About AnswerGarden
AnswerGarden is a minimalistic feedback tool. Use it in the classroom as an educational tool or at work as a creative brainstorming tool. Or you can embed it on your website or blog to use it as a poll or guestbook.
How does AnswerGarden work?
You create an AnswerGarden by entering a topic on the Create New AnswerGarden-page. Then you'll be redirected to your newly created AnswerGarden. Since no-one has posted an answer yet, your AnswerGarden will still be empty. The next step is to share your AnswerGarden. Use it live in the classroom, at a meeting or a conference. Or place (embed) your AnswerGarden on your blog, site or social network page, using the provided embed code. Or post a direct link to your AnswerGarden on fora or email it to friends. As your AnswerGarden draws attention people will start posting their answers to your question, either by entering their own answers or by clicking on and submitting existing answers. These are then represented in your AnswerGarden in the form of a growing word cloud.
Who is AnswerGarden intended for?
AnswerGarden is for anyone interested in using an easy and powerful way to get feedback from a group. AnswerGarden is used by teachers to establish the knowledge level of a class on a certain topic. It is used at conferences and workshops to break the ice with the audience in a fun and interactive fashion. AnswerGarden is used by creative teams for digital brainstorming sessions. People who maintain websites and blogs use it to poll their visitors in a brief and to-the-point matter.
How much does it cost?
AnswerGarden is free!
Do I need a login?
Nope.
We do recommend you to supply a password, so you can edit the AnswerGarden contents later on.
How do I create an AnswerGarden?
Simply write a topic in field on the Create New AnswerGarden-page and then press the "Create"-button. If you want, you can provide a password for your garden so you can edit it later. Press the link called More Options under the Topic-field. Here you can also specify if you want to turn on the Unlimited Answering option. Your AnswerGarden is then created and ready for use!
How can I use an AnswerGarden on my website or blog?
First create an AnswerGarden (see above). Then copy the embed code underneath the AnswerGarden (click the Share-link first). Paste this code in your website to include the AnswerGarden. AnswerGardens are a happy alternative for polls and comment-systems on your website. The benefit of an AnswerGarden is that it limits the sometimes awfully long rants of commenting users while still keeping the expression lost in polls!
Do you have an example of a nicely growing AnswerGarden?
Yes, visit the garden Macro Photography is....
Can I see an embedded AnswerGarden?
Yes, have a look at this page about a transparent bass.
How often can I answer in an AnswerGarden?
This depends on the AnswerGarden. Each garden features a setting called 'Unlimited Answering'. If selected, users can submit as many answers as they like. You could use this for instance for brainstorming purposes. Otherwise, you can submit an answer to that garden once a day. If you create a new AnswerGarden and are not sure which setting to choose, leave it unchecked. But we suggest you do provide a password so you can change it later.
Password? Do I really have to provide a password when I create a new AnswerGarden?
No, you don't need to provide a password when creating a new AnswerGarden. The benefit of providing a password, however, is that it allows you to edit your AnswerGarden later. For instance if you want to toggle Unlimited Answering, if you want to edit the Topic-text or if you want to remove one or more answers from your garden.
I'm a teacher. How can I prevent bullying and foul language?
You can't. As with many Web 2.0 tools you're depending on user input, and some users choose to give unwanted input (simple reason being: because they can!). Yet, if you supply an admin password when you create an AnswerGarden, you can delete these unwanted answers. We're working on some kind of smart general filter for foul language, based on the words have been deleted in the past. We also reworked the way AnswerGarden accepts similar answers by one user (computer).
We're teachers as well and we've noticed that you can play a hand in preventing 'childish' reactions: mentioning your students that you want serious answers (not childish reactions) often can be enough...after all, it's a new way of learning for them as well! Mostly they do not really want to offend anyone but there's a chance one in the classroom might try to post a joke because it's possible. Moderating the answers on another computer might be useful.
Why is my answer not visible?
