Plant a Question… Grow an “Answer Garden”
Need a digital scribble space? Then be sure to experiment with AnswerGarden, a web-based polling/survey tool that allows users to create and publish a question. Once visitors submit answers, they are immediately displayed as tags in a basic word cloud. Data can also be exported to Wordle or Tagxedo to create a more visually appealing word cloud. What’s more—a QR code is generated for each AnswerGarden. How cool is that?
AnswerGardens can even be embedded into web sites, wikis, blogs and/or social networks. Just create a question, include the embed code on your site and there you have it—a growing tag cloud right on your page!
In order to determine what technology project this year’s Language Arts students enjoyed the most, I utilized an AnswerGarden. The results are embedded below:
FYI: A typical AnswerGarden is displayed in black and white. However, colors and border style can be customized by altering the HTML in the embed code. Check out how to do so here.
The same results—but exported to Wordle.
More results—this time from Tagxedo.
Classroom Connection:
With AnswerGarden, creative brainstorming and collecting feedback has never been easier! In addition to surveys and polls, this “cool tool” can be used to establish the knowledge level of a class regarding a certain concept. It also can be used as a fun and interactive assessment, icebreaker, parking lot and/or exit ticket.
The automatic creation of a tag cloud is an awesome feature—one that can be used as a visual to generate further discussions about a particular topic. The ability to create QR codes linked to feedback as well as having the capability to export data from AnswerGarden to other Web 2.0 tools makes this a very dynamic resource!