Exploring the Uses of the 3 Basic Softwares in a Classroom

There are many tools at a teacher’s disposal to be used to enhance their teaching. In this day and age technology has opened up a whole new realm of tools for teachers to use. The basic software tool suite, as discussed in chapter 4 of Integrating Educational Technology into Teaching by Doering and Roblyer, has become for teacher, “a indispensable part of their daily work” (Doering & Roblyer, 2013 p. 112).  With these programs being so widely used it’s important as educators we learn to use these software both properly and effectively.

Word processing Software

Word processing offers versatility and flexibility with no particular instructional approach, which is why is has become, “The most commonly used software in education” (Doering & Roblyer, 2013 p. 116). Word processing software saves time by producing documents quickly and making them easy to modify (p. 116). This software would be ideal to use to create documents you might reuse every year, because they would be easily modified every year to fit your new needs. It allows students to write more, and gives them he opportunity to revise their work while they write (p. 119). We  as educators can use word processing for handouts, creating tests, newsletters, or many other documents.

Spreadsheet Software

Spreadsheet software are programs, “designed to organize and manipulate numerical data” (Doering & Roblyer, 2013 p. 122). There are many practical uses for educators to use this software for grading, budgets or other chart like documents. This software keeps data organized and easily manipulated.  It is also the perfect software for “What if” scenarios, like how a budget could be spent or what a students grade outcome could be (p. 126). Allowing students to view their grades can encourage them to take responsibility for setting goals and achieving them (p.126). In my opinion this software is the least student friendly of the three, but it hold lots of benefits for teacher use.

Presentation Software

Presentation software is the most visual of the three softwares and is used to, “support speaker,” not replace them (Doering & Robyler, 2013 p. 128). The software allows time for teachers to think through how they want particular lessons presented. This is also an extremely useful tool for students to collaborate on projects. This tool shouldn’t be used as an entire lesion, it is used to improve a lesion discussion not replace it.

Classroom Use

I can definitely see uses for all three of the basic softwares in my art classroom. I will have specific uses for presentation software. I can create presentations for each project where I can show all together the technique of the project, an artist that relates to that technique, and demonstrate how the assignment could be carried out. It would also be a good tool for students to present brainstorming or research before starting an art project. Below is a video from The Virtual Instructor's youtube page which is a good example of how you could condense a lesson into a presentation video.

References Used: 

Roblyer, M.D., and Aaron H. Doering. Integrating Educational Technology Into Teaching. 6^th ed.

Boston: Pearson. 2013. Print.

Positive and Negative Space. (n.d.). Retrieved January 29, 2015, from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q3Wx8vDsXuI