Chapter 5

Software Support Tools:

1. Materials Generators - help teachers and students produce instructional materials
2. Data collection and analysis tools - help teachers collect and organize information that indicates student progress
3. Graphic tools - allow manipulation of images to illustrate documents and web pages
4. Planning and organizing tools - help teachers and students conceptualize, organize, and communicate their ideas
5. Research and reference tools - Lets students look up information in electronic versions of encyclopedias, atlases, and dictionaries
6. Content-area tools - Support teaching and learning activities in various content areas

1. Material Generators include publishing software, test and rubric generators (among others)

Desktop publishing software allows users more control over the design and production of a document. Useful if you are teaching students how to design and lay out large, complex docs. such as a newspaper.

Test Generators help to create and enter questions, and then they have the program prepare the test. The software lays out the page format for all questions and changes can be eaily made and the format will adjust as necessary. Can also create different version of a test with questions being pulled from a bank to avod copying. The program will automatically provide an answer key. Free rubric generators are also available.

Worksheet and Puzzle generators, Electronic gradebooks program allows a teacher to enter student names, test/assignments names, data from tests, and weighting information for specific test scores. They require less set-up time but also have less flexibility on format.

Student Response Systems are a combination of handheld hardware and software that permits each student in a classroom to answer a question simultaneously and permits the teacher to see and display a summary of results immediately.

Scheduling and Time management tools - schedule makers help formulate plans for daily, weekly, or monthly sequences of appointments and events.

Electronic atlases and mapping tools are great educational tools for families and teahcers. Students can get info on a specific city or on a whole country. Worldatlas

Geographic Information System - is a computer system that ia able to store in a database a variety of information about geographic locations. 1) to record and maintain large amounts of geographic information 2) to produce up-to-date, customized maps 3) to allow analysis and comparison of information on different locations.