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!!