Ask SETSIG: Create a Form to Help Visitors Get Their Questions Answered
by Dave Edyburn, SETSIG President
SETSIG has sponsored a playgound at the annual NECC conference since 2004. While this all-day event is a great deal of work, our officers and members enjoy the opportunity to help playground visitors explore technology solutions students with disabilities and other struggling students. We often bring many examples of specialized technologies so that visitors can see and touch the possibilities. We also gather CDs and catalogs to create goody-bags to give away.
One thing that always happens is that our visitors pose questions we can not answer with the resources we have at our fingertips at the playground. This year we decided to plan for this situation. Our solution was to create an online form that we called, Ask SETSIG. You can virtually visit our 2009 UDL Playground and view our Ask SETSIG inqury form at the bottom of the page: http://setsig.iste.wikispaces.net/UDL+Playground
The form was a valuable resource at the playgound. Anytime a person had a question that required a follow-up response our volunteers directed them to the Ask SETSIG online form to enter their name, email, address, and summarize the nature of their question. When we returned home from NECC, we had all the questions in one place for our officers to respond. This strategy really helped us fill a gap in our playground planning.
Within the month following NECC, we’ve had a number of visitors to our wiki use the Ask SETSIG form to submit questions about our SIG and about special education technology. As a result, we have decided that Ask SETSIG is a valuable tool for anyone visiting our wiki and will continue to be a core feature of wiki. We have modified the form to have each form submitted distributed to three of our officers simultaneously. This way, we can be assured that each inquiry will receive a timely response.
Since ISTE does not have a form management tool as part of the existing web and wiki support, your SIG can make your own “Ask Me” form using Google Docs. Basically, you simply go into the Google Spreadsheet, select create a Form, enter questions and responses much like you would in Survey Monkey, and save the document when you are finished. Here are two links that offer how-to guidance to help you create your first online form/survey:
Creating Forms
http://docs.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=87809
Quick and Easy Forms With Google Docs
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YxYZKkusg-Y
Please feel free to contact me (edyburn@uwm.edu) if you would like any assistance in setting up an inquiry form for your SIG. We hope other SIGs will find this strategy useful for opening up new communication opportunities with their members.
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