And the winner is…

I’m getting ready to head to wine country for a little vacation but before I go, wanted to wrap up some contests, announce a winner, and announce another iLearn Technology give away.

Thank you to all who entered the iLearn Technology Starrmatica classroom giveaway. I was overwhelmed with comments, tweets, Facebook comments on my fan page and people filling out this survey.  I can’t thank you enough!  I put all of the entries into a spread sheet and then used Random Number Generator to choose the winner.  The winner is…

Congratulations Deb!

For those of you who entered the Grade Trac contest, thank you so much!  I will announce those winners when I am back from vacation.

In the mean time I have another stupendous give away (I am full of them lately…lucky you guys!).  I have ten 100 survey2go credits to give away!

First a little about Survey2Go.  As I mentioned in the Grade Trac post, although we would all LOVE to be paperless, that just isn’t the case for most of us yet.  Survey2Go bridges the gap by offering the convenience of the paper we are already using, and the online automation of organizing the data.

Survey2Go provides:

Easy Survey Creation

• Easy copy/edit features to build new surveys from existing ones.
• Visual interface makes it easy to select and modify your custom survey format on a question by question basis.
• Upload pictures to include in your questions and answers.

Uses Standard Office Technology

• Use your office scanner/copier; no special special scanner required.
• No software to install or manage; you just need an Internet browser.

Fast, Accurate Results

• In most cases, results are ready for your review the next day or sooner.
• Automatic response evaluation for all multiple choice questions.
• Easy, fast, consistent process for summarizing write-in questions of any size.
• A variety of survey result reports and tools to meet your needs.
• Trend reports across same surveys

I can’t tell you how many stories I hear of technology being used for weeks at a time for surveys.  This means that while student surveys are being conducted, no one else can use the technology for *ahem* learning.  Anyone else see the problem here?  Why are we using technology for throw-away tasks like student surveys when authentic learning opportunities could be happening?  Silly!  Survey2Go is a great solution, the survey still gets completed, the results are automated, and the computer lab stays open for learning.   Not only does Survey2Go offer the ability to take a paper survey and automate it, you can have a school survey where half of the students use paper and half of the students access it online.  Regardless of how students (or teachers, or parents) take the survey, the results are all automated and organized in the same space. Brilliant!

So, can we all agree not to occupy our technology with surveys when we could be using it for authentic, hands-on learning experiences and creation instead?  Survey2Go is a great way to free up technology for meaningful tasks while still collecting necessary data.

If you or your school is interested in Survey2Go, leave me a comment about it below.  On April 15th (2011) I will announce 10 winners.  Be sure to use an actual email address in the comment form so I can get in touch with you.