Internet, no matter what kind of operating system they use. Plus, users can share the presentations with others as well. This is a great way to conduct collaboration. Users can invite people to join their presentation online, and even chat in the same window. However, Microsoft PowerPoint is part of the Office Suite, the only way to collaborate to make presentation is by sending email to each other with attachments.

PowerPoint has the AutoSave feature, while, it only automatically saves open documents at specified time periods. Unlike Microsoft PowerPoint, the Google Presentations has the automatic saving feature as well as the other Google programs, which saves the open documents in almost every second. That’s why Google Drive has no saving button. This indeed is a very functional feature.

            Even though Google Presentations has many strengths as stated above, the Microsoft PowerPoint has its special features. For instance, users do not have to rely on the Internet to access to the presentations. No one can guarantee there is a hundred percent Internet assess, so this feature, to some extent, can be strength. PowerPoint also has an option to take notes at the bottom of each slide and has many slide design options for artistic purposes, for instance, under the Animation list, there is entrance effects, emphasis effects, exit effects, motion, and other options, while the Google presentations only has fade in/fade out, fly in/fly out, zoom in/zoom out and spin options. From this example, you can see how limited and simple the Google Presentations is. When I tried to make presentations using Google Presentations, I couldn’t add music into the whole presentation. If someone wants to make really professional or artsy presentation, I am afraid the Google Presentations might not be able to meet his need.

            But Google Presentations does have its special features which will help students and teachers fulfill the requirement of the Common Core State Standard. Those special features include sharing, cloud-based storage and more. The Common Core State Standards demand that students have extensive set of skills in presenting information. For instance, one of the standards for English Language Arts is that students must learn to work together, express and listen carefully to ideas, integrate information from oral, visual, quantitative and media sources, evaluate what they hear, use media and visual displays strategically to help achieve communicative purposes, and adapt speech to context and task. With the help of the sharing feature, students can work collaboratively, which meets the requirement of working together. Students can use animations as visual display to enhance their presentation, which meet the CCSS requirement of using media and visual display. In addition, students can also use charts, tables to represent the data, which fulfill what CCSS requires of quantitative sources. I just give a few examples to show how Google Presentations can help students and teacher meet and excel the CCSS requirement.

URL of the presentation is 

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/14UC-JnT5wahB6vr1YY0wvvcL6oUA_yZh9suKHilfkBU/edit#slide=id.p