EDTECH 541: Relative Advantage of Using the Basic Suite for Learning

The relative advantage of using the basic software tool suite is the ability to give students experience with 21st-century tools that will promote real-life skills.  The basic suite for the classroom includes a word processing, spreadsheet, and presentation software.  These separate tools are packaged together and are designed to work together.

According to Robyler, some reasons to incorporate basic suite into the classroom are to improved productivity, improved appearance, improved accuracy and offer more support for interaction and collaboration (2016).  Word processing like Microsoft Word, helps the user create work documents that include text and graphics.  This is a useful tool in a social studies classroom to create newsletters, research papers, or complete typed assignments.  The relative advantage in a classroom setting it allows the teacher to save time because no direct instruction is needed.  Students also create a professional looking document, which gives them practice towards real-life skills they can use in the future.  Student who may struggle with writing or language benefit from using a word processing tool with voice recognition feature or adaptive keyboards.

Spreadsheets, like Microsoft Excel, creates a sheet to organize numerical information in row-column format.  The user can complete quick calculations with formulas.  This is a useful tool in a social studies classroom to create grade books and compare economic values.  The relative advantage of using spreadsheets in a classroom again focuses around time saving strategies that produce professional looking results.  Students are able to create charts that organize data and calculate various mathematical information.  Ideally spreadsheets work best in a mathematics classroom, but a great example Robyler gives in Example 4.3 shows a visual representation of the electoral college in a 9th grade civics class (2016).  Teachers can collect data (votes) in mock election this year with the presidential election and show how a candidate can win the popular vote, but lose the electoral college.

Presentation tools, like Microsoft PowerPoint, creates a slide show that can include text, graphics, and audio.  This is a useful tool in a social studies classroom with teacher created lecture presentations, student projects, and tutorials.  The relative advantage of presentation tools is helping students organize their thoughts and present key points.  The presentation supplements what the presenter says with the use of text, graphics, and other media.  Students are able to collaborate on a variety of projects and divide up the tasks.  It is important that the teacher review the proper ways to create a professional looking presentation.  Teachers and students can follow the guidelines in Figure 4.4 for designing presentations (Robyler, 2016).

In the last few years the basic suite I have found most helpful is the web-based Google Docs.  This is a great educational toolbox that allows the user access to word documents, spreadsheets, slides, sites, and other features that sync to work together.  The other feature that is helpful is the ability to allow access to share - view or edit - with others.  Students can collaborate on papers or projects using this share option.  Overall, I think that the basic suite tools are a great addition to any classroom if used properly.

Roblyer, M.D. (2016).  Integrating Educational Technology into Teaching (7th Ed.).  Allyn & Bacon