Educational technology "needs survey"

Hi,

Time to ask for help!!!!! I'm teaching a few Masters level classes this winter and because the teachers will be quite experienced and come from diverse backgrounds, I'm planning on having them fill in a "needs survey" prior to the course.

I've done this before but on a very general level. I'd love any examples from which to build upon. Have you done one, or completed one, you could share? The basic goal is to get an idea of what curriculum/applications I should present. I want something all 30 students can feel will be helpful.

I'll be making my usual survey using surveymonkey or formdesk (each have their merits).

Thanks in advance,

David
http://eflclassroom.ning.com

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Permalink Reply by greg on August 3, 2008 at 7:25am

Hi David,
I teach graduate classes in technology for my school district. Here are my online syllabi:
syllabi

I hope this helps.
Greg

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Permalink Reply by Peggy Matthews on August 4, 2008 at 8:40am

Nice webpage. What program did you use to create this?

Peggy

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Permalink Reply by ddeubel on August 4, 2008 at 4:24am

Greg,

Super! Always helps to see what others are doing. A great way to grow as a teacher and I'll be sharing my blackboard (will try and get public access of some sort) shortly. Interesting applications you've noted and also projects. Mine won't be so intense project wise. These will be language teachers so I'll be teaching them about some Text to speech applications to foster reading and some games for self and whole class learning. Also, of course, Voicethread.

But I need to do a needs survey because they will all be coming from really diverse backgrounds. Really need to know what their techfficiency is (sorry for my liberal use of language :). So if anyone has a needs survey I can peek at -- much appreciated.

Cheers,

David
http://eflclassroom.ning.com

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Permalink Reply by Connie Weber on August 4, 2008 at 7:39am

Hi David,

I'd love to know some answers to your question, too--thank you for raising it. I could help you design the questions for the survey, but not help you figure out the applications that are most suitable for online surveys. I REALLY want to find one that easy to use. Could it spring off from a forum in a ning, for instance? I think I've seen people do this. If you get a chance to briefly compare surveymonkey and formdesk, that's be great...

Techfficiency, huh? Good word. I need a survey for that for both online and f2f (in five minutes,say) questioning, to assess starting points for presentations. The survey needs to be open and inviting--not scary--and also needs to not talk down to the experts. The instrument should be delicately balanced in tone, not carrying any hidden messages about expectations, just conveying a complete openness to information.

Maybe we can get some pooled knowledge up here. Thanks for a great question.

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Permalink Reply by ddeubel on September 17, 2008 at 1:45am

This is the only one I could find that was "clear headed". So many others were outdated or just very badly organized/written.

Hopefully this will help someone...

DD
http://eflclassroom.ning.com

Example - Educational Tech. Needs Survey - Upload a Document to Scribd