Using Google Forms and Flubaroo

Flubaroo

Flubaroo is a really cool tool that can be used in conjunction with Google forms to self-correct forms/quizzes/questions which basically means less work for us teachers. However, having used Flubaroo in the classroom I found it had many more advantages. For starters, it allows flipped learning to occur at home and grades to be recorded.

Flipped learning is the new buzz word de jour in relation to pedagogical practice. If one types into the phrase into Google, one will find a myriad of resources. However, the following link offers a good description of the practice:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flip_teaching

Ted Education features lots of flip lessons: and one can gain a lot of inspiration from these lessons and how they might adapt these ideas using Google Forms &Flubaroo to flip their lesson. (Please note TED Ed lesson do not use Google forms or Flubaroo)

I used both of these tools (Google forms and Flubaroo) when teaching the Good Samaritan parable to a group of first year students (12-13 years old). I chose a nice video version of this parable from YouTube.

I copied and pasted this YouTube link into the description box of a Google Form and instructed my students to watch the video and then answer the questions that followed for homework. My students really liked this type of assignment for homework as from their point of view it required a lot less writing than normal. They liked the fact that they got to watch a cartoon clip for homework but that learning was now being turned into a game in that they had questions to answer! It wasn’t just passive viewing.

From my point of view, I had a way of measuring whether or not learning was taking place. I found that the use of an AV helped the weaker kids in the classroom and learning was enhanced. One point for consideration for any teacher considering to use this as a more engaging and meaningful way of doing homework is you have to find out if everyone has internet access or not. If students don’t have internet access, you might bring students to the computer lab and complete this assignment either as a class activity or a class test, it doesn’t necessarily have to be used as a homework assignment.

Google forms used in conjunction with Flubaroo can be used to flip a lesson. Flipping a lesson can be the precursor to more deep and meaningful learning.

You can watch this video to see how to create a Google form.

Give it to students to complete. I normally embed the Google Form into the class blog.

Here is an example of the Google form that I used.

Here is another example that I used with a second year group.

It is important that the teacher completes that assignment also so their submission will act as the answer key. Once the assignment is completed, open up your Google form and click on the responses tab. This will open up a spreadsheet of the students’ answers. You should also be able to see your submission and once you have install Flubaroo, you will identify this as the answer key against which all other submissions will be graded against.

Installing Flubaroo

You can also watch how to install and use Flubaroo on the following YouTube.

Alternatively, you could print out the these instructions.

Once installed, the Flubaroo tab should always appear across the top of every new spreadsheet document of responses. Click Flubaroo and it will ask you to identify the answer key to grade all other submissions against. This will be the teacher’s own submission. Click on this and hey presto, you’re done! It will give you back your students’ grades as a percentage. Magic!

I found the use of Google forms and Flubaroo an effective way to introduce flipped learning into my classroom. Everybody has heard of the old adage ‘a picture is worth a thousand words’, I wished someone would coin a truism for the use of an effective video clip in that it impacts on us visually, aurally and emotionally. By using Google forms and Flubaroo, the workload is reduced and learning is enhanced.

Creating Text Conversations

Here’s a quick and fun tool for getting attention in a classroom:  a SMS Generator.  It’s a website that allows you to create text conversations, and then save it for future reference with a link or by embedding it in a website.

This type of graphic could be a great way to introduce a topic.  For example, if your lesson features the classic parable about the Prodigal Son, you could work up a chat like this one:

Present it to the group, either by projecting onto a screen if you have web access (wall screen or even a mobile device) or by printing a copy and hanging it up.  Without mentioning the actual Scripture, ask the students to read the chat and figure out what they can about it.  After hearing their ideas, ask someone them to read the story that inspired the chat:  Luke 15:11-32.  Revisit the discussion to see how the students’ perception of the chat – as well as the parable- changed.

The SMS Generator can also be a way for students to unpack the Scripture.   Pair up the students and give them each a character from the parable; for instance, Dad/ Older Son, Dad/Younger Son, Older Son/Servant, etc.  Ask each pair to create a chat between their two characters, based on the text they just read.  If you have internet access in the classroom, they can create and save the chat online and send you the link. If you don’t have internet access in the classroom, have the students use your example as the model to write out their chat, and you can enter them online later, or you can assign this as homework.

