Excel spreadsheets have such a wide variety of uses in the classroom, from a math graph, to a science weather log, to a social studies timeline. Five ways Excel could be incorporated into that classroom are:
1: Students can use Excel to explore order of operations and the effect of parentheses. They can input a mathematical expression, and alter it with parentheses to see how many different answers can be generated. Students can begin by entering an expression into the cell. They can then copy and paste that expression into the cell below. Then they can modify the expression in the formular bar by adding or removing parentheses. Students can later see how many different results they get from the original expression.
2: Students can gather information from their homes as to the number of pieces of technology their family owns - for example telephones, televisions, computers, etc. They can then plot this information into an Excel spreadsheet.
3: Students can use collected data to distinguish what pets they have or would like to have. They can correlate findings with Excel. At the end of the lesson they can tabulate a bar chart and present their findings to the class.
4: Students, working in pairs, can gather information about the cars in their teachers' parking lot. They can determine the total number of cars and the number of each different make/model of car. The students can then use this data to create a graph on Excel.
5: Students cab create a timeline of President Obama's life on Microsoft Excel. In this history lesson, students can research President Obama's life and sequence the important events of his life on a timeline. Students can use Microsoft Excel to create a spreadsheet of information.
Sunday, September 26, 2010
Week 4: Google Docs or Microsoft?
Google Docs and Microsoft Office are both great applications in their own ways. The difference is that Microsoft Office is a more sophisticated software that has many features, while Google Docs is a simpler version of Microsoft Office where the user has the capability to instantly access their documents.
I would recommend Google Docs application over Microsoft word in school for the following reasons. Google Docs is perfect for basic classroom use. It not only enables uploading and saving to desktop, but is accessible for editing anytime from anywhere, it securely store files and best of all it is FREE. If the school’s budget is low, then it would be beneficial for the school to use Google Docs. Google Docs is adequate for straightforward documents, worksheets, note-taking, collaboration and sharing.
There are three types of documents that students can create; text documents- like they would in a word processor, spreadsheets, and presentations. For the formatting options, adjustments can be made to the font and layout, students can insert images, tables, footnotes, and other elements. In addition, there are tools for looking up terms and counting the number of words in a document. One of the many other great feature of Google Docs is they way documents can be shared and exported in various ways. Export formats include Word, PowerPoint, Excel, and PDF. Documents, and entire folders, can be made public and can even be edited by teachers / students who have access to the file, making it easy for students to work together on group projects or share their work with their instructors. Many students today have laptops and move from one computer to another, if they used a program like Google docs, it would enable them to easily access their documents from the school’s computer to their personal computer instantly if they need to make changes or just simply need to add an idea that may have just popped in their head.
Although the spreadsheet part of Google docs isn’t as sophisticated as Microsoft office, students who would use the basic functions will have no problem; on the other hand the more advanced students will find the application exasperating. Microsoft Excel has many different features and options that enables the program to have greater graphing and analyzing capabilities.
In spite of the fact that I think Google Docs should be used in the classroom, there are to some degree where it shouldn’t be used. For example, if there are more advanced students who are writing publication / research quality documents and need sophisticated spreadsheet and other software, Microsoft would be the way to go.
I would recommend Google Docs application over Microsoft word in school for the following reasons. Google Docs is perfect for basic classroom use. It not only enables uploading and saving to desktop, but is accessible for editing anytime from anywhere, it securely store files and best of all it is FREE. If the school’s budget is low, then it would be beneficial for the school to use Google Docs. Google Docs is adequate for straightforward documents, worksheets, note-taking, collaboration and sharing.
There are three types of documents that students can create; text documents- like they would in a word processor, spreadsheets, and presentations. For the formatting options, adjustments can be made to the font and layout, students can insert images, tables, footnotes, and other elements. In addition, there are tools for looking up terms and counting the number of words in a document. One of the many other great feature of Google Docs is they way documents can be shared and exported in various ways. Export formats include Word, PowerPoint, Excel, and PDF. Documents, and entire folders, can be made public and can even be edited by teachers / students who have access to the file, making it easy for students to work together on group projects or share their work with their instructors. Many students today have laptops and move from one computer to another, if they used a program like Google docs, it would enable them to easily access their documents from the school’s computer to their personal computer instantly if they need to make changes or just simply need to add an idea that may have just popped in their head.
