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As part of module 1 we have to try out a research method and feedback to others on the course. In addition, to satisfy my geekish tendencies, I’ve been trying to use technology to do this. I’ve come across two useful tools which I thought I should share.

I popped into comet to see what they had in the way of dictaphones after talking about recording interviews one Saturday. As I browsed through the options looking for a mac compatible device, it struck me that there must be a way of turning my iPod into a dictaphone. The ‘helpful’ salesman assured me that although this would good be idea, they do not exist - his evidence? They don’t stock it! I wasn’t convinced and went home to see what trusty old google would say. It does exist: the Griffin iTalk pro:

This has a number of advantages over a dictaphone in my view - I now have an audio storage device with a massive memory for much less than the cost of a dictaphone (as I already owned the iPod). Plus, I think it will be much less threatening to the pupils as they are so familiar iPods and the iTalk just looks like the many FM transmitters which slot into iPods.

The second tool I’ve come across is Free Online Surveys.

I wanted to try out a questionnaire with my pupils, but didn’t really want to spend our budget (or the planet’s resources!) photocopying lots of printed questionnaires. So I tried out this useful website to create an online version of my questionnaire (you can have a look at it here). It’s so easy to use and allows 50 responses per 10 days per survey - you can simply make copies of your surveys if you need more responses though. On the free version it only gives you a webpage summary, but these could easily be transferred across to excel manually.

It would be so fantastic if schools subscribed to a site such as this. It would allow quick and easy feedback from staff, pupils and parents which would be easy to analyse - and best of all, it would not involve reams and reams of photocopying!

One last thing, for our third module 1 Saturday we had to read up on one research method and feedback. I was assigned questionnaires and my group seemed to like what I’d produced so I’ve uploaded it onto a fantastic website I’ve found recently - scribd.com

Click on the image to have a look:

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