You can post these on the church Facebook page, a class blog, send the links home in a parent email, or even save a jpg to use in the church bulletin or print out for a class bulletin board.  Be sure you know what any acronyms mean before sharing a chat, though.  Try this list to decipher any that come up.  (Fair warning that some of the explanations are not suitable for children or church situations, so please use it only for your own personal development!)

Whether you use the SMS Generator to create chats based on Bible characters, saints, or even the Pope and your Pastor (!), and especially given the popularity of texting among kids as young as 10, this exercise will be a great way to grab their attention on almost any topic, just by changing the “characters” involved!

What’s Smore?

No!  We’re not scouts making s’mores – Graham crackers with melted marshmallows and chocolate over an open fire.  We could be educators, ministers, catechists or any minister creating interesting and exciting electronic flyers that grab and catch others attention.

How?  Check out a great web tool called SMORE.

See how easy it is to use by viewing the Smore Video.  Scroll down to the middle of the page and click on the “A Cupcake Story Video.”

How could you use this tool in your ministry?

Having a Family Dinner, check this out:

Announcing a Night of Worship, here is a creative invite:

If you just want to see what others are doing, come to the website and scan through the variety of creations.  Here’s one about the Follet Digital Reader:

Jeff Herb has said the following about the tool – Smore will let you quickly, easily, and efficiently create flyers using an incredibly simple drag and drop and WYSIWYG (What you see is what you get) editor.  The site gives you some pre-defined templates to work from (which are totally customizable, just a starting point). 

More importantly – your flyers will look great on any device.  Also, if you want to print your flyer and distribute the old fashioned way – that option is also available to you.

Would love to hear from you how you are using this wonderful tool.  Come back to share the link of your wonderful creation. If you found this post to be of interest to you, click the “Like” button.

SoundCloud

Call me an auditory learner, I guess, since I seem to be drawn to tools like VoiceThread,  Audioboo and now SoundCloud. As online podcasting tools become more popular, more user-friendly and more connected, it becomes more of a challenge for catechists to integrate them into their faith formation settings. SoundCloud is a great example of a podcasting tool that is so easy to use, you can figure it out intuitively and with very little effort. What is SoundCloud?  It’s a tool to hear and share the world’s sounds. SoundCloud allows users to upload original audio files, such as recordings of voice or music made on their mobile devices, and easily compile and share them on social media. SoundCloud even has features for educators and recorded lectures from Harvard, Yale and BBC Radio. Teachers can use SoundCloud in the classroom to record student reports (think radio broadcast on a topic researched and presented, recorded and shared with others in the school community) or they can even record their own lectures to share with students who were absent!

To get started with SoundCloud, just open a free account from your computer. I recommend you also install the mobile app on your iPad, iPhone, or Android device. Because this is a cloud-based tool, your sounds will be accessible from both your computer and your mobile device. If you make a recording with your mobile device, you have the option of trimming it, naming it, and associating a digital image with it before you save it. Once a sound is saved, you can push it to Facebook Twitter, Foursquare or post it on Blogger or WordPress. The SoundCloud website has more information, tutorials, feature guides, information for educators, and much more.

Because sounds are not (usually) visual, it is interesting how SoundCloud displays its audio podcasts. Not only do you see an attractive waveform, you also can see timed comments (look for the little profile pictures along the bottom of the waveform) that indicate someone has made a comment on your sound! This is great feedback for the creator of the sound and makes an attractive visual element, as well.

Just about anything that can be used for educational purposes can be adapted for catechetical and ministerial purposes, IMHO. Here is a great example of how SoundCloud is already being used in ministry. I simply put the word “Catholic” into the SoundCloud search box and found a series of podcasts  from a 2013 Catholic Student Spring Leadership Day.

And here is a podcast of my pastor’s homily from Sunday, March 3, 2013. We were celebrating the First Scrutiny at this Mass, so the homily is based on John’s story of the woman at the well. Once uploaded to SoundCloud, our parish digital discipleship ministry then posted the link on our parish Facebook page to reach an even wider audience.

