7-19-2010 What we learned in class

Today in class we learned about different software applications and how they can be useful in the classroom. There are many different programs that can be useful in business, schools, and in homes and personal business. Application software that might be useful in the classroom is word for notetaking and gradebook software. For home and personal use, word can be used for legal documents and excel for budgeting and taxes. The most widley used group of application software is for communication. Outlook can be used for email and chat programs such as yahoo messenger and AIM can be used to instatly chat with someone. We loked at Kidspiration which is a software application for K-5 students. It supports EEl and ESL students by using strategies such as pictures of concepts and sight vocabulary. These types of software programs give students more opportunities to grasp new concepts. We disscussed WIKIs and went over our blogs that we have been working on. Wikis can be useful in the classroom because they allow a group to colloborate with others on one document.
We looked at googledoc which is an online program that saves time and effort on group projects. A project can be put on googledoc and everyone can make corrections or add material right to the website. This is a good program for working together in a group on a project; wish I had known about it earlier because it would have saved me lots of time and energy!
Application software can be used in the classroom to make learning fun, engage the students, and help students master a concept!