Microsoft Excel

Microsoft Excel (or commonly referred to as Excel) is another application I have been using for a good many years.  I have used it for personal budgeting, project work, performance tracking and record keeping.  The sort function and graphing options are excellent, as are great options for reports and presentation of statistics.

As part of my teaching experience, I find Excel an excellent tool to use for finance, production of financial statement templates, and for demonstration purposes. 

I have used Excel to create an exercise which involves learners having to create a six month Cash Budget for a business on the first sheet and working on the second sheet.  The task involves entering data in each row or column, using the formulae bar and also the auto-sum function.

The lesson involved discussing and demonstrating the calculations which need to be performed by using the Smartboard.  The learners were able to observe how the various cells formulae were constructed.  Learners were then allowed to perform the next stage and observed.

I also like the functionality of Excel in that I scrolled down row by row to explain but also to demonstrate by entering formulae such as =SUM(D10:D15) in the cell, observing learners following the instruction and then confirming the calculation. 

What is particularly useful is that you can same multiple copies as backup, email or upload the file for access by others.

In my volunteering role I use Excel to export attendance data to and then sort Attendance and Categories of Non Attendance (Duty Absence, Sick, Authorised Absence, Not recorded, and USD) and this report is submitted on a six week basis.

I do know from personal experience that those who do not like numbers do not like Excel…which is hardly surprising. However, once a few basic calculations are performed learners quickly appreciate the fact that calculations are performed very quickly, such as click and drag the cell formulae across a number of cells in the row and it automatically changes the cell reference to perform the calculation.

When I was teaching the budgeting lesson I was able to observe who was performing the task correctly and those who need some assistance. One key feature of Excel is that the learner gets immediate feedback on what they do.  If you enter the wrong value in a cell then it will have a knock on effect on the rest of the spreadsheet.

As part of my teaching, I will be using Excel as it is the most appropriate application to use for a numerical subject such as finance.

Microsoft Word

“Perhaps no other technology resource has had as great an impact on education as word processing” (Roblyer and Doering, 2014).

I have been using Microsoft Word (or Word as it is commonly referred to) for many years.  It is a popular application from the Microsoft Office suite of applications which also includes PowerPoint, Excel, Outlook, Access and OneNote.   My personal use has included typing letters, CVs, assignments, business reports, lesson plans and creating learning and teaching documents.  My business use has included writing reports on performance, investigations, lesson plans, handouts and marking assignments from learners and completing feedback forms.

Word offers such a range of functionality in each of its menu option such as Home, Insert, Design, References and more. I love the fact spell and grammar check underlines any spelling or grammar issues and also the thesaurus.  Better still is the ability to insert graphs, charts, tables, pictures, sound, shapes, equations and more. Another time saver is the number of document templates which are available. Using Word to create documents is great because I can differentiate by using different fonts, colours, spacing to product learning materials for learners of different abilities.

I have used Word to create lesson plans, lesson resources such as assignments, worksheets, quizzes, forms, and created schemes of work.

I can review my work, amend as required, save an original copy, add comments for feedback and track changes.  I can also compare documents which have been resubmitted to check whether feedback and recommended changes have been made.

The majority of learners in further and higher education have to at some point submit an assignment, word processed, double spaced and a particular font, font size and this is done using Word.

One of the benefits of Word is that a document can be placed on a central location such as Moodle and multiple learners can access it, download and read it.  I have emailed out learning documents created using Word to learners in preparation for lessons.  Of course, there is the environmental impact of printing lesson worksheets, evaluation forms, course handouts and so on.

Reference:

Roblyer, M.D, and Doering, A.H. (2014).  Integrating Educational Technology into Teaching 6^th edn. Harlow: Pearson Education Limited.

WORD CLOUDS

There are a number of software applications which allow you to create word clouds.  All you have to do is enter keys words for a lesson and it will produce a word cloud.

WORDLE

Wordle is an easy online application to use.  It allows for the creation of word clouds by entering text or by entering the URL of any blog or blog feed, or any a web page which has an Atom or RSS feed.

It does allow for the user to be creative and choose different layouts, colours, fonts and it allows the user to save and print the document.  The greater the frequency of a particular word the more prominent it appears in the cloud.

This can be used as an assessment tool for learners to identify keys words which relate to the learning.

Another useful word cloud generator is https://tagul.com/

This online application is simple to use and offers the user a range of options similar to Wordle but the with Tagul I found it more creative as it offers uses the text to be displayed in a variety of shapes. It allows the user to add text, change the size, colour, angle, font and whether the word is repeated or not.  For the purposes of using this a tool for teaching it is very effective and free.

Bandeen and Sawin (2012) state an important point and that the use of word clouds not only allow discussion around the key words but also those words which are missing, words to help theorise the concept, and to understand important themes in the lesson.

I would use both applications as part of my lessons as it will aid in assessment of learning through discussion, question and answer, but also help to link key words to theory or standards.

References:

Bandeen, H, & Sawin, J 2012, 'Encourage Students to Read through the Use of Data Visualization', College Teaching, 60, 1, pp. 38-39, ERIC, EBSCOhost, viewed 14 January 2016.

https://tagul.com/ (Accessed on: 25 October 2015)

 

http://www.wordle.net  (Accessed on: 20 October 2015)

KAHOOT

Kahoot is another web based assessment application which is similar to Socrative.  You can create a quiz, discussion or a survey and engage learners in a game or competition type setting, as I have witnessed in some of the lectures.  Being web based this means you and your learners will need a good internet connection, and hardware such as a computer, laptop, ipad, or similar mobile device. 

Kahoot is colourful and has a gameshow type appeal to it.  I recall it being used by children at my son’s primary school and thought it was creative and a fun way to learn.  The children were using the computers and having a lot of fun.

My next experience of Kahoot was in a lecture at University.  The lecturer logged on and the information was displayed on the smartboard.  Learners were asked to log into www.kahoot.it and then enter the pin generated for the session.  Once logged into the quiz, the learners are faced with a question and four potential answers, and there is a set time limit in which to answer.  The faster you answered correctly the more points you got subject to an upper score per question.

On a number of occasions the lecturer provided immediate feedback on why it is the correct answer and why the others cannot be correct, or asked the learners as to why a particular option such as A, B, C or D can or cannot be the answer.  This helped to engage the learners in a discussion and aid the learning experience, as well as peer led learning to take place.  The lecture controlled the pace of the questions in that learners would get the next question when the lecturer clicked on it.  The learners were engaged and were learning from the feedback, and asking if they could have another session in the next lesson.

One drawback I have seen is that when the learner logs on they can hide by using a nickname.  This means that it is open to abuse through anonymity but also allows a learner to hide through lack of knowledge or confidence.  This can be evident as before each question the leader board displays the scores of all the participants which might have a negative bearing on learners who need more help.

Overall, Kahoot is an excellent assessment application to review learning and can be used at any appropriate juncture in the lesson.  Eatherton (2014) rightly states that the use of technology must benefit the learners achieve the learning outcomes.

Kahoot is colourful, fun and more engaging for learners and I will use it in my lessons.

References:

Kahoot. 2015. https://getkahoot.com/ (Accessed on: 16 December 2015).

Eatherton, T 2014, 'ADVENTURES IN TECHNOLOGY', Techniques: Connecting Education & Careers, 89, 8, pp. 8-9, Academic Search Premier, EBSCOhost, viewed 14 January 2016.