C. Activities

Part 1: Think About It

1. Complete the KWH portions only of a KWHL chart/map/diagram (What I Know, What I Wonder, How I Am Going to Learn It, and What I Learned) regarding software for education. Use the following guiding questions to help you, if necessary:

– what software exists on your school computers?
– who decides how it gets there?
– what are some categories of software?
– what are some software titles that I have used in the past term with my students?
– what software are using for your KWHL chart/map/diagram?

Post your KWHL chart/map/diagram in our online discussion space.

KWHL Resources:
http://langwitches.org/blog/2011/07/21/upgrade-your-kwl-chart-to-the-21st-century/
http://www.readwritethink.org/classroom-resources/printouts/chart-a-30226.html
http://www.enchantedlearning.com/graphicorganizers/KWHL/

Part 2: Exploration, Discovery, and Evaluation

Ever wonder how software gets on your school’s computers, why, and who makes the decisions?

Did you know there are hundreds of Ministry licensed software and web titles for Ontario teachers?

This means free for you and your students. Every K-12 publicly funded teacher’s first stop for software information should be OSAPAC or the Ontario Software Acquisition Program Advisory Committee.

The OSAPAC executive committee takes care of vendor proposals and purchasing province wide licensing based on the needs of Ontario educators. At the board level, the decisions of what software to install on board owned computers may be made by a committee of representatives considering a number of factors – each board is unique. Every board has an OSAPAC representative who helps to distribute software and receives licencing information. Updates are available for all Ontario teachers at the OSAPAC website. More and more software are going to web-based tools, meaning access is web-based or online without having to install programs. Some titles do require the actual CD or DVD for installation and an install key for activation (a code often consisting of a series of letters and numbers). Many of the titles are available for teachers’ home use for lesson preparation purposes. Some titles are even available for student use.

Exploration time – Spend some time checking out OSAPAC  or  http://www.osapac.org/cms/.

Look for new software titles available, software for your subject area of interest or grade, resources available to help use the software in your classroom, etc.    You are going become an “expert” on one title that interests you and share your new learning with the group.    When you have decided on the title, share your choice in the online discussion area.

Select one piece of educational software at your school which interests you,  is new to you, and could be utilized in your current classroom teaching situation.

Choose one of the following resources to assist you with the evaluation of your piece of software and complete it using your selected software.  Consult resources available to support learning about this program.  Create a summary of your evaluation (word processed document, mind map, audio recording, etc.)   Post your summary to our online sharing space. 

Visit More Information Page prior to completing this assignment.

Choose one of the following resources or create your own, to help with your software review:

http://www.ehow.com/how_2091735_evaluate-educational-software.html

http://www.ncsu.edu/midlink/sw.checklist.pdf 

http://www.techknowlogia.org/TKL_Articles/PDF/129.pdf 

Be sure to identify the genres of software in the subject area of your posting. Read postings from others on similar genres and see how other titles compare to the ones you selected.

Part 3:   Lesson Creation

Create a lesson which effectively integrates your chosen software, try it out, and share the lesson and results with your peers.   You may borrow from a lesson which already exists. No need to create the rule. Just provide credit.  Be sure to include:

• Grade level or subject area
• Curriculum expectations, lesson objectives, learning goals
• Resources needed
• Student activity – include appropriate guides, tutorials, etc.
• Assessment
• Modifications or extensions or to the lesson

Part 4: Reflection

After sharing and discussing with your peers, revisit your KWHL chart and add in your new learning.   When you tried the software in your class, what worked, what did not, and what would  you do differently?    Share with your peers in our online sharing space.   Read and respond to your peers.