Only the most frequently entered words are visible. What you see is an interpolation of the opinions. In other words: if a garden is growing nicely, all not-so-very-important answers will be hidden. At the moment, 40 tags are visible per garden in embedded gardens and the gardens on our site, see for example this garden. But in Full View (accessible through Options), 100 tags will be visible, as you can see in this example.
Where can I see the frequency of an answer?
To see the frequency of an answer simply hold you mouse cursor over an answer and after a second a number will emerge, showing you the number of times the answer has been submitted.
Can I customize the look of embedded gardens?
Yes, but some hacking of color codes is necessary. You can also use the customization tool (see the link below the embed code in the options panel). Use the third embed code field in the Share panel below an AnswerGarden on AnswerGarden.ch. For a demonstration, visit AnswerGarden.ch/customize.
Now that my students have filled in the AnswerGarden, how can I make a poster for print?
You could export the data to Wordle or Tagxedo. These applications make graphically beautiful (static!) tag clouds. You find these export functions in the options-panel below your garden. See for example the image links below:
Why does AnswerGarden have a .ch domain extension?
Although .ch is the Internet country code for Switzerland, on this site the extension is used to refer to CreativeHeroes, the creators of AnswerGarden. We do have other domain extensions, but believe Swiss gardens are the purest.
Is AnswerGarden a beta product?
We haven't released AnswerGarden as a beta, but we ARE working on improvement and new features. Streamlining the customization of custom embedded gardens is high on our feature list as well as some other features. As many other human beings, we have to prioritize...
I have a problem with my AnswerGarden!
Please make sure you are running the latest version of Flash. If you keep having problems, please visit our Support Forum.
Where can I submit feature requests or report bugs?
Submit bugs or feature requests in the Support Forum.
Hey, I see you added a full mode, but it doesn't work on my blog or website.
Yes, that's right! In June 2010 we added a fullscreen mode to Flash AnswerGarden. In order to enable fullscreen mode to work, you need to update the embedcode. Grab it from the AnswerGarden embed field below your AnswerGarden or add the following arguments to the embedcode (if you're a PRO).
<param name="allowFullScreen" value="true" />
And remember to add it to the second declaration in the Flash code between the other arguments:
(wmode="opaque") allowFullScreen="true" (scale="exactfit")
If you're not sure what this means but you do want the fullscreen mode to work, go to the view page of your AnswerGarden and and grab the new embed code.
Why can't I see the AnswerGarden content on Mac OSX with Firefox 3.5? It works with Safari and Chrome...
This happens when your AnswerGarden loads in an inactive tab in Firefox. It took us hours to find out, and we accuse Growl, an application that lets "Mac OS X applications unintrusively tell you when things happen." Apparently, Growl, Firefox, tab focus and OSX are not a good combination. Enfin, solution-wise there are three options:
1: Load the garden in an active tab or press rrrefresh (F5).
2: Disable Growl support for Firefox.
3: Send a complaint-email to the makers of Growl, Firefox and Flash. This is not an AnswerGarden bug, this seems to be a Flash player-Growl-Firefox on OSX bug. [Added 16 Feb 2010].
I hate Flash. Is there a HTML alternative for AnswerGarden?
First: we're sorry to hear that you hate Flash. It's always better to love than to hate, so perhaps it's good to search for professional help in the near future. Concerning the HTML alternative: yes, we're working on this.
YES, we were working on this. Have a look in the options pane below your AnswerGarden. See an example. This version is accessible for the Adobe-anxious-apparatus such as iPhone and iPad. Also use the HTML version for Nokia phone browsers, as Flash isn't well-implemented on these phones.
What software do you use?
The HTML-view uses a modified version of jQCloud Plugin for jQuery by DukeLeNoir.
I'm Google. Could you describe AnswerGarden with 31 tags?
Yeah. Of course we can: web2.0, brainstorming, tools, collaboration, classroom, workshop, poll, feedback, survey, cloud, free, technology, polls, answergarden, online, blog, answer, resources, tagcloud, embed, answers, tool, polling, questions, comments, surveys, blogs, widgets, fun, brainstorm, forms.
Who are you?
We are Creative Heroes. We create things. Follow Us on Twitter for updates on AnswerGarden.
