Section Editors: Kim Barany and Jorge Valenzuela
Don't Start at the Beginning! - Joe Angelo
Making Lemonade - Karin Wiburg
Introduction to the Macintosh Computer - Susan Smith
Introduction to Windows - Martha Trost
Getting to Know You - Karin Wiburg and Barbara Copeland
Getting Started with Hypermedia - Karin Wiburg
Social Studies- A Hypermedia Project - Kim Campbell
Creating an Electronic Gradebook with Microsoft Works 3.0 - Joseph Angelo
The Waves are Low and We Can't Surf...Let's Do the Spreadsheet - Susan Smith
Using Spreadsheets in Mathematics - Karin Wiburg
DON'T Start at the Beginning!
By: Joe Angelo
While teaching computer literacy courses to adults, I came to the following conclusion. If a person, at this point in their lives, has not learned about computers, they are probably only interested in learning either specific applications or specific software usage.
With this in mind, when I taught my last computer literacy class, by having students type a letter in Wordperfect. I did this instead of teaching the types of hardware or the history of computers or what nanoseconds are. By starting with information that is relevant, the students were able to, at the end of the first class, produce their first document. This gave them " instant gratification " with a desire to continue.
Most of these students would have either dropped or not finished a regular computer literacy course because they would have felt lost and confused after the first ten minutes of class.
Making Lemonade
By: Karin Wiburg
Barbara Copeland from Agricultural Communications and I often do multimedia workshops in districts around the state. Recently we were hired to do a three-day workshop in a district on the use of multimedia in the classroom. We arrived at the site to find no multimedia machines and a collection of old MS-DOS computers without hard drives. Apparently the new computers that had been ordered had not yet arrived.
Since I've been around since the old days of TRS-80's and tape players (instead of hard drives) I had enough experience to think of something to do with a Works 2.0 program for DOS. Assisted by the computer person for the district and some resourceful teachers, we quickly scrounged five multimedia-capable machines and brought them over to the site. We began with the Getting to Know You activity (in this section) that can literally be done with almost any program on any computer. The teachers interviewed each other and used a word processor to generate text on the bottom half of a page. We then had people use crayons and markers to literally add-on the picture part of the interview document. This was our first day's multimedia.
That night we returned to our hotel room with one thought. No wonder so many teachers don't use technology. These old machines are hard to use and not capable of running many of the great new educational programs. But, being teachers ourselves, we didn't give up and decided to come up with a new design for the workshop. We used a center approach so that while some teachers were doing activities like databases and spreadsheets on the old computers, another group would be planning their multimedia presentations, and a third would be learning to use the multimedia tools on the five new machines we were able to bring into the school. We also had our own powerbook and a projection system so we were able to do a lot of show-and-tell for the whole group.
In the end, it turned out to be a great workshop and probably in retrospect most appropriate to the kinds of situations many teachers still face. The smaller number of computers forced us to redo the design of the workshop to be more like the typical classroom. We modeled some strategies for managing limited resources well and the experience reinforced my idea that even old computers can be used for something worthwhile and educational.
Introduction to The Macintosh
Computer
By: Susan Smith
Desktop
When you boot up the computer, you will see a desktop. Notice the right-hand, upper corner. It has what we call the hard drive. On the bottom is your trash can. Open the hard drive by clicking twice quickly. You will notice many icons. These icons are called folders. To open them, click twice quickly.
Saving
Once you have created your own document such as from word processing, you will want to save it. Yes! Always save! Put the disk in, and go to File - Save As. The computer will ask you 2 questions, where do you want to save this information and what do you want to name it? In the top box you will notice a small triangle. Click it on and you will be given choices as to where you will save. Highlight your chosen location. In the box at the bottom, the word untitled will be highlighted. Type what you want to call this document and the untitled will disappear at the same time your title is typed in. Click on Save.
Trash
If you do not want something on your disk, desktop or hard drive, hold the mouse down with the arrow on the icon, and drag it to the trash until the can is highlighted. Once it is, let go and the trash will become fat. To empty that trash, go to Special at the top and highlight Empty Trash. It is gone! Before you empty the trash, you may click on the can to open it. Drag the icon out of the trash if you wish.
Memory
To find out what kind of memory your Mac has, go to the apple icon at the top left-hand corner. Slide down to About this Macintosh. Built-in Memory gives you the amount of RAM you have. The number will have four or more digits, but you can disregard the ones to the right of the comma. Look at the number/s to the left of the comma. It will probably be a 4, 8, or 16. This means you have 4 megs of RAM or 8 or 16. RAM means random access memory. This memory lets you open different programs on the desktop all at once. The Total Memory is how much you can put on the hard drive.
