Weird Richard News Update

Sent Date

03-09-02

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TECHNOLOGICAL LITERACY UPDATE

A weekly newsletter for families and educators committed to
building brighter futures for kids in a technology-rich society.
THIS WEEK: More on Classroom Integration Strategies!!

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TECHNOLOGICAL LITERACY THIS WEEK

This is the second week in our series on integrating technology
into the classroom. As you know, we are constantly facing the
challenge of teaching math, reading, history, science, and other
critical subjects while still finding time to introduce
technology. Here's the next installment on how to integrate
technical tools with the content you're already teaching!

THE BIG THREE Part 2 (Students Ages 8 and Older)

Remember that we want to first incorporate the tools that our
students will be using all their life. These become "enabling
technologies" that will actually help them acquire other
technical skills more easily. These "enabling technologies are
not anything mysterious -- they are the software you probably
use every day: 1) word processors; 2) spreadsheets; and
3) presentation packages.

Important Note: If you are working with younger students (K-2),
your primary focus needs to be on basic computer literacy skills
including basic computer components, basic operating system
functions, and basic keyboarding. These foundation skills need
to be in place first! A planned future series will introduce
activities designed for K-2 students so stay tuned!

SPREADSHEET SOFTWARE

Spreadsheet software such as Microsoft Excel or Sun's Star
Office provides remarkable functionality for tracking data,
generating graphs, and calculating formulas for all types of
applications. Students should all be familiar with the concepts
of how spreadsheets are designed, what are rows and columns, and
how the spreadsheet software can actually make their life
easier. Since they have so many practical uses in the real
world, integrating them into your classroom activities in the
areas of science, math, and other subjects is actually a snap!

TRY THIS IN YOUR CLASS OR HOME THIS WEEK!

Spreadsheet use can be integrated naturally into a variety of
activities and can be a great tool for helping students to
organize data they might be collecting for a report, or a more
sophisticated activity that actually requires them to
generate a graph of some sort. Take a look at the following
activity to get you started. This can be modified as necessary
if you have many computers available to you. The following
assumes you have only one computer to work with.

1) Begin with an introduction to the concept of data and
attributes. A good data sample can be generated focusing on
basic human attributes such as gender, hair color, eye color,
ethnicity, etc.

2) Identify the attributes you wish to track in the classroom,
then enter them into a spreadsheet. Ideally you will have a
method of projecting your viewscreen so that all the students
can visualize how the spreadsheet can assist in organizing data.

3) The next step, after you have created the attributes, and
collected the data in the classroom, is to generate several
graphs and pie charts that visually illustrate the data
collected. This can be very exciting as students see how
quickly and easily data can be organized and displayed.

4) After your introduction to spreadsheets, begin to work
towards a natural integration strategy that requires your
students to use the tool often. Good examples of uses abound
on the Internet and range from cataloguing and graphing civil
war battles to general science applications. Do a quick search
on Google sometime using the key phrase "spreadsheets in the
classroom" and you will be amazed!

NEXT WEEK MORE ON INTEGRATION STRATEGIES!!

We hope that this week's newsletter has been useful to you in
your educational pursuits. In the coming weeks we will continue
this series on integration strategies that can help merge your
current lessons with technological applications. Together, we
can build a brighter future for students around the world by
preparing them to use technology as naturally as they use a
pencil and paper!

Until next week!

Technological Literacy Update

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