Chapter 5: Teaching with Software Tools: Beyond the Basic Programs

Introduction to Other Software Support Tools
Why Use Software Support Tools?

* The basic three that is the most widely used software support tools are: word processing, spreadsheet, and database programs. However, many other software tools are available to support teachers' and students' work. These tools vary greatly in their purposes, the kinds of benefits they offer, and their utility for teachers.

* Each software tool described in this chapter has unique and powerful features, but each requires additional classroom resources and time to learn and to implement. Teachers should choose them for the qualities and benefits they bring to the classroom, rather than simply because they are available.

Types of Software Support tools
* Materials generators - help teachers and students produce instructional materials.
* Data collection and analysis tools - help teachers collect and organize information that indicates student progress.
* Graphics tools - allow manipulation of images to illusrate documents and web pages.
* Planning and organizing tools - help teachers and students conceptualize, organize, and communicate thier ideas.
* Research and reference tools - let students look up information in electronic versions of encyclopedias, altases, and dictionaries.
* Content-area tools - support teaching and learning activities in various content areas.

Recent Developments in Software Support Tools
* Most of the following recent developments have made these tools even more useful in the classroom.

PDA tools - (Personal Digital Assistant, handheld computer) This portable format increases accessibility and flexibility of use for both teachers and students.

Web-connectivity features - This makes it easier to connect documents to web page resources that embellish or add to the document's content.

Software suites - One of the most popular of the software tool suites is desktop publishing software, which is being packaged with graphic software tools that work well with it and allow faster, more full-featured design of print or web pages.

Using Materials Generators
* Materials generators include desktop publishing software, test generators and rubic generators, worksheet and puzzle generators, IEP generators, graphic document makers, and PDF and forms makers.

Desktop Publishing Software
Definitions: Desktop publishing versus desktop publishing software.

* It is perhaps ironic that one of the most useful and widely of the technology tools is one that communicates information in a traditional medium: the printed page.

* This control over the form and appearance of the printed page is the defining quality of desktop publishing, a term coined in 1984 by Paul Brainerd, founder of the Aldus Corporation, to mean using a combination of software, microcomputers, and printers to allow individuals to be their own publishers.

* The more advanced layout features offered by desktop publishing software (e.g., elaborate layering of text and graphics elements) are needed only if the teacher is teaching students how to design and lay out large, complex documents such as newspapers and books.

Making the most of desktop publishing software: Skills and resources.

* Like other technology tools, desktop publishing is most effective if the user knows something about the activity before applying the tool.

* However, even with this in mind, teachers and students need not be professional designers to create useful desktop publishing products, and their skills will improve with practice.

Example classroom applications.
* Desktop publishing software can be used for many of the same classroom activities and products as word processing software.

* Desktop publishing is the tool of choice, however, to produce elaborate, graphic-oriented documents (e.g. flyers and posters, brochures, newletters and magazines, and books and booklets), and teachers can structure some highly motivating classroom projects around these products.

Practice in grammar, spelling, and communication
Methods of reporting research findings
Opportunities for creative work

Test Generators and Rubic Generators

* Software tools help teachers with what many consider one of the most onerous and time-consuming instructional tasks: producing tests and other assessments.

* Test generators - to create and enter questions, and then have the program prepare the test.

* Test creation and revision procedures - software produces tests in a standard layout
* Random generation of questions - test items are selected randomly from an item pool to create different versions.
* Selection of questions based on criteria - Programs usually allow teachers to specify criteria for generating a test.
* Answer keys - most programs automatically provide an answer key at the time the test is generated.
* Test item banks - many test generators allow use of existing question pools, or test item banks, and some offer these banks for purchase in various content areas.

Online rubic generators.

* The popularity of rubrics has grown to such an extent that several internet sites offer free rubric generators.

Worksheet and puzzle generators

* Worksheet generators help teachers produce exercises for practice rather than tests.

Puzzle generators automatically format and create crosswords, word search puzzles, and similar game-like activities.

Common uses of worksheet and puzzle generators include:
* Practice for lower level skills such as math facts.
* Cloze exercises (fill-in-the-blank comprehension checks), and
* Exercises to review words and definitions.

Individualized Education Program (IEP)
* Education is placing increasing emphasis on school and teacher accountability.
* Some IEP generation programs also accept data updates on each student's progress, thus helping teachers with required record keeping as well as IEP preparation.

Graphic Document Makers
* Graphic Document Makers are software tools that simplify the activity of making highly graphic materials such as awards certificates and greeting cards.

PDF and Forms Makers
Portable Document Format (PDF) file software was created by the Adobe company to permit viewing and sending of documents as images.

Formatting even the simplest form can be time consuming on a word processor.

Using Data Collection and Analysis Tools
* Data collection and analysis tools inculde electronic gradebooks, statistical packages, student information systems, online and computere-based testing systems, and student response systems.

Electronic Gradebooks
* An electronic gradebook (electronic grade-keeping) program allows a teacher to enter student names, test/assignment names, data from tests, and weighting information for specific test scores.

* Some gradebooks even offer limited-purpose word processing capabilities to enter notes about tests.

Statistical Packages
* Statistical Software Packages can also help with qualitative data collection and analysis of student performance of tests.

Statistical software packages perform the calculations involved in any of these kinds of procedures.

Student Information Systems
* Student Information systems (SIS) are networked software systems that help educators keep track of student, class and school data (e.g. attendance, test scores) to maintain records and support decision making.

* Computer-Managed Instruction (CMI) systems, such as the Teaching Information Processing System (TIPS) and the Program for Learning in Accordance with Needs (PLAN), ran on large, mainframe computers and were designed to support teachers in these efforts.

Computer-Based Testing Systems
* With testing systems, tests can also be shorter, since the software assesses each person's ability level with fever questions.

Student Response Systems
* Are a combination of handheld hardware and software that permit each student in the classroom to answer a question stimultaneously and permit the teacher to see and display a summary of results immediately.

Using Graphic Tools
* Graphic Tools include draw/paint programs; image editing tools; charting/graphing tools; and clip art, photo, animation, sound, video, and font collections.

Lesson Planning Software
* Most teachers do not rely heavily on written lesson plans to guide their teaching activities.

Schedulaing and Time Management Tools
* Several kinds of tools have been designed to help teachers organize their time and plan their activities.

* Schedule makers help formulate plans for daily, weekly, or monthly sequences of appointments and events.

Using Research and Reference Tools
Research and reference tools include electronic versions of the following tools: encylopedias, atlases and mapping tools, and dictionaries and thesauruses.

Using Tools to Support Specific Content Areas
Content-area tools include CAD systems; music tools such as music editors, sequences, and MIDI tools; reading tools; microcomputer-based labs, graphing calculators, and calculator-based labs; and Geographic Information Systems and the Global Positioning System.