Name:
June 16, 2005
(1) General Software Review. In this activity you will be reviewing software that you
would find useful in your role 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.
Title

Review
Screen Capture
Moon Phases gizmo:
Swivel the moon’s rotation around the earth, in
relation to the sun, to understand why and when we
can view certain portions of the moon. This would
be a practical approach to teaching students about
elliptical planetary rotation through an interactive
program to see how the moon moves. This would
also be a good way to help students understand why
we measure months in around 30 days.
Golf Range gizmo:
This aspect of the software program was, again, a
cool visual, but lacked aspects that would have
made it more useful for a student studying the
elearning
Explore
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Name:
June 16, 2005
effect of gravity, and vertical and horizontal vectors
on the motion of objects. Teachers could use it to
introduce students to how gravity is a force that not
only keeps our feet planted on the ground, but is a
force that pulls objects down consistently, while
the object’s velocity and angle are the
differentiating components to time in the air. My
complaints were that students couldn’t follow the
path of the golf ball and identify height, and time,
at a certain point along the arc.
Navigation
Maps
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This software lacked a very easy interface, and I
found it more frustrating than useful. The software
program seemed old, although the last update was
in 2003. The purpose of Pirate’s Gold was that you
had to identify the coordinates of latitude and
longitude on a map to help a diver find treasure.
After receiving the coordinates, you had to click on
the map, and it would pop up a window where you
could place a crossbones on the map, but I had
trouble dropping my mark, and it then had too few
directions on what to do next. Teachers could use
this software to help students familiarize
themselves with longitudes and latitudes in a way
that was somewhat entertaining for its use of
pirates and gold.
&
inspiration
2
This software is a great instructional tool for
teachers needing templates for graphs, outlines and
graphic organizers. I used this to complete some
lesson plans that I wanted to first brainstorm
through and then convert to outlines for lectures.
The software is also very useful for students, as it
provides excellent chart and organizational tools,
such as bubble graphs, and outlines. Teachers could
have students use this software for any writing
based project, where the student has to create an
outline, or brainstorm writing ideas for topics that
would become more comprehensible through
graphic organizers. It has a 30 day free trial, and
then costs somewhere between 50-100 dollars.
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Name:
June 16, 2005
This freeware could be very useful for teachers to
assign to help students prepare for some formal
assessment. Students could easily download the
software for free, and then take the quiz to see how
well they are prepared on Constitution questions
before they have to come and take the real test.
You could select the number of questions and most
of them were relevant to articles of the constitution
which I worked on with my 8th grade class. If you
got an incorrect answer, a pop-up window would
pop up and tell you the correct answer, so students
would receive instant affirmation of their progress.
Quizzer
I created a puzzle on western expansion and could
insert all of the words that students had heard
during a lecture.
Discovery
puzzlemaker
5
Problems could come from the fact that some of
the questions were arbitrary, and also would require
the teacher to teach to the topics included in the
software, which is a problem with all kinds of tests
that include multiple choice type assessments.
This was a great piece of software for creating
puzzles for students. The kind of thing that would
be very useful for having useful puzzles for post –
exam time and homework activities that kids
generally would enjoy. I often need something to
give the students to do after they take a quiz or test,
and this software would make it easy to create
relevant puzzles to the exams.
Constitution
US
4
(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.
3
Name:
June 16, 2005

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:
(1) Description of Program
Inspiration Software: This software is a great instructional tool for teachers needing
templates for graphs, outlines and graphic organizers. I used this to complete some lesson
plans that I wanted to first brainstorm through and then convert to outlines for lectures.
The software is also very useful for students, as it provides excellent chart and
organizational tools, such as bubble graphs, and outlines. Teachers could have students
use this software for any writing based project, where the student has to create an outline,
or brainstorm writing ideas for topics that would become more comprehensible through
graphic organizers.
(2) Basic Information (a) Inspiration Software, Inc.(b) Inspiration seemed to be its own
publisher (c) Cost: for Inspiration grades 6-12, the cost is $69.00 (d __X_commercial
(3) Target Population
(a) Is this designed for teachers or students to use ? The software is technically for
students to use, but as a teacher, I also found the software quite useful for setting up
lecture outlines, and graphic organizer templates for students to use when taking notes.
(b) If students, in what subject and at what grade level ? The software is designed for any
subject that would require some form of writing or organizing thoughts and topics. The
grade level that I reviewed was 6-12.
(c) Where would this best fit into the curriculum? Ideally, this would work really well for
middle school students who are starting to be challenged with organizing thoughts and
ideas for writing papers. Any history topics could incorporate this software for outline
creating in test preparation, or timeline arrangement. The program also has useful graphic
tools and easy transition from outline forms to bubbles, maps, or charts.
(d) Would this software maintain the interest of this population? Explain. Honestly,
students would like the usability of the program, and how simple it is to get your thoughts
down in a brainstorming process. Whether the population would be enthused about the
software would depend on how much they are struggling in organizing themselves and
how interested they are in making changes to their academic habits.
(4) Content Goals
(a) What, if any, concept(s) does this program introduce? The concept of drawing links
between topics, and how those links can be translated into a literal graphic or outline
arrangement, which should help them process the information in similar tactics of
organization.
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Name:
June 16, 2005
(b) How effective of a job does it do at teaching these concepts? The program inherently
teaches this concept because of its simplicity in setting up charts and graphs.
(c) Compare with traditional techniques for teaching this concept(s). (What, if anything,
does this software accomplish that traditional forms of instruction could not do as
effectively. Explain) The superiority of this program over alternatives is the computer
interface and ease by which students can convert brainstorming sessions into
comprehensive outlines. This would be tough to replicate in the class for note-taking, and
would be asking a lot for students who are slow in writing to create first a brainstorm
bubble graph and then an outline based in it.
(5) Process Goals
(a) What type(s) of reasoning does this program encourage (rote memorization,
comprehension, application, analysis, synthesis, evaluation, deduction, induction, etc.)?
The reasoning encouraged would have to be application and synthesis, through concept
connections.
(6) Lesson Plan.
Write three specific tasks, questions, goals, or projects that you would have your students
accomplish or answer after using this software.
-before writing your paper, brainstorm everything you know about your topic and insert
them into bubbles through inspiration.
-after you’ve identified how the concepts link up, convert to an outline, and write topic
sentences for each heading
-in preparation for the exam coming up, type each chapter heading into a bubble, and then
write the key words underneath. Bring this in outline form to work with another student
tomorrow for in class test review.
(7) Summary.
Assuming that you had access to this software, would you use it in your classroom?
Explain why or why not
I would definitely use this software in the classroom, and primarily to help students
become more organized with the content they were working through. I would use the
bubbles to brainstorm and collect their thoughts on a topic, and then show how easy it is
to convert to outline, which could then be used for prepping for tests. If I had this
programs, I could then structure exams in a similar fashion, and students would be tested
in the same manner that they were learning.
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