Educational Software
Todd Loxley
Beth Calvo
Stacie Williams
Matt Wojcinski
04 March 2008
04 March 2008
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Educational Software
For
Educators
Todd Loxley
04 March 2008
2
What Kind of Special
Needs?
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Lesson Plans
Tips for the Proficiency Test
Journaling and Documentation Tools
Guides for selecting age appropriate
material
• Discounts that may be available
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Lesson Plans
• Compares your lessons with state and local
benchmarks and standards
• Review your lessons by class and by day
• Provides search option to look for key words or
subjects
• Allows you to copy and paste from one lesson to
another
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Guides for Proficiency Tests
• Gives insight of test format
• Does NOT say what will be on test
• Explains rational of how the test is set up
• Guides the educator in the general direction
or manner in which to prepare students
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Journaling and
Documentation
• Creates an easily used tool that educators need to
record day to day activities.
• Today's world requires teachers to reflect back on
their work and performance
• Helps set goals and create plans
• Extremely useful when recording observations
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Finding Age Appropriate
Material
• Great for new teachers that need assistance
of how to present material
• Is this material a key topic in previous or later
grades?
• Do state and local districts have any
restrictions?
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Discounts
• Bargains that educators are entitled to,
but maybe not aware of.
• Show availability of them online and
also locally
• Could include class materials and
beyond.
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Other Things to Consider
• Will the software play nice with your operating
system?
• What are the licensing and cost issues?
• Is there on line help available for your specific
software?
• Is there any special training needs for you?
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• This Software basically helps teachers
do their job better.
• It caters to the special needs of both
new and seasoned educators.
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Special Needs Software
Beth Calvo
04 March 2008
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What is Special Needs
Software?
• Software specifically designed to
address the needs of learners with
special needs as the result of a variety
of physical or learning impairments
04 March 2008
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What Type of Special
Needs?
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Autism
Learning Disabilities
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Reading disability
Writing disability
Nonverbal learning
disability
Disorder of speaking &
listening
Auditory processing
04 March 2008
– Dyslexia
– ADD or ADHD
– Down’s Syndrome
• Physical Disabilities
– Blindness or visual
impairment
– Hearing impairment
– Multiple Sclerosis
– Cerebral Palsy
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What Does This Software
Do?
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Reads words/letters displayed on screen
Enlarges text
Changes speech into text
Displays sounds for hearing impaired
Facilitates interaction with computers
Presents material in multi-sensory formats
Helps student participate in social
communication and recreational activities
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Websites to Check Out
• www.ehow.com/how
• http://specialchildren.about.com
• www.cec.sped.org
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Educational Software for
Different Subject Areas
Stacie Williams
04 March 2008
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Educational Software for Art
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Flying Colors 2 -integrated clip art and drawing program.
Golly Gee Blocks - 3D kids program.
KidPix - popular children's art program by Broderbund.
Origami - a group of programs that teaches the ancient art of
paper folding. There are 6 different programs available, each
with their own theme. Learn to fold boats, animals, characters,
flowers, clothing, party items, boxes, or objects by ordering the
corresponding themes.
• Tux Paint - free drawing program designed for young children
(kids ages 3and up). It has a simple, easy-to-use interface, fun
sound effects, and a cartoon mascot who helps you along
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Educational Software for
Math
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Amath Systems publishes foundation level math skills software.
Includes a K-4 math skills title and a pre-algebra title.
Arithmetic CD - contains over 1700 basic arithmetic lessons for
Kindergarten through 8th grade level students. All of the lessons have
an explanation, interactive practice, and challenge games.
Enriched Math - designed to get your students talking about math.
Each of the 15 modules begins with an activity to introduce a math
concept through a strategic game with inherent math content or through
a challenge that can be solved using onscreen manipulatives. When
students are ready, they move on to the Brainteasers - a series of word
problems designed to stimulate discussion and learning. These
Brainteasers introduce new strategies and help students synthesize the
ideas introduced in the initial activity.
FUNdamentallyMATH - CD-ROM for K-12 students. Helps teach
subjects ranging from basic math to geometry to trigonometry to matrix
algebra.
Mathville - series of K-10 math CD-ROMs.
04 March 2008
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Educational Software for
Science
• AIMSTAR Information Solutions publishes a life science multimedia CDROM for children, an essentials science
title, and more.
• Tom Snyder Productions - variety of
science software for grades 2-8.
• Frog Guts Virtual Dissection- actually
dissect a frog.
04 March 2008
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Educational Software for
Music
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Music Ace-series of children's music learning software. Includes Music
Ace, Music Ace 2, and Music Ace Starter.
Music Games International - music game software. Includes a title
based on Tchaikovsky's Nutcracker.
PBJ Music - games cleverly disguise the drill and practice of
elementary through intermediate music theory concepts.
Pianomouse.com - publishes a CD-ROM on music theory
fundamentals and an introduction to the Great Composers title.
Recorder Teacher - helps teach soprano recorder. Combines state-ofthe-art animated graphics, CD quality music and speech, and rapid
response to form a sophisticated, interactive multi-media application.
Town 4 Kids - publishes a multimedia music learning system designed
for music beginners, a computer-based tutoring system designed to
teach music literacy, and a computer administrated curriculum that
teaches one to recognize, read and transcribe chords and master the
aural and symbolic techniques of harmonization.
04 March 2008
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Educational Software for
Social Studies
• Decision Development Corporation - offers a CD-ROM on
human pre-history through the fall of the Roman Empire, and
another which contains a complete K-5 social studies
curriculum.
• Pentewa Interactive - programs on international arts for K-8.
Covers Chinese, Mexican, and Native American cultures.
• Rainbow Educational Media - publishes software on Native
Americans for grades K-8. Also offers math products.
• River Deep - parent company of the Learning Company,
Broderbund, and Edmark among others. Links to respective
brand's social studies software.
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• http://www.educational-softwaredirectory.net/
04 March 2008
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Research Software for
Students
Matt Wojcinski
04 March 2008
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Grammar Slammer
• Grammar Slammer Deluxe with
checkers has a complete English
grammar and spelling reference
integrated with its own Grammar and
Spelling checker.
• It received 5-stars, or an equivalent
from twenty eight different reviewers.
04 March 2008
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EndNote
• Organizes references, images, PDFs and
other files in a library.
• It creates a bibliography as you write your
paper. Including references for images and
any charts and graphs you add to you paper.
• It works in conjunction with several different
word processors.
• You can also choose from over 2,800
different formatting standards depending on
what the paper is for.
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RefWorks
• Great for upper High School and College
aged students.
• Online research, writing and collaboration
management tool.
• Designed to help students easily gather,
manage, store information, as well as
generate citations and bibliographies.
• Online program that most colleges and
universities use, including the University of
Akron.
• www.refworks.com
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Any Questions?
Any Comments?
Or
Snide Remarks?
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