Although the spreadsheet part of Google docs isn’t as sophisticated as Microsoft office, students who would use the basic functions will have no problem; on the other hand the more advanced students will find the application exasperating. Microsoft Excel has many different features and options that enables the program to have greater graphing and analyzing capabilities.
In spite of the fact that I think Google Docs should be used in the classroom, there are to some degree where it shouldn’t be used. For example, if there are more advanced students who are writing publication / research quality documents and need sophisticated spreadsheet and other software, Microsoft would be the way to go.
Sunday, September 19, 2010
Week 3- Social Bookmarking :-)
Why didn't I know about social bookmarking sooner? My life would have been so much easier as a student in college. I remember having to manually copy each website I visited ( some of which I couldn't read my own handwriting and had to omit or some sited were just incorrect). It was so frustrating and time consuming. I also bookmarked some sites which ended being a mess because there were too many bookmarks. Whenever I did research at home and went to school- I would sometimes leave my hard copy at home or whatever I bookmarked on my home computer was not accessible in college. So when I was introduced to Social Bookmarking, I was amazed.
What is social bookmarking you might ask? Well, social bookmarking provides a way for students or teachers to save all their links in one place on the internet. These links are saved with one or more tags to help find the site in the future. For example, M. Mslevy found some sites with valuable information about Technology in the classroom and tagged the links. Now, all the websites that she tagged is easily accessible by myself and my fellow classmates; not only can she share these bookmarks with her students but she can share her private collection with the entire community of others interested in Technology in the classroom. The advantage of using social bookmarking is the human collaboration involved in searching. If the teacher or student searches for information on a topic, a social bookmarking site like Delicious provides links to sites that other people also have found valuable. Sharing is what makes social bookmarking so effective. Because some bookmarking allows users to rank the site's usefulness; over time, the quality of a site may be more easily discovered by recommendations from individuals rather than depending on Google which measures the value of a site by the number of visits.
As an educational tool, Social bookmarking can help students to find ways to search for information other than through Google. Students who use social bookmarking will also be less likely to lose links that they have found important. If social bookmarking is used in the classroom, students and teachers can move from one computer to another and still have full access to their bookmarks. Students and teachers will be less likely to forget the location of the sites they have used. Students will be able to share their bookmarks with their classmates. Both students and teachers can also share collections of bookmarks they have found to be worthwhile. Social bookmarking can also help students to quickly find links to important current events and historical events or as a matter of fact any topic of interest.
What is social bookmarking you might ask? Well, social bookmarking provides a way for students or teachers to save all their links in one place on the internet. These links are saved with one or more tags to help find the site in the future. For example, M. Mslevy found some sites with valuable information about Technology in the classroom and tagged the links. Now, all the websites that she tagged is easily accessible by myself and my fellow classmates; not only can she share these bookmarks with her students but she can share her private collection with the entire community of others interested in Technology in the classroom. The advantage of using social bookmarking is the human collaboration involved in searching. If the teacher or student searches for information on a topic, a social bookmarking site like Delicious provides links to sites that other people also have found valuable. Sharing is what makes social bookmarking so effective. Because some bookmarking allows users to rank the site's usefulness; over time, the quality of a site may be more easily discovered by recommendations from individuals rather than depending on Google which measures the value of a site by the number of visits.
As an educational tool, Social bookmarking can help students to find ways to search for information other than through Google. Students who use social bookmarking will also be less likely to lose links that they have found important. If social bookmarking is used in the classroom, students and teachers can move from one computer to another and still have full access to their bookmarks. Students and teachers will be less likely to forget the location of the sites they have used. Students will be able to share their bookmarks with their classmates. Both students and teachers can also share collections of bookmarks they have found to be worthwhile. Social bookmarking can also help students to quickly find links to important current events and historical events or as a matter of fact any topic of interest.
