Blog Reflection Week Five (Chapters Five and Six)

1. What is productivity software? How can it be adapted to benefit teaching and learning? What are the advantages and features of electronic spreadsheets? How do you see them as a benefit in an educational environment?

Productivity software, according to the text is “generic business application software that educators can use and adapt for the administrative and professional tasks they must address.” As its name implies, it is primarily useful for making a teacher more productive in what she does behind the scenes. Common examples of productivity software include word processing, spreadsheet, database management, and presentation software. Usually, these basic productivity software types are bundled or packaged together in a “suite” in which each is provided to the user. In this blog post, I will devote my time explaining the educational benefit of electronic spreadsheets, but the other applications are equally important and useful to educators.

One type of productivity software is the electronic spreadsheet, which is used primarily (but not exclusively) for numeric data. An electronic spreadsheet is organized with vertical columns and horizontal rows. Users can enter and edit numeric data into the “cells” as they are called, and then that data can be manipulated using formulas and used to create colorful charts and graphs. This is advantageous to the user because electronic calculation is more accurate than human calculation and is easily modified. A common use of electronic spreadsheets among educators is that of a grade book. Student scores can be entered into the spreadsheet, and a formula can be set to calculate the student’s average. The text also highlights the “what if” function of the spreadsheet, which basically allows the user to input hypothetical data to see what the outcome would be under other circumstances. Furthermore, colorful charts and graphs can be quickly created to represent the data entered into the spreadsheet. The documents are stored in electronic form before and after printing, which makes it easier to edit, organize, and store the documents.

As already mentioned, electronic spreadsheets are useful for administrative functions, such as calculating grades in a grade book, but what is its implication for teaching and learning? As explained in the text, an educator can use spreadsheet software to create graphs of students’ heights. In fact, interpreting graphs and charts is an important mathematics competency in the elementary grades, and can be taught to children through the use of the spreadsheet software. Spreadsheets can also be used to enter data of a science experiment. Formulas and functions can be used to easily calculate certain totals. The ideas are seemingly endless! The point is, spreadsheet software is a type of productivity software that can benefit not only the teacher in his or her administrative tasks, but also the student in his or her learning experience.