Weekly Reflection #6 EDTL230.2008.M008

This was an interesting week in EDTL; our main focus was administrative software and how educators can utilize it in the classroom. Okay, well maybe it wasn’t an interesting week, but it was quite informative. Administrative software, along with academic software, falls under the category of educational software. Administrative software helps teachers manage and complete tasks, other than actual teaching, that are associated with their profession. Academic software assists both teachers and students in the teaching and learning process. I’m very familiar with most of the software that was mentioned in the chapter and by the TRIO group. In my future classroom I’ll definitely be integrating this basic software into my lessons. I think I’ll have the students send me weekly journals via e-mail. I’ll just make it a few sentences telling me how they’re doing and what (if anything) they don’t understand. Everyone will send the document in .doc format, which is a standard form that any word-processor can open. I’ll also create a few PowerPoint presentations for extension activities. I’ve also thought of a great final project for a class of Calculus students that would integrate all of this software. In groups of no more than three, students would take one chapter of the book, and create a three-part presentation to re-educate the class on these topics. I would schedule a lab-day (assuming we have a computer lab) where I would instruct students on how to use these program in both Windows and Mac operating systems. They would create a PowerPoint to accompany their explanation of the chapter’s topics, a Word document that would accompany a short activity related to the chapter, and an Excel grading rubric for me (which would have to include certain criteria that I would explain). I would have the students work on these presentations throughout the semester and present them at the end of the year as a reminder before the students leave for college.