Shut Down
When you are finished with the computer, always shut down properly. Go to the top, click on Special and slide to Shut Down.
Helpful Hints
Introduction toWindows
By: Martha Trost
A Staff Development Training Workshop
The following is an example of a three hour workshop on Windows 3.1 Basics.
1. The first step of the training workshop is introductions. This is done to raise the comfort level of the workshop and also for teachers to meet teachers from other schools, which they rarely get an opportunity to do.
2. The next step is to elicit from the participants what they want to learn and find out any specific needs they have. A list of these needs/questions are put on a board to help the trainer remember what issues need to be addressed. This step helps meet the individual needs of each participant in the workshop and also gives them ownership of the skills covered in the training. As each item is addressed, and everyone has an understanding of it, it is checked off on the board.
3. The next step is to check and see if everyone is comfortable with a mouse and if they understand the terms: click, double-click, and click and drag. An explanation of the terms follows, so that everyone is at the same level of understanding about mouse control.
4. Computers are started up and the first set of skills covered are maneuvering around the Windows screen. The close box, minimize, and maximize buttons are covered and also how to manually size the window frames. The scroll bars are explained and how to click and drag a window frame around the screen. As these skills are covered, it is emphasized that these characteristics are present in all windows' software packages. The participants are then given an assignment to open four program groups, size them and move them around the screen so that all four can be seen at once.
5. With the four frames open on the screen, the next step is to explain and build an awareness of what is an active window frame, what icons are and how to highlight an icon to make it active. Then the Window menu is addressed. What do tile, cascade, and arrange icons do? These are easier to understand when they can be seen that menu choices work with multiple frames. Then all the frames are closed down. This whole step gives a lot of mouse practice too.
6. The next step is to address the File Menu. Participants create a program group and program item. Through this process they are shown the browse screen and how to find files and how to change the icon image. The Move, Copy, and Delete are then explained and participants are shown how to's. The Properties are explained as well as the "Run" and the purpose of that menu feature is covered. Finally the Exit Windows is explained. Participants are shown how to exit windows and then return with "win".
7. The toggle switches under the Options menu are the next step. Explanation of what a toggle switch is and how they all work is shown.
8. The last menu addressed is the Help menu. This is the most important, because participants are encouraged to go through the tutorial, but more importantly the contents menu choice is an online reference guide right at their fingertips. Participants in the workshop will probably not remember everything, so they are encouraged to use the Help-Contents file to refresh their memories. They are shown how to find topics of interest and need.
9. A break is taken at this time to give participants some eye rest and a good stretch.
10. After the break, the File Manager is addressed briefly under the Main group. Participants are shown where and how to format a disk, how to copy a file onto a disk, how to delete a file, and that Windows comes with an anti-virus program.
11. The next step is the Control Panel under the Main group. Participants are shown how to set up the color on their screen, do the following set the desktop background, set up the screen savers, find fonts available through windows, to customize and adjust the mouse, and set the system date and time.
12. The final step is to show some of the accessories that come with Windows. They are in the Accessories group. If time permits, the Write processor, the PaintBrush program, the Calculator, the Cardfile, and the Calendar are shown as tools for the user.
13. To end the training, questions are taken and a double-check of the items on the board is taken to make sure they have been addressed to everyone's satisfaction.
At the beginning of the workshop, a check-off list is given to each person to use to follow-up on in about two weeks. It lists all the skills and tools covered in the workshop and participants are to use the check-off list to see what they can remember. This is to help reinforce what was covered in the workshop. Participants also have the freedom to call the trainer directly if there are any specific needs or problems.
Martha A. Trost is the District Technology Trainer for the Las Cruces Public School in Las Cruces, New Mexico. Office phone number is (505) 527-6612. E-Mail is mtrost@lcps.k12.nm.us.
Getting to ... Know You
By: Karin Wiburg & Barbara Copeland
This is a wonderful generic workshop approach for teaching teachers how to use computers in the classroom within the context of getting to know each other. It was originally developed by Priscilla Norton at the University of New Mexico as part of a thematic language arts unit called All About Us and was brought to New Mexico State University by Carmon Gonzales and Becky Willis, professors, who had studied with Dr. Norton. We have since used the getting to know you workshop to help teachers feel comfortable with technology in small towns throughout New Mexico.
