Showing posts with label Google Presentation. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Google Presentation. Show all posts

Sunday, March 15, 2009

Using Google Form for Making Accessible Tests

It has been a very busy two weeks for me doing a number of Web 2.0 workshops and consulting to some of the schools that I regularly work with. The more I show Google Docs the more it resonates with teachers- giving them new ways to work with their students. In my workshops I have been showing off the capabilities of the various Google applications and while the teachers have been impressed with the word processing and presentation tool-many of them have just begun to think about how to use Google Forms with their students. Google Forms allows teachers to set up surveys and publish then on the web which can be completed by students. Once students enter their responses Google Forms will aggregate the data and provide you with both the individual student responses as well as a summary of their responses. In a nutshell that is how Google Forms works.

While I was sitting and working with a special education teacher last week in dawned on me that Google Forms could be a great tool to create an accessible test when paired with a text to speech tool. So what better way to test out my idea but give it a try and so I did. My colleague and I opened up a new form and we created a 3 question test and then published it to the web using Google Forms. Once we were given the URL for the form we opened Cast eReader which is what the schools uses and pasted the Google Forms URL into the browser window. Within seconds the form opened within Cast eReader and all of the questions on the test could be read by the program.

Here is an example of a simple current events quiz that can be created with Google Form. After you have completed the quiz click here to see the results added to the Google Spreadsheet.


When you have completed creating your test you can get the published URL and give that to your students so that they can access the test on the web. Using Kurzweil 3000, WYNN, Cast eReader, TextHelp, ReadOutloud, or NaturalReader you can give the students access to text to speech, making the test totally accessible to them. If you want to try taking the test with one of the aforementioned text to speech applications here is a link to the test on the web. Once your student's complete the quiz you can see their individual responses as well as the aggregated summary on the Google Spreadsheet. Give it a try and let me know how this solution works for your students.

Wednesday, September 10, 2008

Google Presentation Updated

For its 1 year anniversary Google has updated Google Presentation and added a couple of new features in the process. As I use Google Presentation, I realize the value and ease of storing my files in the cloud and have been trying to move my graduate students to experience this new way of computing. I think I'm having an impact and I will know later next month when they all have to do a group presentation. I wonder what percentage will use PowerPoint and what percentage will use Google Presentation. I will let you know. In any case Google has added an Incremental Reveal and has added the ability to Zoom in and Zoom out when editing your presentation. I tried it out and it works well. I know my students will appreciate the incremental reveal which can be accessed by right clicking on the text block. You can also see that there are a number of new presentation

Saturday, April 26, 2008

Inserting a YouTube Video into Your Google Presentation

As I reported it is now possible to embed a YouTube video in your Google Presentation by simply using the Insert Video command and then searching for the video you would like to use. It is best to do your search within YouTube since it will help you to sort out which keywords to use to search for the video you will use. Here is a very simple Google Presentation showing you what a YouTube video looks like when it is embedded in your slide. I embedded a YouTube video that I created showing how you can Hide and Show the Ribbon in MindManager 7. Enjoy!

Friday, April 25, 2008

Google Apps- New Features

I have been a big fan of Google Apps and with each passing day the suite of applications keeps getting better and better. Today Google added two new features which I thought would be of interested to you. Google Presents just added the ability to add Speaker Notes which is certainly a really nice feature. You can access the feature when editing a slide- simply click on the Speaker icon on the bottom right of the slide.


This will open up a window where you can type your notes. With the release of this upgrade we will now have the ability to embed a YouTube video right within a Google Presentation. I'm sure this is going to be a big feature and one that most users will delighted to have. Enjoy the new features and isn't great that all we have to do to access these features is point our browser to Google Apps.

Wednesday, April 9, 2008

Google Presentation Adds Export to PowerPoint

Google announced just yesterday that it is now possible to export your Google presentations to PowerPoint format. Now you can design your presentations in Google Presentation and you are able to save it in a PowerPoint format. Pretty cool!

Saturday, January 26, 2008

Google Updates Presentation

Google quietly added two new features to Google Presentation recently which I wanted to share with you. Now it became easier to share your presentations by allowing you to export your presentations to PDF. This is a good stop gap measure until we get the ability to export our Google Presentations to PowerPoint format (ppt). Google Presentation has also added the ability to add vector based shapes to your presentation. You can now add speech balloons and arrows to your presentations to bring attention to your points. Take a look at the presentation below.


 
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