Wednesday, May 25, 2011

Spreadsheets in the classroom!

I don't like spreadsheets. I admit it. I find them intimidating. I use them when I have to for budgeting and finances, but I don't like them. (I know that I said that before!) I do like how they make some of my work easier, but I've never really learned how to use them. I know how to plug numbers in to pre-formatted cells like I do for my budget, but I don't really know all that spreadsheets can do. I have learned how to format and create functions, but I don't use them enough to remember from one time to the next, so I find that every time I use a spreadsheet, I have to learn all over again. This is frustrating. This being said, I was pleasantly surprised by this weeks assignments. It never would have occurred to me to use a spreadsheet for a recipe, but it was slick. The lesson that I found was interesting too. Although the basic use for the spreadsheet was fairly predictable, I liked the thinking that was incorporated into the process. The students were really being asked to evaluate and analyze the information that they had inputted. Then they had to speculate about how the numbers would change if they changed certain statistics, etc. and how they would be able to use this information.

I'm not sure that I will ever come to love spreadsheets, but maybe if I continue to work at it, I can learn to peacefully coexist and accept that spreadsheets might have more to offer than I had once believed.

Thursday, May 19, 2011

On-line life

As an LMS I was aware of most of the searching techniques that we discussed in class and the google game, but I hadn't looked at many other search engines. I'm as bad as the kids, I just resort to google because it's familiar. I did find a number of different search engines that were specific for education, and would be great to use with my students. The one I really liked is www.infotopia.info. I have already suggested it to a few teachers, they all loved it, and I put a link to it on my library home page. I need to spend some more time working with this. We have specialized databases that we encourage students to use, this would just be another good step to take.

I was also familiar with google docs as an on-line word processing tool. I like the idea of collaborating on a document and having it available wherever you are. There is nothing more frustrating than getting home and realizing that I saved an important project to my server folder instead of my computer documents and therefore I can't access it from home. However, people have a habit of using what is convenient and familiar which, in this case, is usually Microsoft Word. Again, I am also guilty. As on-line programs become more sophisticated I think people will use them more and more. The one drawback for using these programs with kids is that our students don't have a school e-mail account provided to them so that they often can't create an account. Our new technology coordinator seems to be in favor of this in the future, so maybe there is hope.

Sunday, May 15, 2011

Using Productivity Tools - Graphic and Presentation Programs

This week we worked of Graphic and Presentation Programs. I was excited to look at some programs that I was unfamiliar with. I liked the variety of the programs, some of them required little or no skill, and others would be great for some of my more artistic students. I used Pixton for my graphic because it doesn't require much skill, but has many more options that make your comic look more professional. I am a huge comic fan, and love looking for opportunities to use them in the classroom. I find that comics can help students really narrow down the topic to focus on the really important points. They need to be concise and specific in their word choice to make them effective.

The presentation program that I used was less impressive. Although I like the idea of being able to access a presentation from anywhere, I felt like Empressr did not have enough of the features that I use to make a presentation effective. I have used slideshare often, not to create my own presentations yet, but to view those that others have posted to the web.

I have to say that I am not particularly fond of the textbook at this point. I am finding that it is difficult to follow with all of the sidebars. I was reading the first chapter via the posted pdf since my book had not yet arrived and it was a nightmare to get through. Another frustration is that most of the links are no longer active. I know that this is an issue with the rate of change on the internet, but it is still frustrating to see a site that looks like it might be worthwhile, only to find that it no longer exists.