There are several great things about this workshop approach. It can be done with any kind of computer, as long as it has some kind of integrated software packages. An integrated software package includes the Big Five of computer applications: word processing, databases, spreadsheets, graphics and telecommunications. It is also a great activity for using computers in the ESL and/or Bilingual classroom when conversation between students should be encouraged
Part 1 - Word processing and Graphics (Paired activity)
The class is divided into groups of 4 or 6 students. The best organization allows for the students to work first in pairs and then in a larger team format. Introduce this unit by doing some webbing or brain-storming about what students might like to know about each other in the class. Students will probably suggest ideas such as food liked, birth place, birth month, current job, pets, family, hobbies, etc. Leave the web on the board for use in the first task.
a) Within each team students are paired for a biographical interview. Each student asks questions related to the previous pre-writing, activity of her or his partner and then writes a biographical sketch about that person using a word processor.
b) After completing the written assignment the team will work with a paint program such as Paintbrush, Desktop Paint, or HyperStudio to design an illustration which provides a graphic about their partner. The graphics should be placed on the written documents so that both a picture and text are provided about each person.
It would be great to provide some time for the class to share their products.
Part II - Creating a Team Database and doing Mailmerge (Team)
a) Provide students with a guided lesson on what is a database and how to create a simple database. After that, let each team create their own database about their team members. One strategy for doing this is to turn each question they have about each other into a field in the database.
After completing the database the team should sort the database in various ways and apply a filter to find out what they have in common and what differences and similarities they may have in their group. Then they should create a couple of different reports about their group.
b) After each group has done the database with four/six members show them how to do a simple mailmerge. They should write a letter which will be personalized through a mailmerge process for each member.
Part III - Telecommunications (team)
Each person should have an email account and each team member should know the other team members email accounts (this is a logical field to include in their database). They should email or write using email each member of their group asking additional questions about them which they can then put into their Team Newsletter.
Part IV - Desktop Publishing (team)
Using any desktop publishing program (Works, ClarisWorks, Childrens' Writing and Publishing Center, PageMaker, The Writing Center, The Bilingual Writing Center) each team will create a newsletter that tell about themselves and their group. They should feel free to also include any news relevant educators including lesson ideas issues, upcoming conferences, books everyone should read, etc. A two page newsletter is fine. Each team should make copies of the Newsletter for other teams.
Part V - Spreadsheets (team and whole class)
Students should be introduced to spreadsheets through a guided practice activity such as The Best Meal Deal (see Intro to spreadsheets). For teachers it is also especially relevant to use a spreadsheet as a grade book. A lesson for doing this step-by-step is also included in this section. Then each team should decide on a simple research project about the class and design a very simple survey for the whole class to fill out. Examples might include surveying the numbers and kinds of pets each member has. One class brought in four different samples of Salsa and had each class member rate their favorite from 4 to 1. You could even ask people's opinions on different matters, collect information about their month of birth, favorite ice cream flavor, or theories of bilingual education. This information is then entered into a spreadsheet and graphs are generated showing mathematical information about the whole class.
Possible Evaluation
(2 points each - 10 points possible)
____ Each team member created a biographical sketch of another team member. The sketch was word processed, is clear and contains no grammatical errors.
____ The biographical sketch also contains a graphic which is appropriate to the text.
____A team database for all members with at least eight fields was created by the team. Two different reports were generated from the database.
____ Sample mailmerge letters were generated correctly and attached (four-six letters)
____ The team created an attractive, informative two-page newsletter
Getting Started with Hypermedia
By: Karin Wiburg
HyperWHAT?
The idea of Hypertext was first introduced in the 1940's. The concept involves being able to click on a word and have the computer go to futher information about that word. I call it 3-dimensional text. Hyper means non-linear information. Hypermedia is an extension of multimedia and includes the use of the computer to control non-linear information including text, video, sound, and graphics.
The potential for using Hypermedia in the curriculum is enormous for several reasons. Hypertext and hypermedia can provide additional background information about any idea, provide information in more than one language, and allow students to explore the information in any order of interest. There are many different multimedia tools available to educators including HyperCard, Toolbook, Linkway, Macromind Director and Authorware. We choose to purchase HyperStudio (Roger Wagner Publishing) in the College of Education because it is easy to use, manages external pictures and resources well, and most important, runs on Macintosh and Windows machines. In addition it is very inexpensive.
The best place to start working with Hyperstudio is by using the paint tools. Here is a picture you can use as a reference for this activity.
Painting Around
1. Create a new stack (file)
2. Drag off the paint tools
3. Experiment with each of the paint and draw tools.
4. Use Options menu to change color and brush shape.
5. Experiment with the shape tools and fill with paint bucket
6. Use T to add text. Change text font, size, color, etc.
Project 1 - The Name Card
1. Create a new stack called Name Card
2. Create a border around the first person's card with the oval or square
shape and fill it in.
