Something Old, Something New (but nothing borrowed or blue, since this isn't a wedding)

In looking through the various media production tools proposed for Challenge 3, I saw Google Docs on the list, which I have used quite a bit for the past year or so. I find it especially useful for creating forms that automatically feed data into spreadsheets, both for instructional activities and library administration tasks. Here are a few examples:

• Floorplan, existing schedules, and reservation form for using space in the media center
  (while the page that this links to is not a Google Docs creation itself, most of the links lead to Google Docs products)
• "Suggestion Box" form for requesting items we don't own
• A student interest survey I use at the beginning of the year to generate sample topics for research activities throughout the school year
• One of the practice quizzes created for our Battle of the Books team last year
• The online ballot that eligible 3rd-5th graders used to vote for last year's NCCBA
  

Still, I figured the purpose of this project was to use something new and different, so I decided to go with Voki to create a nifty welcoming avatar or two. The first one I created was for this blog, but there seems to be some technical problem with plugging it in on the sidebar of this page, where I really wanted it. So here it is, just embedded in this post for now:



I did however successfully create and implement a second one, in the form of our school mascot, on Pearsontown's Destiny homepage. I'll be interested to see how many of the kids notice it when school starts in a couple of weeks.