Once you find sounds that you like, you can opt to follow them. One great advantage of SoundCloud is also its storage limit. Individual free accounts are allowed to create 120 minutes of uploads/sounds per year with no time restrictions on how long a single podcast can be. Premium packages are also available for between about $40 a year to $80 per month. (Prices are given in Euros, so allow for conversion rates)

Whether you are a catechist or a preacher, a gifted speaker or a 21st Century digital evangelist, SoundCloud can make creating and sharing your message easy. If you already use SoundCloud, I’d love to connect with you and see what you have posted. Please leave your comment below.

GroupMe

Tool: GroupMe

One of the more fun things about ministry is gathering groups of people together for a variety of functions: prayer groups, bible study, mission trips, service projects, annual events, etc. A couple of challenging aspects of running or participating in these communities is coordinating and communicating effectively, especially on the fly or in last minute situations. One to one and group text messaging has really helped in this aspect, but depending on your phone or data plan, accomplishing this task could be cumbersome or expensive. There is a free app out there, however, that can help deal with these issues. It’s called GroupMe.

GroupMe (part of the Skype family) provides free group text messaging for anyone who has downloaded the app. It works on the iPhone, Android, Blackberry, and Windows Phone platforms and can be used to text from your computer or tablet as well. Don’t have a smartphone? No problem. GroupMe is able to work over Short Message Service (SMS) texting phones, too, which means that any older phone that can text will still suffice. Some of the features include the ability to send photos, “like” posts, share locations, direct message one person in your group(s), “mute” conversations that you no longer want to follow, or text specific members of your group(s) rather than everyone.

The ministry applications are pretty straight forward. If you have a group of people that need to communicate with each other or the organizer needs to contact regularly, GroupMe is a very convenient way to do that. So why not just use group email? Not everyone is near a computer to check emails, but their phones are usually on them. Older phones may not receive email. Depending on data plans, email and texts cost money to receive and send. Texts are instantaneous; emails need to wait for the browser to refresh if the receiver doesn’t know it is coming. This concept is extremely important for emergency situations or last minute change of plans.

There are some things to be aware of before going the GroupMe route. One is a group size limitation of 25. This is to prevent spammers from bothering your groups. If you contact their support, GroupMe will work with you on expanding the size limitation. Another concern is anyone who will receive texts from any group through SMS (that is, without the GroupMe app). Without the features of the app, there is no user control. Everything the group sends goes to them and everything they send goes to the group. A talkative group could get expensive depending on the person’s data plan. If possible, have everyone in your group download the app.

Coordinating and communicating with groups can be challenging at times. Check out GroupMe. It could be the solution you are looking for.

Fakebook: Learning to Help Holy Friends Connect

What if you and your class could set up your own private social network for Jesus and the Saints?  Assign students to study the biography of a character from the Bible and create a social media profile based on what they read?  There  is a way – using Fakebook, a web tool from ClassTools.net.

You can watch the tutorial video to see how it works:

When you arrive on the site you can begin immediately to create a new profile – but it can be helpful first to check the link to the gallery to see examples. You can click on the Religion category to see what is already there.  There is already a Jesus profile that notes his religious views are “Catholic.”

First, create the profile, including at least one post and one friend, then go to the menu on the right and save it, using the disk icon.  The page will ask for a password so you can come back and edit your creation, and it will give you a unique URL for your profile.  Here is one I created in the free version for Saint Cecilia.  Only the person who creates the profile can edit the profile or add new posts. Interaction between profiles requires both creators to log in and interact.

The free version has lots of adware, so be warned not to click on buttons that say “Download Program” (which lead to a place to download unwanted programs). A premium version of ClassTools.net , which could be used in the classroom and has no adware, is also available. which enables you to create a Twitter-like interface as well.  Price for a 6-month membership is roughly $21. This seems like great fun – and a way to include various characters, storylines, etc. and get them to interact. Could be a very creative learning tool for learning what ministers in the liturgy do, having various saints and historical figures interact, etc.

 

Wishing you all the Joy, Hope and Wonder of Christmas!

Dear wonderful friends of Catechesis 2.0:

One of the real joys of the Christmas Season is the opportunity to say Thank You and to wish you the very best for the New Year. May your Christmas be rich with family love, warm with friendship, happy with life’s goodness and blessed with the joys of the season.