Tuesday, September 14, 2010
Week 2 - Educause Chapters 5-6-7
Today more so than ever technology has evolved in our language. The Net Generation’s world revolves around technology, it is the world in which they live and communicate. I grew up in the Net Generation and am very familiar with the language. Technology is integrated in my personal and academic life in so many ways. I purchase almost everything online, chat with my friends online, check the news, weather, movie times and lottery ticket online, communicate with friends and family online, work online, pay bills online etc. My two children ages 1 and 3 are also members of the Net Generation. My son who is 3 years old knows how to navigate through interactive games and use the mouse. He can go on the computer and choose his favorite game to play. My daughter at 1 year knows how to play baby games on my Ipod Touch. My parents on the other hand, who can barely use the mouse on the computer or send a text message are astonished to see their grandchildren using the computer at such a young age; and how much smarter they are at ages 1 and 3 compared to kids 20 years ago. Whenever I talk about emails or Instant messaging and how I multitask between the television, importing pictures, surfing the net and listening to music, My mom and dad who are Digital Immigrants are clueless- they would rather communicate the way they are used to and do things one at a time. They have cell phones just for emergencies and their camera actually has film that they take to walmart to be developed.
Chapter 5 of Educause is about the Student’s perspective. This chapter is very interesting because it talks about the Net Geners drive to succeed with the plethora of information in the palm of their hands; they feel that they are smarter, easily adaptable, and more likely to use technology to solve problems of the past and present generations. The Net Generation according to Paul Hagner not only posses the skills necessary to use new communication forms, but there is an ever increasing expectation on their part that these new communication paths be used. I agree that the Net Generation is lazy because as stated in the article, students don’t go to the library anymore, they search online; they don’t pick up the dictionary anymore, they go to dictionary.com instead. But with access to so much information at their fingertips anytime, how can anyone not become reliable on technology? I think it is possible that Net Geners can learn about anything by means of technology if they want to learn and if that is how they learn better.
In Chapter 6 of Educause the authors discuss preparing the academy of today for the learner of tomorrow. Generations and technology was discussed for Matures, Baby Boomers, Gen-Xers and the Net Generation. It is interesting how technology has advanced from large vacuum tube radios to tiny MP3, cell phones and PDA’s. Computers are so different now with the advent of digital technology. The reports from the Pew internet and American Life Project show that one in five of today’s college students began using computers between the ages of 5 and 8; by the time they were 16 to 18, all of them used computers. Nationwide, nearly 90 percent of college students have gone online, compared with about 60 percent of the general population. Imagine that, 60% of the general population today use the internet… now I know why Apple, Verizon, Samsung etc. are making so much money inventing and selling new technology every couple of months. The Net Geners are up to date with all the mobile multifunctional devices. Who would have thought that cell phones today could be used for text messages, taking pictures and videos, surfing the net, calling each other and so much more. The Net Generation don’t even have to read directions to figure something that is very complicated, they just fiddle around with it and figure it out, it’s like second nature to them. Students’ behaviors, attitudes and expectations are generally shaped by their generation. Whatever the generation, Baby boomers, Gen-Xers or Net Geners the students believe that excellent instructors can help students learn even with technology; technology is just a very helpful tool in the learning process.
There were some interesting statistical analysis in chapter 7 of Educause. It is no surprise that there is a trend among college students who own (93.4%) some kind of technology and have access to technology. Females tend to own cell phones (84.7%) than males (7.7%). It was fascinating that the Net Generation students actually had mixed feelings about the use of technology in teaching and learning in the classroom. I think that technology in the classroom depends on the individual’s needs and personal experience. Some students may like just taking classes online, while others prefer going to class and having face to face interaction with peers and teachers; and then there are those students would rather have both interaction and technology. I personally prefer going to class and having face to face interaction along with using technology as a tool for better understanding. Since I’ve been out of school for over 10 years, everything is new and exciting to me. I love the fact that we can incorporate technology in every facet of life including language.
Chapter 5 of Educause is about the Student’s perspective. This chapter is very interesting because it talks about the Net Geners drive to succeed with the plethora of information in the palm of their hands; they feel that they are smarter, easily adaptable, and more likely to use technology to solve problems of the past and present generations. The Net Generation according to Paul Hagner not only posses the skills necessary to use new communication forms, but there is an ever increasing expectation on their part that these new communication paths be used. I agree that the Net Generation is lazy because as stated in the article, students don’t go to the library anymore, they search online; they don’t pick up the dictionary anymore, they go to dictionary.com instead. But with access to so much information at their fingertips anytime, how can anyone not become reliable on technology? I think it is possible that Net Geners can learn about anything by means of technology if they want to learn and if that is how they learn better.
