Sharing key insights about a 7 day rigorous online training sessions going on these days to empower super awesome and fantastic educators in a well renowned education institution in Pakistan i.e. KIPS Education System. In the training session today we explored the various features of Google Forms and how can we use Google Forms to create innovative and interactive teaching and learning practices in schools in Pakistan. We started by exploring the different features of the Google Forms including adding different types of questions, creating a self graded quiz, publishing a form , adding collaborators etc. In the next step we explored how to create branching stories or sections based answer forms in Google Forms. The whole session was conducted online using Google Meet. What made it interesting was the added polls feature in Google Meet. I kept using the polls to check participants understanding regarding the tool they explored. Participants were able to see how section based forms could be used to create adventure stories, revision tasks etc for different subjects. I shared a section based answer quiz created in maths, it was woven like a story, teaching math equations to learners through a cookie recipe. It was very intriguing. Next they tried another adventure story where the participants could weave a different adventure story by selecting the different options.
Imagine how can this tool empower our school leaders and teachers in schools in Pakistan. Every teacher can create a section based answer form to create new stories for their students to revise different topics taught in class, students can also be asked to create these section based answer forms. It is a whole new level of learning taking place in classrooms. This can be a very useful tool for online classes on Friday, where the attendance is low because parents do not value the online lessons at times, and also since they have multiple challenges. What made the session interesting was the participants practicing the tools live while I was demonstrating.
Another interesting experience Id like to share is the session where all school principals and coordinators practiced working on Google Sheets. They were added as collaborators and they were able to create their own sheets, protect their sheets and practice (formulas, functions, filters, data validation, charts) along while I was demonstrating. As a trainer I could check the work participants were doing and also comment on their work as well, and guide along. This too could be very useful in online classrooms. It is a great way to keep the learners active in classrooms.
And the session concluded with participants attempting a Google Form Quiz created in Google Forms using the check box grid type questions. Participants were encouraged to try and practice as much as they could.
As a strong advocate and ambassador for Google I encourage school leaders and teachers to fully utilise the immense potential of Google for Education tools. Google tools for education are not ordinary tools but equipped with features that can transform teaching and learning in classroom in creative and innovative ways.
Sharing more insights soon InnshaaAllah.
Sheeba Ajmal
