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"Google Forms is a powerful tool with huge educational potential for teachers and educators. Besides being free and easy to use, Forms works across different devices and is seamlessly integrated with other Drive services such as Docs and Spreadsheets. As a teacher, you can use Forms for a variety of purposes including: planning an event, making surveys and polls, creating quizzes, collecting feedback and other information from students and many more. We have already posted a step by step guide on how to create a form from scratch but since then Google Forms has witnessed some major updates with the addition of some amazing features most important of which is the last update a few days ago. Therefore, we deemed it important to revisit this guide and update you on the different features you can use to create a form in the Google Forms."

"Formative assessment can be drudgery. When students are doing the same quizzes and the same practice questions all day long, it can be less than stimulating. Or formative assessment can be fantastic. Teachers use formative assessments to get the pulse of the class, to see how students are progressing. When used correctly, formative assessments let teachers make quick changes to their plans to meet students where they are. Plenty of digital tools exist to help teachers mix things up. Don't think of formative assessment as worksheets and quizzes. Students can draw, choose, write or say to show what they know."

"What strategy can double student learning gains? According to 250 empirical studies, the answer is formative assessment, defined by Bill Younglove as "the frequent, interactive checking of student progress and understanding in order to identify learning needs and adjust teaching appropriately." Unlike summative assessment, which evaluates student learning according to a benchmark, formative assessment monitors student understanding so that kids are always aware of their academic strengths and learning gaps. Meanwhile, teachers can improve the effectiveness of their instruction, re-teaching if necessary. "When the cook tastes the soup," writes Robert E. Stake, "that's formative; when the guests taste the soup, that's summative." Formative assessment can be administered as an exam. But if the assessment is not a traditional quiz, it falls within the category of alternative assessment. Alternative formative assessment (AFA) strategies can be as simple (and important) as checking the oil in your car -- hence the name "dipsticks." They're especially effective when students are given tactical feedback, immediately followed by time to practice the skill. My favorite techniques are those with simple directions, like The 60 Second Paper, which asks students to describe the most important thing they learned and identify any areas of confusion in under a minute. You can find another 53 ways to check for understanding toward the end of this post, also available as a downloadable document."

"As I am coaching teachers in learning how to learn and teach FOR the 22nd century, I realize that the gap between being able to read traditional forms of information, communications materials in geneal and reading on new platforms, in new genres and in general new digital forms is widening drastically. Not too long ago, I wrote a post titled, Our Notion of Literacy and Iliteracy Calls for an Update.  I define literacy as the ability to read and write and being able to express and communicate our ideas to others. So, in our world, which is BOTH analog AND digital, we need to be literate in both. Especially if we are educators, in charge of teaching our students to be literate for THEIR future. The digital world is not going away, nor can it be ignored in terms of being and staying (critically) informed, lifelong learning, communicating, connecting, collaborating and contributing. One realisation for me was that new forms of reading and writing did not ONLY have to do with the skillset of learning the logistics of how to read and write on digital platforms, but had EVERYTHING to do with a new mindset that allows for new forms of reading and writing versus merely substituting the way we have done it in analog form before."

"Formative assessment strategies in the classroom provide both teachers and students with invaluable information about what students understand, and what they don't.  These ungraded assessments are valuable guides for students to help them enhance their performance. They also help teachers determine if further instruction is necessary. When formative assessments are used consistently, and effectively, neither teachers nor students are surprised by their final grades. Some formative assessments can take just a few minutes, while others require longer periods of time. The following are 5 great formative assessment strategies for teachers."

"When teachers know their students well, they can build strong connections that lead to better learning. Knowing students' interests, strengths, and weaknesses help teachers tailor learning experiences for their students. Formative assessment is how teachers collect information about what students know, don't know, and want to learn. Formative assessment takes many forms, including exit tickets, discussions, games, and quizzes. These kinds of informal assessments can also help teachers get to know their students as learners and as people. There is a very wide variety of digital formative assessment tools that can be used for free (often charging for extra features). I've written a little about 15 of them below. Most of these tools work with any web browser, so they are great for laptops, computer labs, iPads, Chromebooks, tablets, and smartphones."

"Teachers have found many different ways of using digital games in the classroom. But what kind of games are these students playing? And how are teachers incorporating them in the classroom? Last year's report from the Joan Ganz Cooney Center, "Games For A Digital Age," made the distinction between "short-form" and "long-form" learning games. Short-form games are designed to be played during a single class period. "They focus on a particular concept of skill refinement, skills practice, memorization, or performing specific drills." Long-form games "extend beyond a single class period" and sometimes gameplay can "spread over multiple sessions or even several weeks." Often long-form games are comprehensively tied to a full curriculum. They can replace textbooks by offering an interactive experience that seamlessly blends content, practice, and assessment into a contextualized learning experience. While some programs like this already exist, it's difficult to implement well. For teachers who want to get started, short-term games can supplement their already established curricula with fresh and engaging activities. Learning Games"

