Name June 16 2005 1 General Software Review In this activity you will be reviewing software that you would find useful in your roll as a teacher Note this is a review of software not websites Websites can be used only if they have a high level of interactivity and animation such as those at ExploreLearning com Although we have software on our local servers much of it is antiquated and students are best served by downloading freeware and shareware Review five or more pieces of educational software You are free to choose any piece of software that is of value either for instructional administrative or professional purposes You must have hands on experience with the software watching someone s software review is not sufficient Write a paragraph describing each program and your professional opinion of its usefulness in education At least one of your titles should be freeware or shareware that you have downloaded from the Internet Include a screen capture from the software Choose the best one from among these 5 for the formal software review presentation GoogleEarth Word Star 2 0 Title This freeware This application is application is one useful for the of the most teachers who have popular in the use for vocabulary history practice In Word classroom In Star 2 0 the GoogleEarth a students are user can explore actively using the anywhere in the vocabulary words world at the from the material in touch of a button a variety of We can zoom in educational games and see the planet These include through many Scrambled different lenses misspelled Some of the most prefix suffix practical for the matching words history classroom and many others are the 3 D The teachers who embedded want to use the lists photos and that are included historical views with the software will have access to country names famous musicians baseball terms elements science words and a few other complete lists This application should be useful for teachers and is very easy to use Review 1 2 Screen Capture 1 3 4 5 Decision PuzzleMak StudyCard Decisions er com Studio Elite Feudalism This In this This website application interactive game gives users the students gives the students the options are invited the chance to to create all to create become part of sorts of modify and the world that usable use the they are learning puzzles material about The The from the students need to students classes to make choices that will be make flash will reflect challenged cards The through their with the cards can experience and variety of be adapted the game The methods to any game ends with a that this material review of the site and are decisions that provides played to were made and This site is begin the outcome The great for studying goal of the game the teacher The is to successfully who is background defend the land needs to font and from invaders keep the style of keep control of students learning are the people and engaged options for have fun with the user games puzzles and other academic challenges Name June 16 2005 2 Formal Software Review In this activity you will be reviewing software that you would find useful in your roll as a teacher Note this is a review of software not websites Websites can be used only if they have a high level of interactivity and animation such as those at ExploreLearning com Although we have software on our local servers much of it is antiquated and students are best served by downloading freeware and shareware Select one software product for formal review and presentation to the class Write reviews for each according to the format guidelines provided on the following page Post you selection Title Word Stars 2 0 1 Description of Program This program is based on the need to explore a variety of ways to teach vocabulary The words in this freeware application are already set up for a middle school level and can be manipulated added to or even have words removed The games that are played are simple in their design and can help students to spell use correctly but not match word to definition That is really the only downside The games are matching suffix prefix spelling unscrambling words word searches and even word mastery Teachers can use a screen capture of the game to make puzzles on handouts 2 Basic Information Title Word Stars 2 0 Publisher Class One Software Cost free Type freeware 2 Name June 16 2005 3 Target Population Elementary High School Teachers and Students 4 Content Goals This software is designed to making learning vocabulary fun and interesting The students of today need interactive methods to grasp the content that allows a student to thoroughly understand the material that is being taught 5 Process Goals This program encourages memorization and application of vocabulary The students have to demonstrate that they can relate the words from class to a variety of games and interactive methods By working in teams or with a dictionary the students can be encouraged to learn new words and expand their vocabularies 6 Lesson Plan A Students are to pass three games lists of ten words within three minutes two minutes and finally one minute They can choose the games that they excel the most and are graded on how they can use the word banks to learn new words B Students are to use the dictionaries and create a new list of twenty words that they can explain the definition First the students are to use words of three syllables then four and finally a few five syllable vocabulary words They are to create word banks for future students to use C On the hardest setting possible the students are to work in pairs and challenge each other They can keep track of the points they earn when they successfully complete sections of the games 7 Summary If I bought this software for the classroom I would definitely use it for English Science or History courses The software is easy to use and can be expanded upon depending on the strengths of the students 3 Formal Presentation of Software One or two sessions will be scheduled for formal software review During these sessions you will present your software in small groups or to the class using network sharing software such as Apple Remote Desktop Once you have decided on software to review post your decision on the newsgroup as specified in class or on the web page first come first served Make a presentation of your software using the following guidelines Each presentation must be limited to 15 minutes Your presentations should stress how this software can be used