(1) General Software Review. In this activity you will be reviewing software that you would find useful in your roll as a teacher. Note, this is a review of software, not websites. Websites can be used only if they have a high level of interactivity and animation such as those at ExploreLearning.com. Although we have software on our local servers, much of it is antiquated, and students are best served by downloading freeware and shareware. Review five or more pieces of educational software. You are free to choose any piece of software that is of value either for instructional, administrative, or professional purposes. You must have hands-on experience with the software... watching someone's software review is not sufficient. Write a paragraph describing each program and your professional opinion of its usefulness in education. At least one of your titles should be freeware or shareware that you have downloaded from the Internet. Include a screen capture from the software. Choose the best one from among these 5 for the formal software review/presentation. 1 Title Sketchpad4 Review The geometric sketchpad is useful for teachers who want to teach their math classes shapes, theories, and measurements. Students can discover on their own the theories as they use this program as well. After students make shapes on the sketchpad, they can measure them using the calculator feature. The teacher can use this from his/her computer in front of the classroom, or students can follow along with their teacher if they are in the computer lab, for example. Screen Capture 1
2 This website provides information, including videos of different subjects. Students can open the website and search for specific information about most subjects. This program is useful for teachers who want their students to watch videos about the unit they are learning. The history tab, for example, includes videos from units such as civil rights to people such as George Washington. This can also be helpful for students in the computer lab to simultaneously watch the videos or look through by themselves. 3 BrainPop Sheppard Software This software is available so that students can play games based on their content area. There are also quizzes, coloring pages, and puzzles. Depending on the subject, there are different activities students can find on this website. The point of this educational software is to make it fun for the students. Students can access it from home, or the teacher can take the students to the computer lab and allow them to explore things in their subject matter. Shareware 2
Name: Jessica De Bruin This website provides videos under such categories as American History and Military History. This is for history students to teach them about specific topics. The teacher can download the videos and show them in class or have students watch them on their own computers from home. It is useful to students who want to research a specific historical topic or are interested in American History. History.com 4 Google Earth 5 This program is appropriate for those wanting to show students geography of a specific area. By typing in an address or street, the map will take you to that specific area showing the satellite view. Although not updated for several years, it is thoroughly accurate and streets are recognizable. The program not only shows aerial views from space but also street views, directions, weather, and 3-D buildings. Educators can use this program to research specific regions or find any point on earth. (2) Formal Software Review. In this activity you will be reviewing software that you would find useful in your roll as a teacher. Note: this is a review of software, not websites. Websites can be used only if they have a high level of interactivity and animation such as those at ExploreLearning.com. Although we have software on our local servers, much of it is antiquated, and students are best served by downloading freeware and shareware. Select one software product for formal review and presentation to the class. Write reviews for each according to the format guidelines provided on the following page. Post your selection. Title: Sheppard Software (1) Description of Program: This program is useful for any subject. The site includes educational games, quizzes, printable pages, and activities for kids. The user can choose which subject they want to learn and choose the level of difficulty they want to play. 3
(2) Basic Information This program is intended for students to work on individually. There are a lot of fun games and activities students can find on this site. Depending on what they want to learn about, this site separates each game into categories by subject. (3) Target Population The target population is Elementary and Middle School aged. High school students would not find this website useful to them. There are a lot of graphics and games intended for a younger audience. (4) Content Goals The history unit includes games such as President s Names and Painting the Harlem Renaissance pictures. There are a lot of Geography games, intended for students to refresh on their current knowledge of Countries, Capitals, and U.S. States. (5) Process Goals The students should log on to the website at: SheppardSoftware.com and click on the subject they want to learn about. The ones that would pertain to my classes would be USA, World, or History. From there, students need to choose which activity or game they want to play and can get started without downloading anything to their computer. (6) Lesson Plan The teacher could set up students in the computer lab with this site and let them explore the different games in certain content area. She could also hook the site up on her computer and let the class guess the correct answers, projected on the board. If the teacher wants the students to understand the Geography of a place that the students are learning about in class, she could assign a game for homework and have the students print out their results for homework. (7) Summary This website is useful to my curriculum only if I want students to have prior knowledge of something before I begin a certain Unit. It is intended for students below High School level. I would probably use it for its Geography section and assign a game for homework. The activities look interesting and the graphics are done well. There are different levels of difficulty that the student can choose from as soon as they start to get comfortable with the material. There are also tutorials before games and activities to start them out with. (3) Formal Presentation of Software: One or two sessions will be scheduled for formal software review. During these sessions you will present your software in small groups or to the class using network sharing software such as Apple Remote Desktop. Once you have decided on software to review, post your decision on the newsgroup as specified in class or on the web-page. First-come, first-served. 4
Make a presentation of your software using the following guidelines. Each presentation must be limited to 15 minutes. Your presentations should stress how this software can be used effectively in the curriculum. Do not spend time discussing mechanics (menu structure, etc.) nor shortcomings Illustrate how the software can be used to enhance instruction. Provide your peers with a "hands-on experiences" lesson if at all possible.. 5