Google Spreadsheets for Special Ed Data Collection

Use a data collection spreadsheet to create graphs and charts for special education students.

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Closed Caption:

today we're going to look at how to use
google spreadsheets in order to collect
special add data so the first thing
you're going to need to do is log into
your Google Drive account and i'm going
to click the Create button to create a
new spreadsheet a spreadsheet is just
like an Excel spreadsheet
it's going to be used to collect data
it's set up in rows and columns with
different cells along the way you'll
first want to rename your document by
clicking on the untitled spreadsheet
button and renaming it
I then need to have some row headers so
that i can easily find and organize my
information
so I'm going to use the word date data
teacher and notes in this circumstance
you can do all of the formatting with
the centering and coloring if you'd like
but for right now all we need to do is
write in our headers
the next thing you're going to need to
do is start to collect your data
so you'll need to set up your
spreadsheet however you're going to like
to collect this data
remember that if you do want to create
graphs and charts
you will need to collect numerical data
so for instance if you're tracking
something that's a yes no answer
you'll need to give it a numerical value
like one for yes and 0 for no a chart
will only be able to read these
numerical values so i'll put in the date
for today which is 915 you'll notice
that it auto fills with the year and
other information
the nice part about a spreadsheet is
that I can do some things like add in
multiple dates ahead of time
now the nice part is is that day I track
something every two days or I track
something every Thursday
I could start a pattern like 925 9 27 9
29
i can highlight those and grab the
little blue dot in the corner of my
selection drag it down and it will
continue that pattern of every two days
that I'm tracking you could do that with
every Thursday of a week you just need
to put the first couple thursdays and
then it will follow that pattern the
data can then be added in any numerical
value so maybe I'm going to do
eighty percent accuracy
the next day maybe they have
seventy-five percent accuracy then they
got up to ninety percent accuracy
so I'm going to just add in some other
information here just so we have some
information to track now the nice part
about this is is you can get a spread
sheet set up and ready to go for your
entire quarter or semester or year by
filling all of your date information in
and then you'll track your data as you
go if you did use this as a shared data
collection sheet
you may want to input information like
your last name so the people in your
shared collaborative group know who's
tracking the data you can also add notes
you can change row length and width by
dragging on the edges of each column
so you can really format this and make
it is pretty or as simple as you like
so what I'm going to do now is look at
how to create a chart and graph based on
the data that I've just put in
now I'm eventually going to want all of
this tract
so what I did was I grabbed onto one
cell i moved my mouse around the entire
section that i will eventually like to
be tracked
i'm going to click the insert menu
and choose chart the nice part about
Google Spreadsheets it will
automatically try to decide what's the
best type of model or visual for the
selection that you have chosen
so what i can do is i can do some
customizing here with the information
that's already available or I can click
on the charts tab and specify that i'd
only like a line chart or I'd like a
line chart with more of a curvature
maybe I need a column chart for the type
of data that I have gathered you can
always customize using the customize tab
and you can add things like chart title
you can change fonts you can make the
different columns and bars different
colors when you're ready though you're
going to click insert
it's going to insert in a graph that you
can move around your document
now you'll notice that as I continue to
add more information into my spreadsheet
it will continue to update and a new bar
will be added so i'll add 75 so fresh
and a new bar again will be added so
it's nice because it will be continually
updating it will always have that
information for you
so this is google spreadsheets and just
the basics if you did decide that you
didn't want to have this as a
collaborative document between your
specialized team
you can use the share button and share
with anybody within our district or even
outside of our district if this is
something that you needed to share with
parents so again this is google
spreadsheets for special edit data
collection
if you need more information please talk
to your instructional coach