3. Add text (any language). Use the T tool and choose Options, Text style
... menus.
4. Add clip art (under the File menu choose Add clip art. )
5. Select the clip art using the select tool or the lasso. Click O.K
6. Move and place clip art and text as desired (use select box)
7. Create a second new card for the second person (not a new stack, a new
card using the EDIT menu)
8. Repeat steps 2-6 for your second name card.
9. Under the File menu choose Print.
Print your cards together. Choose Print Stack, All Cards.
Note: You must have the browser (hand tool) selected in order to print.
Project 2 - My House
This project introduces the idea of buttons and text fields. When you
have completed this project you will know all the basic elements of Hyperstudio
and should be able to make many additional projects on your own. The basic
elements are cards, stacks, fields, buttons, and background. In the next
project you can add additional sound.
1.Create a new stack called My House (You will be creating three cards.)
2. Create a new card and draw your house. Use your imaginatio
3. Create a second new card (under Edit). Draw a room. Call it Room 1 and
use your text tool to write Room 1 on your card. This will help you know
where you are. You can always erase the text later.
4. Create a third new card and call it Room 2.
Note:If you are working with a partner, each person should create one
room and the buttons and text related to that room.
5. Use the Move menu to go to the first card (your house picture).
6. Use the Objects menu and create a new button.
7. Follow the instructions on the screen and in the dialog box for buttons.
Resize your button so it fits over your door.
8. Choose transparant and don't show name. Choose another card option. Move
to the card you want to go to (Room 1) and then click OK. You can add sound
and visual effects to your button.
9. Make a second button in any style you want and make it go to Room 2.
10. Practice making buttons by putting a button in each room that takes
you back to the front of the house. Try icons for buttons as well as the
other options.
11. Finally go to one of the rooms and add Text.... under the Objects menu.
Text is how you put real word processing into Hyperstudio. Write about
one of your rooms.
Project 3 - Making a Bilingual House
This project will allow you to make your house an environment for producing, sharing and practicing two languages.
1. Decide on any object that you would like to name in Spanish and English
in your stack.
2. Create a new button and choose add sound to the button.
3. Record the words for your button, such as mi cama, my bed.
4. Try out your button and see if you like the way it sounds.
5. Make additional buttons for different objects in your house.
This idea can be used in any curriculum area. For example you may want to create a desert habitat with pictures of animals, plants, earth and rock formations, clouds, etc. and then name these words in both Spanish and English.
Remember you can take pictures from almost anywhere and add them to HyperStudio,
including pictures taken with a digital camera and/or pictures captured
from the laserdisc. There are examples in the Wiburg folder including desert
pictures and Mary's White Sands Stack.
Additional Ideas for Using HyperStudio in the Curriculum
The following section provides directions for creating two curriclum projects using HyperStudio. Perhaps the most powerful use of technology is to allow students to use these learner-based tools to think about, organize, and present concepts related to the content of the academic curriculum. The timeline project is an example for social studies of the basic index project using hypermedia. The first card is an overview card (in this case a time line). By clicking on button selections on this card, in this case dates, the user can go to a variety of content cards that tell more about the selections. Other content areas are just as relevant to the index stack design. For example a student can learn about the body by drawing a skeleton and then clicking on buttons which take the reader/user to cards which contain more detailed information about specific bones.
Other ideas in science include a picture of a cell with buttons on different
parts, a picture of the water cycle with cards containing information on
each stage, a template for reporting experiements which include an overview
of the stages in planning and completing experiments and cards for each
stage. The hypothesis card might have a place for the student to write their
definition of hypothesis, a space to write a hypothesis for a specific assigned
experiment, and a button which gives textbook-type definitions of hypothesis.
More on Curriclum Projects using HyperStudio.
The third project relates to the writing process. ( Incidently the time
line project has also been used in schools as an autobiography project.
The time line is a person's life and the dates are significant dates in
each person's life.) The Interactive Stories project was done successfully
with fourth grade students using HyperCard with only a couple of hours of
instruction in HyperCard. The idea is to begin a story on card one and create
at least two different next parts for the story. Buttons take you to each
continuation. In the classroom, I've also used this idea with LogoWriter
anther popular learner-based tool. In this case we started the project by
drawing a giant flow chart of the proposed story. Small groups of students
each took one of the scenes (or cards) and created the details. Here's a
picture of a story flow chart.
