Although I have had a good deal of experience using spreadsheets I had never explored the formula functions. I have used them mainly for recording and organizing basic data (student textbook numbers, assignment tracking, etc.). With more knowledge of the formula function I may be able to expand my use of the tool. There are also several places that I could potentially integrate spreadsheets into my teaching. In my geography class the students work with a lot of demographic and statistical data and spreadsheets would be a good way for students to organize and sort the data that they research.
It was interesting to discuss the ways that districts evaluate software. In my district I believe that it would be beneficial for technology coordinators and administrators to seek more staff input. There are not any specified procedures for teachers to do this. Districts should have a policy and procedures for software and give teachers and opportunity to test out and provide feedback before decisions are made. My district has spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on software that many teachers feel is unnecessary and teachers were not given the opportunity to evaluate the software before purchase. Giving staff more input would be better and more efficient for my and other districts.
Thursday, May 26, 2011
Thursday, May 19, 2011
Online Word Processing Evolving
Online word processing is a tool that I believe will soon be the dominant factor in the word processing market. With the emergence of programs such as Google Docs there have been several competitors and even the well-know Microsoft Word is starting to follow suit and offer the popular collaborative function and saving documents to the cloud.
I have used online word processing for several different reasons. At school I have implemented it in some of my classes and experienced great success. Students have worked collaboratively on documents and I felt it has created a true "collaborative" experience. It seems like there is more engagement and participation from all group members. It has also allowed greater access to the documents. A problem that I have had in the past with access is that our school computers have Microsoft Word 2007 as the primary word processor. Not all students have access to Word and on top of that, documents saved on the school server are only available on school computers. This limits access in a world that is becoming more and more about unlimited access. The combination of these factors has led me to encourage students to use online word processing and next year I plan on making it mandatory on some assignments.
The downside of these programs is that I still do not think they are as user friendly or have the same capabilities of Microsoft Word. I have stated the same thing about online presentation programs compared to Power Point. While they have come a long way many of the graphics functions in Word are not yet present in the online programs. For basic word processing and formatting the online programs are more than adequate but still need to catch up with other features. I predict that within a couple of years more and more of those functions will be included in online word processors, which will help them catch up to Word.
I have used online word processing for several different reasons. At school I have implemented it in some of my classes and experienced great success. Students have worked collaboratively on documents and I felt it has created a true "collaborative" experience. It seems like there is more engagement and participation from all group members. It has also allowed greater access to the documents. A problem that I have had in the past with access is that our school computers have Microsoft Word 2007 as the primary word processor. Not all students have access to Word and on top of that, documents saved on the school server are only available on school computers. This limits access in a world that is becoming more and more about unlimited access. The combination of these factors has led me to encourage students to use online word processing and next year I plan on making it mandatory on some assignments.
The downside of these programs is that I still do not think they are as user friendly or have the same capabilities of Microsoft Word. I have stated the same thing about online presentation programs compared to Power Point. While they have come a long way many of the graphics functions in Word are not yet present in the online programs. For basic word processing and formatting the online programs are more than adequate but still need to catch up with other features. I predict that within a couple of years more and more of those functions will be included in online word processors, which will help them catch up to Word.
Sunday, May 15, 2011
Tech Tools Entry One
My early review of the class is positive. I am very happy to be learning some material that is directly applicable to education and my classroom. Although I enjoyed the last couple of classes, a lot of the lessons were not completely applicable to teaching. Thus far much of the material covered has led me to improve my teaching skills and I am excited to continue gaining more things I can bring into the classroom.
I found the "Death by Power Point" slideshow very thought provoking. As a frequent Power Point user it is somewhat surprising to learn that I have not been using the most effective methods and techniques. It actually has inspired me to do a lot more research on mistakes made on presentations. One of the most interesting was a slideshow about Steve Jobs and his presentation skills. Although he presents in the business world, the lessons apply in education:During the last week I have spent some time remaking many of my presentations and feel like I am a significantly better presenter already.
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