Software Analysis and Presentation

ASSIGNMENT OUTLINE

SOFTWARE ANALYSIS AND PRESENTATION

EDUC 4434 AND EDUC 4474: Primary/Junior/ Intermediate Curriculum Methods

2010-2011

Due Date: Week of November 22, 2010

Course Value: 15%

Rationale: There are many pieces of educational software that are of value to you as a teacher in the classroom. They have many different formats and purposes. Many programs allow you to plan for effective differentiation. New programs are becoming available to schools each year. For some programs, licensing costs limit their use in the school setting. However, many are available for school use and are funded through the Ontario Ministry of Education.

PROGRAMS FOR SOFTWARE

APPLICABILITY SURVEY

Program Title / Most Appropriate Divisions / Access / Application
Say It Save It and Write Out Loud / P/J and J/I / Dock: Education Programs List: Adaptive Technology / Say It Save It allows the student to use text to speech to read aloud and save it as an MP3 audio file.
Writer Out Loud allows text to speech and can support basic word processing.
EasyBook Deluxe
or The Print Shop / EasyBook Deluxe- P/J
The Print Shop- J/I / Dock; Education Program List: Language Arts and Literacy / EasyBook Deluxe- creates storybooks with words and pictures
The Print Shop – desktop publishing
Geometer’s Sketchpad 4 / J/I / Dock; Education Programs List; Mathematics / Geometry support
Math Trek 1,2,3 and
Math Trek 4,5,6 / P/J / Dock; Education Programs List; Mathematics / Multi-strand Math activities
Music Ace and Music Ace 2 / P/J and J/I / Dock; Education Programs List; Music / Teaches basic music skills
Comic Life / P/J and J/I / Dock; Education Programs List; Multimedia / Allows creation of comic books, storyboards and other visual literacy devices
Kid Pix 4 / P/J / Dock; Education Programs List; Multimedia / Allows the development of creative presentations

Form a study group of between five and six people. Recognize that smaller groups will have more work to do.

Task: Each member of your study group should become familiar with the use and operation of one or more of these educational software programs. All programs must be studied by the group.

During the week of November 15th we will take class time to survey these programs using the MacLab and the person who has delved into each program will teach others in your study group about the scope and operation of your program, during a second class that week.

Provide a brief summary (1 page) of the following aspects of your program in written format for each member of your study group and for the instructor. Use charts for economical summary of information. Provide the copy to group members without your name on it (suitable for each person’s Professional Portfolio). The copy given to the instructor should identify you. In your summary, include:

· Purpose of the program (What will students learn from it?)

· Sub-components/Sub-sections of the program: Outline what each sub-section does (What different parts of the program are available?)

· Operation of the program (How do students move from one area of the program to another?)

· Analysis of the Strengths and Weaknesses of the Software (may be best in a chart summary)

Where possible, use clips from the actual program to illustrate access to some part of it clearly.

Approximately 2 1/2 hours of class time will be allowed for exploration of these programs, including developing a summary of the program. An additional 1.5 hrs of class will be provided for time to explain and demonstrate the program you studied, and others your group members have explored, to peers in the group (about 20 minutes per program). During that time, instructional support from the ITeach office may be available in class to assist you in operating the programs.