Beginning Level Curriculum Projects
Project 4 - The Timeline
1. Create a new stack called Tmeline.
2. On your first card create a time line.Put some dates on it (or for little
kids long ago.. in the future). This is your index card. For New Mexico
some dates might be:
1598 -conquistadors, Spain claims New Mexico
1848 - Mexico loses territory to United States
The future - (Space Port begins operation from New Mexico)
3. Create a new card for each date. The card can be formated to include
a text field and a space for pictures.
4. Go to the first card (your index card and time line).. Move menu
5. Create an invisible button over a date that goes to that date card ..
Objects.
6. Create a button to take you back to your index (first) card.
7. Repeat steps 5 and 6 for all time cards.
8. Decorate all cards, add pictures, sounds, movies, slides, etc. as desired
Project 5- Interactive Stories
1. Create a new stack called adventure story
2. Design a simple story with a start and two choices for continuing (story
board).
3. On your first page, make a border and/or picture if desired.
4. Create a text box under objects and set characteristics of text.
5. At end of text box provide a choice of two places to go...
6. Create each of the two story continuation options cards
7. Return to the first card and create two buttons (one for each option..
go home or continue into the forest... )
8. Use the buttons to make choices.
9. Add a button to return to the beginning on the choice cards.
Project 6 - The Expanding Universe
This project demonstrates one of two important paradigms for multimedia.. the expanding universe. Expanding universe cards are already made for you if you want to copy them or choose your own images from the Wiburg folder
1. Create a stack called something like Expanding Universe
2. On the first card paste a picture of a map of the world.
3. Make additional cards and paste on them the following:
A map of the US or Norte Americano
A map of New Mexico with Las Cruces highlighted
A picture of your school.
A picture of your classroom.
Your desk.. etc, etc.
4. Then move to the first card, your universe. Create a new button on
the U.S.
5. Connect the button to the United States.
6. On the US. map make a button for New Mexico, etc. etc.
You will, of course, want to make your own expanding universe with your
own school, kids, pictures,etc. You may want to think about getting a digital
camera for use on this project.
Project Sheets You Can Copy and Use
On the following pages are some worksheets developed for use in the Nuestra Tierra (Our Land) Project funded by US WEST. These projects have been field tested by middle school students at Sierra Middle School and have been modified so that students can do them by themselves. Please feel free to copy this quickstart article and the worksheets.
Karin Wiburg, Ed.D. New Mexico State University
Box 30001, Dept. 3CUR Las Cruces, New Mexico 88003
505-646-2390
kwiburg@nmsu.edu
HyperStudio - A First Language Arts Project (A Book Report)
In this project you will design a two card stack. The first card is a picture related to your book. The second card has a text field so you can write about your book. The cards will be connected with buttons.
Directions for this project:
1. Open up HyperStudio. Under File select New Stack.
2. Play with the paint tools until you can use them well.
3. Draw a picture related to your book report.
4. Use the T text tool to add the title of your book and author.
5. To change look of text use text style under Options.
6. Using a different text style add your name to card 1.
7. Create a second card (Use New Card under Edit).
8. Add a text field to your second card (Use Add text objects under Objects).
9. Resize text field by dragging to right half of card.
10. Use the Move menu to go to your first card.
11. Make a button to go to card 2. Choose new button and choose type (solid,
invisible, etc.). Move the button where you want it click outside. In the
dialog box choose ANOTHER CARD. Click on the arrow until you see Card 2
(with text field). Choose any visual effect you like. Click done.
12. Choose the button pushing tool (hand) and try your button.
13. On card 2 move this tool into text field and type information about
your book.
14. You can add a picture or draw a picture on Card 2.
15. If you want to add a picture use Add Clip Art under the File menu. Select
any picture with the select tool. Click OK. You will be back on your card.
Move the picture on the card by dragging. (be sure you have arrows)
16. Make a button on card 2 to take you back to card 1. Follow directions
in number 11 but substitute 1 for 2.
17. That's it.. you have an interactive book report. Teach someone else
to do it.
Hyper Studio - A First Social Studies Project (An Interactive Map)
In this project you will design a three card interactive map. The first card is a picture of the world. The second card is a picture of the United States. The third card is a picture of New Mexico.
Directions for this project:
1. Open up HyperStudio. Under File select New Stack.
2. Under File choose Add Clip Art. Select worldmap.bmp.
3. Use the lasso or select tool to drag over and select the world. Say OK.
4. Use the T text tool to add the words THE WORLD and your name.
5. Use the Edit menu and choose New card.
6. Under File choose Add Clip Art. Select the usa.bmp. Say OK.
7. Create a third card (Use New Card under Edit).
8. Under File choose Add Clip Art. Choose usa.bmp and then use the select
tool or lasso to drag over only New Mexico. Click OK. Position your map
of New Mexico on the left helf of Card 3
9. Under Objects choose Add text object. Resize as desired. Choose text
color and size.