We are especially blessed with the many friendships that have developed over the years by our wondering about, struggling with, dreaming of, feeling challenged by the technology world that surrounds us in this 21st Century.

Many of us may be Digital Immigrants and others are Digital Natives.  Regardless of our tech experience, we are faced with effectively evangelizing in a Digital Culture. Thank you for being part of this digital journey.

Like the shepherds in the field, we are surprised by a bright light only to discover Jesus. Like the Three Wise Men, we will journey miles in order to be led to Jesus.  Today, we can be evangelizers to lead others to Jesus in new ways with Digital Tools.

In 2013, we will continue to share our insights with you and I count on you to join in the conversation.  It is in sharing our wisdom with one another in collaborative ways via blogs, wikis, twitter, Facebook and more that we will become more comfortable to evangelize in this Digital Continent to bring the Lord Jesus to others. We will be taking a brief break during this Christmas season to enjoy family and friends.  We’ll be back in January!

Warmest thoughts and best wishes for a wonderful Holiday and a Happy New Year!

S. Caroline, Marc, Claudia, Tim, Joyce, Kristi, and Tony

SignUpGenius

Tool: SignUpGenius

Volunteer sign-up and organization: the burden of any ministry within any church. Recruiting, availability, scheduling, rescheduling, phone calling, and follow-up phone calling eat up a lot of valuable time. Wouldn’t it be easier to create a sign-up sheet online and email parishioners to volunteer rather than try to track them down at mass or by phone? The truth is there are a number of online tools that allow you to do this such as SignUpGenius.

 

SignUpGenius is a free service, which, of course, means online ads. The ads are provided through Google, and any questionable advertising is filtered out, which is important if you plan on using this tool with teens. An ad free version is available for a small fee.

SignUpGenius provides themed templates, including ones specifically for churches, that can be customized with images and logos allowing the user to create content with a WYSIWYG (“What you see is what you get”) interface. Sign-up formatting is flexible offering traditional sign-ups; non-date specific forms for ongoing lists; and options for RSVPs, limited or unlimited quantities and comment fields.

As the administrator of the sign-up pages, you can opt for password protection, limit page access to particular groups, and offer a name only option for people nervous about providing their email addresses. SignUpGenius does not sell or distribute email addresses to third parties. In addition you have the ability to use bulk email for easy communication through a saved address book that can be exported to Excel. You can also defer management of any list to another user for the times you want to distribute responsibility to other people plus other helpful administrative tools.

On the user side, SignUpGenius pages can be integrated with Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest along with calendars such as Outlook, iCal, and Google. Volunteers can also receive automated email reminders and text reminders as well as edit and swap with other users for schedule changes.

Check out this video to see how easy SignUpGenius is to use:

 

 

So in which ways can a church use SignUpGenius? Whenever you need people to volunteer for a ministry, such as reading at mass; organize what people are bringing to a gathering, such as a potluck dinner; schedule people for any reason throughout the year, such as cantors for mass or snacks for religious ed. classes; or track donations desired and given for an event, such as a mission trip.

Churches depend heavily on volunteers for many aspects of everyday parish life. Trying to recruit and organize those people can be a taxing chore. SignUpGenius can help ease the load of some of your ministerial duties.

HP MagCloud

A few years ago when I was snooping around the school where I teach (trying to pick up new ed tech tips) I happened upon a middle school technology class that had just finished up a project using HP MagCloud. The students had taken digital images, used these images to create a PDF file using Microsoft Publisher, uploaded the PDF to MagCloud and, within about a week, each had a four-page, magazine-quality brochure of their work. The finished products were colorful and attractive, and each one cost only about $1.00! In the learning process for this project, each student had to apply lessons of artistic design, planning, digital photography skills, document conversion and of course curriculum content to create these mini magazine. I made a mental note to myself to try out MagCloud myself one day.

