Google Moderator Michael McVey Educational Media & Technology

Simple  open up a page for people to ask questions or share ideas  Anytime / Anywhere

Vote  for  for questions they think are the most important or  against  against questions that they don’t find too valuable

Insight  As questions are voted on, they move up on the page, letting you, the moderator, know what the group thinks are the most important questions.

Action  You can go in and answer the question right on the page or  ask a follow up question to guide thinking or get clarification.

You need...  a Google account  And a clear vision of how you are organizing your questions and ideas

Get it 

Create a series Think of a series as a “unit”. You can have a number of different question pages inside a series, but it keeps those pages organized inside the series.

Invite Fill out the information on the series creation page such as who you are inviting to it (you can invite later, too) whether they are asking questions or sharing ideas whether you can submit questions anonymously.

Share  Click on the “Share” button  share that link with your students.

Students  go to that shared webpage,  log in to Google, and  click the “Submit Question” button to ask a question or click on the voting buttons to vote for or against a posted question.

Examples  In a Sex Education class  “My students avoid the walk of shame in asking questions about sex and sexuality.”

In the White House 

Always On  You can have it up throughout the semester so as students come across questions, they can ask them through that page which can become a class FAQ of sorts.

Idea Generation  Moderator could also be a simple tool for brainstorming project ideas or research topics, with students entering suggestions on the page and the groups voting on what they like most

Out of the Classroom  have a Google Moderator session with students throughout the week  You answer replies as the week goes on, but cover important questions in class  You also make time at the end of the week to review the Moderator page.

Discussion  This could also serve as a simple discussion forum in your class, with students taking on the role of adding comments and helping each other answer questions.

Questions  Encourage students to post questions from their assignments.  Classmates can agree or disagree with the questions to help the instructor teacher know which problems to focus on the next day.

 Create a list of hypotheses for a science experiment and allow students to vote on which they think is the best.

 Give students an interview project and allow them to work in Google Moderator to define which are the best questions to ask.