Inspiration and Kidspiration seem to be valuable programs that have many different benefits. I am a visual learner as are many others. The visual nature of these programs helps users to really make connections and understand context rather than just regurgitating surface material. In class Dr. Ransom mentioned a blogger who was concerned with how teachers sometimes under-utilize the capabilities of Inspiration/Kidspiration. I thought this was an interesting concern because, well really because its true. Teachers who are inexperienced with the technology they are using are not going to be good teachers and seldom do they become interested in what they are teaching and how they are doing it. (Thus, the importance of this class! ) What a waste for the students and a shame for the budget. As future teaching professionals we need to remember to stay on top of our game, use what works, what is available to us and use it well! I look forward to our project where we will learn to use Inspiration.
Archive for February, 2008
Spreadsheets…..and M&M’s
First of all Yum, any adult or child for that matter can truly be enticed with candy! When we started the class I was definitely one of those people who envisioned spreadsheets as the uniform chart mathy looking things. But as we learned in class there is more to spreadsheets than boring! A simple task such as sorting M&M’s is fun as well as interactive. This simple in-class experiment really helped me see what I could do with spreadsheets in my elementary classrooms. Not only does a class task such as this help children with math it also assists in developing skills in computer literacy, creativity and depending on how you plan the lesson writing skills as well. Now there is one problem, I am learning many wonderful things but when it comes time, will I use them? I hope so, because I think that computer skills are necessary in the world today. But on the other hand it does take time as well as a bit of creativity to come up with a child friendly project. I guess I really won’t know what I do until it is time for me to teach and manage my own classroom.
What can I do with Word?
Yesterday in class we went over Microsoft Word. In Graduate school, you ask? Yes. And I learned a lot, in about an hour. This knowledge would have made my undergrad projects and presentations more aesthetically pleasing no doubt! I am already envisioning the nifty handouts I could make and creative projects my upper-level classrooms could do. I particularly liked learning how to insert hyperlinks and bookmarks. These will be wonderful tools in familiarizing older children with the Internet. While these aspects of the Word program can make a document more interesting and exciting I am at a loss as how to utilize such programs in the pre-School/ pre-K levels. I don’t see giving handouts to little ones as a good idea, and most schools do not have the technology that could project a computer image for all to see. Any suggestions would be great!