MagCloud is a free application. The site has tons of tips to get you started on this multi-step learning process, and examples to browse for inspiration. The hardest part of the whole process is understanding that you have to do the preliminary set-up and creation of the PDF document before you send it to MagCloud for publication. You as a teacher or catechist will want to have a good grasp of this sequence and of the tools necessary before you help your students, of course. But it is possible that your class could also divide up the steps under your supervision to make this a more collaborative project. For example, students or small groups could each be responsible for

1. Deciding on a theme for the magazine
2. Taking or selecting digital images that illustrate the theme, editing them as necessary
3. Being responsible for the layout and design in your desktop publishing tool
4. Proofing the work (students will learn about bleeds and trim areas!)
5. Uploading the finished product and deciding how to distribute, sell or ship it
6. Critiquing the final product when it arrives

As important as it is to encourage the learning process in our faith, sometimes it’s just nice to have a finished product, too. Being able to analyze and critique a finished product also allows us to reflect further on what we have learned and applied. Our faith is much about storytelling in the sense of passing on our wisdom and being able to see the new world into which we are born with eyes of faith. I believe encouraging students to tell the story of their faith, use images that speak to them, and create a finished product to share with others can be an empowering experience for them and one that will help them develop into better tellers of the story of our faith. I took this belief to heart this year when I decided to create a photo collage of a ministry that is dear to my heart, our Other-Abled Ministry. This ministry is for adults with special needs and for their caretakers. We meet monthly for Mass, a meal and faith sharing. As you can imagine, we had hundreds of digital images from the last year. The previous year, I created a movie. This year, I decided to use HP MagCloud. I made a 12 page magazine using the process described above. The magazine contains photos of our good times together last year, and I ordered enough for each family to have one and then some leftover to put in our church narthex for others to see. Take a look at the digital edition here. It was a very do-able weekend project. Although I did this project solo, I firmly believe that with middle to high-school aged students, a catechist could successfully engage students in the process as well.

 

What faith story do your students have to tell? Are they involved in service projects? Do they find images of God in nature? Is their community precious to them?  Could HP MagCloud be the vehicle that they could use to share their faith with others?

WeGather

Tool: WeGather

Answer this question: What is the #1 goal of any church? Answer: To build community. To help in this mission, there are many wonderful tools available through the Internet to share information and socialize. But perhaps with all those different tools, you feel a bit overwhelmed. One ministry group communicates on Facebook, another on Google Plus, and yet another through Yahoo! Groups. For some people, it can get very confusing trying to remember which group is where, especially if you are the organizer of many ministry teams and events. Wouldn’t it be nice if there were a tool that allowed you to organize your entire parish’s social groups and ministries, sent email from centralized lists, shared a single calendar that filters events based on group, and allowed your parishioners to socialize online in a safe and secure environment? Wouldn’t it be even better if it were free? Guess what? There is such a tool! It’s called WeGather.

WeGather was developed by Liturgical Publications, Inc. (LPi), who are well known for their production and distribution of church bulletins. Over the last few years, LPi has developed web tools specifically for parishes including website templates and online giving. WeGather is their answer to social networking that meets the needs and concerns of a church community.

Here are the main features:

• Provides a safe, secure environment – A church administrator approves all membership requests so only authorized people have access to the site. Secondary administrators can be given access to maintain particular groups and ministries.
• Centralizes email lists for easy updating and distributing information.
• Organizes ministries and committees by “groups.” Only members of each group can see information specifically for them but can be shared publicly (any authorized site member) if desired.
• Provides a centralized calendar of events. Information shown on the calendar can either be group specific or shared publicly.
• Allows members to easily post and share documents, photos, and videos specific to each group or publicly.
• Provides members the ability to create their profiles and control which information is available to fellow parishioners.

Again, the core system of WeGather is free but does offer some optional “modules” available on a monthly subscription basis:

• Online giving via WeShare, LPi’s online giving and event registration program. WeShare can easily be integrated with WeGather.
• Service Opportunities-promote your volunteer needs where members can easily sign up for volunteer opportunities of interest
• Additional Storage for documents and media

So, why use WeGather over other online tools?

• A clean, professional look that is easy to navigate for the casual computer user.
• A web based tool specifically designed for churches.
• The privacy of each parish and its members is strictly maintained. No information is sold or given to third parties of any kind.
• LPi working to build additional modules to plug into WeGather.

WeGather is a very powerful –and absolutely free –communication tool for any church and its members. If you are part of a parish that is looking to organize all of its online ministry outreach and communication in one place, check out WeGather and feel free to leave a comment on how it works for your church.