10. Use the Move menu to go to your first card.
11. Make a button to go to card 2. From the Objects menu choose new button
and choose invisible. Move the button so it is on top of US on your world
map. In the dialog box choose ANOTHER CARD. Click on the arrow until you
see Card 2 (the US). Choose any visual effect you like. Click done.
12. Choose the button pushing tool (hand) and try your button.
13. Make another button on Card 2. Make it invisible and over New Mexico.
14. Try your button.
15. On Card 3 move the hand over the text field and click. Write everything
you know about New Mexico in the field.
16. If you have time make return buttons on every card.
17. You have an interactive map. Try making one for other countries in the
world. Teach someone else how to make an interactive map.
En este proyecto ustedes diseñarán tres o más tarjetas acerca de su familia. Todas las tarjetas estarán conectadas por medio de botones.
Instrucciones:
1. Abra Hyperstudio. Escoja el archivo "New Stack."
2. Vaya al menú arriba de la pantalla y escoja "Tools."
Mantenga presionado el botón del mouse y mueva las herramientas al
lado izquierdo. Vaya otra vez al menú de arriba y escoja "Colors."
Mantenga presionado el botón del mouse y mueva "Colors"
a la derecha de la pantalla. Juegue con las herramientas para dibujar hasta
que pueda usarlas bien.
3. Haga un dibujo relacionado con su familia.
4. Vaya al menú arriba de la pantalla y escoja "Options "
y allí escoja Text Style. Elija el tipo de letra que le guste.
5. Use la herramienta "T " para escribir el título de su
proyecto.
6. Haga una segunda tarjeta. Vaya al menú "Edit " y escoja
"New Card."
7. Haga el dibujo que desee acerca de su familia. Agregue un texto para
explicar su dibujo. Vaya a "Objects " y escoja "Add aText
Object."
8. Haga el campo del texto al tamaño que le convenga. Mueva el cursor hasta que aparezca en la forma de doble flecha. Presione y muévalo hasta que alcance el tamaño deseado.
9. Haga las tarjetas que guste usando las mismas instrucciones. Si quiere agregar un dibujo, vaya al menú "File " arriba en la pantalla y escoja "Add Clip Art. " En el menú de la izquierda escoja el nombre del dibujo que desee agregar. Cuando aparezcan los dibujos, selecciónelos con el cuadro punteado. Presione "OK. "
10.Cuando tenga listas sus tarjetas, use el menú "Move "
arriba en la pantalla. Escoja "First card."
11.Haga un botón para ir a la segunda tarjeta. En el menú
"Objects " escoja "Add a Button " y escoja el tipo de
botón que guste (sólido, invisible, etc.). Mueva el botón
para donde desee y presione fuera del botón. En el siguiente diálogo
que aparece en la pantalla escoja "Another Card. " Presione en
la flecha de la derecha y verá la segunda tarjeta. Escoja cualquier
efecto visual que desee. Presione "Done."
12.Escoja la herramienta que es una mano apuntando y pruebe su botón.
13.Haga los botones para cada tarjeta siguiendo las mismas intrucciones.
Social Studies - A Hypermedia
Project
By: Kim Campbell
Project Title: The Presidential Timeline
Grade Level: 5th through7th
Preparation:
This lesson will be utilizing an authoring tool called HyperStudio. It is available for both Macintosh and Windows in PC's. Students will enjoy using this tool to produce this multimedia project. A similar program such as HyperCard may be employed instead of HyperStudio. HyperStudio makes it possible to create interactive stacks of cards using paint/draw tools, clip art, text, and sound. Each card contains information that you put on it via text, sound, etc. Information gleaned from other media sources like the Internet or video may also be included. The cards are connected to one another by buttons, thus you will be able to move around in your stack.
Objectives:
1. Students will learn about the individuals who served as Presidents'
of the United States.
2. Students will make a timeline identifying the years each president served.
Procedure:
The class should be divided into groups of 4 students with each group choosing (out of a hat) a list of presidents that are in sequential order.
