Last year, one of my former students was engaged in research for her senior project. (although how she became a senior so fast, I don't know!) She had prepared a questionnaire for this purpose, but it was in printed hard copy, which I found disturbing.
In this day and age, it is ridiculous to be gathering data on paper. First of all, it's terribly inefficient and a waste of resources. People will misplace the form either before they fill it out or after they fill it out. Trying to get the completed forms back to the originator can be a problem as well, and that is all before the data is "crunched" in a spreadsheet, or worse, tabulated by hand.
It's so very easy to create forms online to gather data. I LOVE Google forms, and the different ways I can author and finesse the behavior of the questionnaire is amazing. There are also lots of sites online that allow a student to create simple polls without any sort of account.
This week, my students will be taking a poll called "My Voice" from Pearson Education. I would be willing to bet that my district paid quite a bit for this 50 question survey that I could have put together in less than an hour on Google forms, and I could have customized it... no generic questions.
When my students finish the poll this week, I plan on showing them how they too, can create online forms to collect data. With luck, none of them will be issuing paper questionnaires for their senior projects, or any other data quest that they may need to do in the future. I will have them embed their forms into their blogs. I know they will love this activity and hopefully understand how the tools can be applied in real life.
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