Excel isn't a program I am very familiar with, so I'm not too sure about everything it can do and be used for. Spreadsheets organize information and "Support speculation, decision making, and problem solving, and they are often used in what-if analyses" according to this article. Because I plan to teach English, most likely at the high school level, spreadsheets might be a little less effective to use than other programs. However, they could be used to chart information from the texts that we will read. For example, if we read three short stories that centered around the same learning concepts that had been discussed in class recently, I would have the students make a spreadsheet of the different devices or concepts - theme, symbolism, the use of a certain common theme in all three stories - and then for each story include how that appeared or was used. This way, they could compare the three stories to see how they work in similar or different ways. Later on, a spreadsheet like this could be used for studying, creating a presentation, or writing an essay about either the concept or the texts. Overall, the spreadsheet would mostly be used as a way of organize the information and not so much for problem solving.
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