Each group will be accountable for gathering information on 6 to 10 presidents depending on the number of groups. The class will create a stack in HyperStudio called "The Presidential Timeline." The class will make a timeline that includes the of names of the presidents and the dates they served as President of the United States. Each group will be responsible for putting their list of presidents on the timeline. All groups will write a short report on each president on their list. The report should contain a listing of pertinent information about the life of that president such as the dates and number of years in office, dates of their birth and death, name of wife, number of children, and Vice-President names. A paragraph or two should be included that tells about what the president did during the time in office. Students may want to write about what the president contributed to this country or what was happening in the United States at that time.
Students will write the reports on cards in Hyperstudio and connect the cards to the timeline with an invisible button placed on the name of the president. When they click on the name of president it will take them to the card with the report printed on it. Students will create a button on the card with the report that will take them back to the timeline. Students may want to add sound, clip art, and pictures to their cards. Additional buttons can be placed on the cards that will lead to another card. Pupils may want to put a picture of the vice- president or an anecdote about the president on these cards.All students must participate fully in the project by being directly accountable for placing at least one president on the timeline and writing one or two reports. Pupils may be assigned additional tasks in their groups such as testing buttons, checking dates, and editing reports.
Feedback/ Evaluation:
Have each group review the work of another group and offer suggestions or praise for that work. The class can have a discussion about which presidents were considered great (or near great) and on what basis they were regarded as great. The students may be evaluated on the quality of work their group did in the following areas:
Extensions:
Students could write stories about the presidents in their journals. The class could draw a map of the United States and place the name of each president on the state they came from.The class could discuss the concept of democracy.
Ideas for additional Projects, Lessons, And Activities:
Kim Campbell is a graduate student in special education with a minor specialization in curriculum and instruction and learning technologies.
Creating an Electronic Gradebook
with Microsoft Works 3.0
By: Joseph C. Angelo
If you want to get started using in-classroom management and don't know what to get started in, Microsoft Works 3.0 is an excellent place to start. The program is very user friendly and walks you through each part answering many questions. The most helpful feature in this program, for both novice and experienced users, are the templates which are built into the programs. The best, readily useable example of this, I believe, is the gradebook template. It is set up for the user to easily just "add info" to the blank screens and end up with a well laid out electronic gradebook.
Let's get started setting up your gradebook. It's easy! After you have booted up the program, you'll be at a Welcome screen. Choose"Start Works Now". This will put you in the Startup screen. At this screen, you'll have 5 choices:
1. New and Recent Documents,
2. Open Existing Documents,
3. Use a Template,
4. Use Works Wizard and
5. Instructions.
To create our gradebook, let's choose option #3, "Use a Template." This option brings up a list of template groups. We will choose the template group, "Autostart Education". This gives us a list of template catagories. The catagories are:
a.Classroom Management,
b. Productivity, and
c. Testing.
For our gradebook we will choose the Productivity catagory. (After we have created a gradebook, I will explain the other catagories.) The Productivity catagory gives us two options; (a) a gradebook (b) class schedule. Let's choose the gradebook option which will give us a blank gradebook. All we have to do at this point is to start adding names and daily lessons or grades or assignments.The program calculates grades, averages and does class summaries automatically. You also have the option to total rows and/or columns if you want to keep track of weekly progress.
After you finish your gradebook, you need to save it. The first time you save your program, you need to name it. You select "save as" the first time when you name it, and change drives to your floppy disk so that it will save to your disk. After that, you just need to select the "save" button. After you have saved it, your document will appear in the list at the startup screen. Now all you have to do is select it by highlighting it, and it will appear as when you left it.
As I mentioned earlier, there are other options in the "Autostart Education" group. Under the Classroom Management catagory, you have the option to choose Student Records. In this database you can record student grades,family information and emergency information. You can also switch to a reports list so you can review all of the information on one screen. This option can be used by administration or the school nurse as well as the teachers.
The Productivity catagory has 2 options, the Gradebook option(which we have just completed) and the Class Schedule catagory. This catagory allows you to create a class schedule for a student up to 8 periods a day, 7 days a week. This option might be best utilized by a school counselor. This can be used for elementry as well as post-secondary.
The third catagory in this section is the Testing catagory. You have the ability in this catagory to create from templates either Essay Tests, Multiple Choice Tests or True/False Tests. The important thing to remember is that you have the ability to store all of the tests you create for your classes in the format you prefer and are able to modify them for future use depending on the subjects covered.
Microsoft Works is a very user-friendly program that allows first time users, as well as experienced users, to catagorize and store information quickly and easily.
The Waves are Low and We Can't
Surf .... Let's Do the Spreadsheet!
