Max's Sandbox (now Max's Toolbox)
When reading chapter 4 in out textbook, I was very excited about the little sidebar concerning Max's Sandbox. It is a tool to help younger students and students with special needs use Microsoft Word, Excel, and Power Point applications. Several comments in the lesson plan critiques mentioned concern about the ability of younger students to use the specified technology to complete the learning activities. This tool is a great solution!! Even when teaching older students, there are often children in the classroom who are fuinctioning far below grade level and are mainstreamed in for science and social studies. This would allow them to participate!!
So, I got online to do some research on my own. I learned that Max's Sandbox was developed and tested by an Australian company, eWord. The developers worked closely with early childhood educators to make sure that the software would be suitable for use with kindegarden and early elementary students and children with special needs. The program includes children's templates for producing documents and presentations, sound recording capabilities, and a talking bird that helps even non-readers create projects.
After all this, I was so eager to actually see the product!! I found a place where you were supposed to be able to download a free trial, but it wouldn't work!! I was so frustrated!! I went around the internet looking for a way in, but just couldn't find it. Finally, I went back to the company web page and found an email address. I decided to use an affordance of the internet, and sent an email asking for help. After corresponding with a representative of the company, I learned that the name had been changed to Max's Toolbox, but was still available. (I copied the reply below.) Anyway, for anyone who wants to take a look, the address is www.maxstoolbox.com. The site also has lesson ideas for teaching students how to use the software. I look forward to using this tool in my classroom to help make technology available to all students!!
An extra note of thanks to David Howell from eWord. He responded to my email quickly and graciously!
Hi Sonja,
Thank you for your enquiry about Max’s Sandbox. Max’s Sandbox was actually upgraded to Max’s Toolbox a few years ago! You can get to the site here: www.maxstoolbox.com
www.maxssandbox.com was supposed to go to the same site, but it wasn’t working! Thank you for bringing that to our attention. We’ve fixed that now.
You can download a trial version that works with Office 2000+ from the site above.
If you have any problems or questions, please email me.
Cheers,
David.
Friday, October 10, 2008
October 10 Post
Teaching with Word Processing, Spreadsheet, and Database Software
Because it is used by teachers and students across all subject areas, word processing software is the most commonly used productivity tool. Affordances of word processing include saving time for both teachers and students, enhancing the appearance of documents and reports, and ease in sharing and editing documents in collaborative work. I learned a new way to use word processing to aid instruction in writing. One activity in the book was called "Using Color". It involves having the students hilight things like topic sentences, supporting details, and conclusion sentences when writing. It could also be used to teach the elements of poetry (alliteration, similies, etc). Teachers could ask students to compose poems with these elements and hilight or use a different font to show where they occur.
Spreadsheets are most often used for math demonstrations and teaching business education concepts , but they can be used as a part of science and social studies investigations as well. A new affordance of spreadsheet software I learned is that it increases student motivation to work with math, thereby solving the instructional problem of students finding math boring. Instructional strategies discussed include using spreadsheets to do a demonstration of numerical concepts, to enhance student reports and presentations, to help students focus on mathematical problem solving by doing the number operations and allowing students to focus on higher-level concepts, to sort and analyze data, and to motivate student effort by teaching them how to project grades.
Databases are used more for teacher productivity, but students can use them to find relationships among pieces of information that they might not otherwise be able to perceive. I had never thought about using databases in instruction, but the textbook gave several ideas which interest me very much. The first suggested activity was to have students create a database of information pertaining to U.S. Presidents. It would include information like party affiliation, prior leadership experience, state of birth, and the number of states in the U.S. at the time. The students could then use the database to find answer to questions like the number of years each party was in power and the how the U.S. grew. Another great database activity idea was collecting information from the tombstones of a cemetary. Then the students could answer questions about life spans during various time periods, infant mortality, family size, etc. I will definitely try to find more ways to use databases and data mining in the classroom!!
Because it is used by teachers and students across all subject areas, word processing software is the most commonly used productivity tool. Affordances of word processing include saving time for both teachers and students, enhancing the appearance of documents and reports, and ease in sharing and editing documents in collaborative work. I learned a new way to use word processing to aid instruction in writing. One activity in the book was called "Using Color". It involves having the students hilight things like topic sentences, supporting details, and conclusion sentences when writing. It could also be used to teach the elements of poetry (alliteration, similies, etc). Teachers could ask students to compose poems with these elements and hilight or use a different font to show where they occur.
Spreadsheets are most often used for math demonstrations and teaching business education concepts , but they can be used as a part of science and social studies investigations as well. A new affordance of spreadsheet software I learned is that it increases student motivation to work with math, thereby solving the instructional problem of students finding math boring. Instructional strategies discussed include using spreadsheets to do a demonstration of numerical concepts, to enhance student reports and presentations, to help students focus on mathematical problem solving by doing the number operations and allowing students to focus on higher-level concepts, to sort and analyze data, and to motivate student effort by teaching them how to project grades.
Databases are used more for teacher productivity, but students can use them to find relationships among pieces of information that they might not otherwise be able to perceive. I had never thought about using databases in instruction, but the textbook gave several ideas which interest me very much. The first suggested activity was to have students create a database of information pertaining to U.S. Presidents. It would include information like party affiliation, prior leadership experience, state of birth, and the number of states in the U.S. at the time. The students could then use the database to find answer to questions like the number of years each party was in power and the how the U.S. grew. Another great database activity idea was collecting information from the tombstones of a cemetary. Then the students could answer questions about life spans during various time periods, infant mortality, family size, etc. I will definitely try to find more ways to use databases and data mining in the classroom!!
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