In Chapter 6 of Educause the authors discuss preparing the academy of today for the learner of tomorrow. Generations and technology was discussed for Matures, Baby Boomers, Gen-Xers and the Net Generation. It is interesting how technology has advanced from large vacuum tube radios to tiny MP3, cell phones and PDA’s. Computers are so different now with the advent of digital technology. The reports from the Pew internet and American Life Project show that one in five of today’s college students began using computers between the ages of 5 and 8; by the time they were 16 to 18, all of them used computers. Nationwide, nearly 90 percent of college students have gone online, compared with about 60 percent of the general population. Imagine that, 60% of the general population today use the internet… now I know why Apple, Verizon, Samsung etc. are making so much money inventing and selling new technology every couple of months. The Net Geners are up to date with all the mobile multifunctional devices. Who would have thought that cell phones today could be used for text messages, taking pictures and videos, surfing the net, calling each other and so much more. The Net Generation don’t even have to read directions to figure something that is very complicated, they just fiddle around with it and figure it out, it’s like second nature to them. Students’ behaviors, attitudes and expectations are generally shaped by their generation. Whatever the generation, Baby boomers, Gen-Xers or Net Geners the students believe that excellent instructors can help students learn even with technology; technology is just a very helpful tool in the learning process.
There were some interesting statistical analysis in chapter 7 of Educause. It is no surprise that there is a trend among college students who own (93.4%) some kind of technology and have access to technology. Females tend to own cell phones (84.7%) than males (7.7%). It was fascinating that the Net Generation students actually had mixed feelings about the use of technology in teaching and learning in the classroom. I think that technology in the classroom depends on the individual’s needs and personal experience. Some students may like just taking classes online, while others prefer going to class and having face to face interaction with peers and teachers; and then there are those students would rather have both interaction and technology. I personally prefer going to class and having face to face interaction along with using technology as a tool for better understanding. Since I’ve been out of school for over 10 years, everything is new and exciting to me. I love the fact that we can incorporate technology in every facet of life including language.
Sunday, September 12, 2010
Google Docs. Week 2
I think Google Docs is quite an amazing and productive tool that is somewhat like MS Word. There are so many things I learned in class and on my own about it that I find interesting. My computer froze after I copied and paste my lesson plans. I thought I lost everything and was a bit annoyed until I realized that there is auto save in google docs.... YAY, I retrieved everything!! I love the fact that the information saved can be remotely accessed anytime from anywhere. I don't have to attach anything in an email and send it to someone and have them send it back to me, back and forth; information can be shared and edited with feedback instantly. I can just imagine myself as a teacher using google docs and how much easier it would be not to have to fetch students assignments home. I will introduce this application to students as a word processing option regardless of the class I happen to teach. Thanks Michele:-)
Sunday, September 5, 2010
21st Century Digital Learner
In the article 21st Century Digital Learner, while I do agree and think that it is important that the voices of students should be heard because there is without a doubt a technology gap; I don’t believe that kids should have a choice about how they are educated. The student's opinion is very important and valuable but "if you give them an inch they will take a yard". Kids have too many dislikes about school, if it were up to them there would be no homework. Students are in school to be taught what to do and how to do it not the other way around (“the inmates should” not “run the asylum“). Marc stated in the article “Today’s kids hate being talked at. They hate when teaching is simply telling. They hate lectures and tune them out.” I find that amusing because if they hate so many things and think that their teacher is tough, I wonder what it would be like when they get their boss.
There are some teachers who have taught for years and have managed to capture their student's attention beyond expectations by other means other than the computer. Today, with technology in the classroom, dynamic educators can now have more ways to improve their presentation of material, engage students and provide relevant information.
Digital Natives
Our Society has changed the way we communicate and interact with each other on personal and global levels. This is because of advances in technology. Times have changed and I believe that the educational system methods should be tweaked as well. There should be some form of integration of technology. I certainly agree that this generation of new students learn differently. The new students of today as stated in the article Digital Natives are sorrounded by technology like the computer, video games, digital music players, cell phones etc; which as a result alter students thinking patterns and the way they socialize / interact. Not too long ago people actually communicated with each other face to face. Today on the other hand, business transaction can be completed between two parties without anyone ever talking or seeing each other. This is the way of the future and we have to conform to it. Although it would be tough for digital immigrants to change thier methodology to the future language of the digital natives, they (digital immigrants) ultimately have no choice. The point is for students to succeed and be productive members of society in the long run.
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