By: Susan C. Smith
Tomorrow we are going surfing so bring your board and swim suit to class,
but no thongs are allowed," I told my class with a grin. By now the
students knew my corny sense of humor, so half of them laughed and the other
half knitted their eyebrows as they wondered what thongs were. We had surfed
the net enough times that they all knew we were going to the computer lab.
The next morning, I slapped the picture of Lauren McCall that one of the students had printed off the internet onto the classroom door. A bubble was drawn pointing to her mouth that indicated Ms. McCall saying, "Meet me at the lab, Baby." This was to remind those students who had forgotten overnight that class would be held in the lab. Students rushed to the Macintosh lab anxious to get on the net before they were assigned a specific research topic.
After taking roll and getting my mind focused on teaching 30 sophomores, I realized the students were getting antsy. They were moaning and crying out in anxiety for help. Apparently the internet was being stubborn. The students could not make connections to any areas. I finally gave the standard excuses, "The connections are down; it is just too busy with people around the world using the internet; the net controllers are on coffee break; the rocket has run out of fuel in Cyberspace." And in final exasperation, "I don't know!"
When we all realized we were getting nowhere and weren't going to, I asked how many of them knew how to use the spreadsheet. None! I was in luck. I could now impress them with my knack of the spreadsheet rather than listen to their genius about everything else concerning the computer. "Hey, let me show you some real magic," I enthusiastically blurted out. By now they were so disgusted with the Internet, they were willing to be entertained. "Follow my lead as I show you how to make a list of words you can use to impress your friends with at the next party," I informed them.
The following steps are what I marched the students through as they learned how to use a spreadsheet, how to use the thesaurus, and how to increase their vocabulary.
Let's get started! The words in bold are the computer commands.
Well, we didn't get to surf that day, but I got to finally show them something new on the computer and they got to learn something useful splashed with a little fun.
Using Spreadsheets in Mathematics
By: Karin Wiburg
About Works:
Works is an easy to use integrated software package. This means it is simple to have different types of applications open at the same time, such as database and word processing, and that it is easy to transfer information from one function to another. For example, after preparing a spreadsheet, it or a graph/chart made from it can be easily copied into a word-processed document. Works also has excellent on-line help. Just select the Help Table of Contents or the Tutorial from the Help menu.
Using the Menus:
You can use either the keyboard or a mouse to control Works. Using the Alt key highlights a letter in each menu item. Push the highlighted key or "arrow down" to select a menu item. Or select the item by clicking on it with the mouse.
Starting any module:
You can either Create a new file or Open an existing file from the opening menu. To create a spreadsheet choose Create a New File and then choose spreadsheet in the dialog box. Then "tab over" to choose either standard or a template. For our example choose Create a New File, Spreadsheet, and Standard/Blank.
Getting the Best Meal Deal
Set up the spreadsheet by first entering the necessary labels (restaurants and items to be priced), values (the cost of each food item) and finally formulas (the relationship between values for this spreadsheet). The following should help you get started.
1. Type "Restaurant" in cell A1. Then click on A to select the whole column and choose Format, Column Width to make it wider (15-20 characters) since some restaurants have names longer than 10 characters (the default width).
2. Enter the words "hamburger", "fries", "shakes", and "Total Meal" at the top of columns B,C,D, and E. Then enter the names of three restaurants in A2, A3, and A4. Skip a line and enter the words "Average" in A6.
(To enter data just move to the cell using the mouse or the arrow keys. When done entering you can arrow out, push the tab keys, or use the mouse to get to the next cell.)
3. Enter values for each of the prices. Don't worry about how your spreadsheet looks. We will format it after all the prices are entered.
4. Select your top row of labels by clicking in the first column (1) and then choose Style.. from the Format menu. Using either tab or mouse through the dialog box and select your choices. (I chose center, black, and underline). Format you money by selecting the row, column or block of values. (Use either arrow keys while the shift key is down or use the mouse and drag to select cells.) Then choose Currency under the Format menu.
5. When entering formulas you need to let Works know that you will do this by moving your cursor to the cell in which the outcome of the formula will appear and typing =. Then enter the formula for the total meal deal (=sum(b2:d2)). You can also enter the formula for the average price of each item or a meal by entering (=avg(cellx:celly) ) in the appropriate cell. Try this.
6. Format your total and average prices as you did the item prices and change the format as desired to make it more attractive and easier to read.
7. EXTRA- It is easy to create graphs/charts with Microsoft Works. Using charts can help students to understand and communicate mathematics. Select your spreadsheet with the mouse or shift plus arrows and then choose New Chart under View and you will see a great bar graph comparing the values of different meals. Explore the other types of charts available with Works which show on the row below the menu bar when in the chart mode.
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