"Regardless of whether you think every infant needs an iPad, I think we can all agree that technology has changed education for the better. Today's learners now enjoy easier, more efficient access to information; opportunities for extended and mobile learning; the ability to give and receive immediate feedback; and greater motivation to learn and engage. We now have programs and platforms that can transform learners into globally active citizens, opening up countless avenues for communication and impact. Thousands of educational apps have been designed to enhance interest and participation. Course management systems and learning analytics have streamlined the education process and allowed for quality online delivery. But if we had to pick the top ten, most influential ways technology has transformed education, what would the list look like? The following things have been identified by educational researchers and teachers alike as the most powerful uses of technology for learning. Take a look. 1. Critical Thinking In Meaningful Learning With Technology, David H. Jonassen and his co-authors argue that students do not learn from teachers or from technologies. Rather, students learn from thinking-thinking about what they are doing or what they did, thinking about what they believe, thinking about what others have done and believe, thinking about the thinking processes they use-just thinking and reasoning. Thinking mediates learning. Learning results from thinking. So what kinds of thinking are fostered when learning with technologies? Analogical If you distill cognitive psychology into a single principle, it would be to use analogies to convey and understand new ideas. That is, understanding a new idea is best accomplished by comparing and contrasting it to an idea that is already understood. In an analogy, the properties or attributes of one idea (the analogue) are mapped or transferred to another (the source or target). Single analogies are also known as sy

"he two categories to be discussed in this post include Games and Back Channels. Both allow for a wonderful formative experience. There are a number of resources that can be found on the internet in these two areas. The back channel in the classroom is powerful and your LMS (Learning Management System) may serve this quite well. You also may get some added privacy which is important. While I believe kids can create games as a awesome formative experience, I will save that for a later post. In this article I wish to focus on how educational games provide a wonderful learning experience perhaps going well beyond content. As in all online tools be sure to check your district AUP along with the terms and conditions of the website you are using. Enjoy the resources and please let me know what I should add for a future post!"

"Google Forms allows you to create pages so that all of the questions are not all on one screen. In some circumstances the questions do not apply for every student. If students answer no they are not participating in a sport the section of questions about which sports the student participates in can be skipped. If you are using a Google Form as a formative assessment quiz you can direct students to a page with instruction on the topic if they get the question wrong or go to the next question if they get the question correct."

"As you can tell from our video, there are many ways to describe formative assessment. Simply put, Formative Assessment is taking a pause in learning to ensure students are where they need to be for a particular lesson. The best formative assessments are subtle, giving teachers an overall picture of how students are learning and adapting to their immediate needs. Think of it as a GPS for the teacher-knowing where students are in their learning and where you should head in your teaching."

"Today's post is on the new Google Forms' guide we published a few months ago. The guide, which is based on instructions and insights from Docs Help center, walks teachers through the process of setting up, editing and sharing forms using the new Google Forms platform. More specifically, the visual covers the following how-tos:"

"What is qualitative formative assessment? Some call it anecdotal or informal assessment. However, such designations imply passivity -- as if certain things were captured accidentally. I believe the word "formative" should always be included with the word assessment because all feedback mechanisms should help shape and improve the person (or situation) being assessed. Wedging the word "qualitative" into my terminology differentiates it from the analytic or survey-based measures that some associate with the term formative assessment."

Formative assessment is a process that takes place during the learning experience. When it is done right, the findings immediately inform feedback and instruction. Grades are never taken, and the stakes remain very low. I see formative assessment as the ultimate best practice, but I may be part of a small group of educators who feel this way. It's not uncommon, after all, for some teachers to sandwich formative assessment into their already packed lesson plans simply because someone else has expected them to do so. Some just "get it done" because they're afraid of "getting dinged" on their teacher evaluations."

"If you have opened Google Forms lately, you've probably noticed that things are looking a little different! Don't worry, this Google Forms does everything the older version did… and a few more cool things! If you get a little annoyed with it, you can always go back to the old version. Just click the little the man in the bottom left corner and you will be back in your familiar territory. However, if you're feeling creative, check out the new tools! Here are five of my favorites!"

"Wufoo is a web application that helps anybody build amazing online forms. When you design a form with Wufoo, it automatically builds the database, backend and scripts needed to make collecting and understanding your data easy, fast and fun"

"Legacy Google Forms if you had a whole list of options you wanted students to choose from you had to copy and paste each item separately No more! The new Google Forms allows you to copy and paste a list right into a multiple choice, choose from a list or checkboxes question type."

Wufoo strives to be the easiest way to collect information over the Internet. Our HTML form builder helps you create contact forms, online surveys, and invitations so you can collect the data, registrations and online payments you need without writing a single line of code.

"Hi all, I've created a presentation (with some help from my colleagues) on different examples of formative assessment. You can view it here: https://docs.google.com/presentation/pub?id=1nzhdnyMQmio5lNT75ITB45rHyLI... Note the definition I'm using at the beginning of the presentation: A formative assessment or assignment is a tool teachers use to give feedback to students and/or guide their instruction. It is not included in a student grade, nor should it be used to judge a teacher's performance. Both of these would be considered summative assessments."

"It's one of Google's most versatile offerings and one that educators have found endless applications for. Google Forms can be used for anything from assessment to just-in-time learning.  In this module we want to focus on some of the out-of-classroom uses of Google Forms and look at how you can use it to communicate and learn from parents, friends and the broader school community."