LTCY 518 Literacy Education and Technology - Dr. Pam Petty - pam@pampetty.com

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SOFTWARE COMPETENCIES:  Programs and Applications

Anyone car sick yet?  No?  Good.  Now that we have gotten acquainted with the nuts and bolts of the technology tools we use in education, let's take a look at what makes the metal and plastic produce for us.  Without the software to accomplish our goals, a computer and all the other peripherals make really good door stops! The biggest problem that most people face is not USING the software applications, but selecting WHICH software applications to learn - and learn again when they are updated - and and learn again when they are updated - and learn again when they are updated - you get where I am going with this? 

     In this task you are asked to follow tutorials and learn new "tricks."  Several resources may be listed for each piece of software - you are not expected to spend a great deal of time on each one, instead please review the sites and work through the ones that provide the most information for the types of applications YOU NEED to learn and adapt for your classroom instruction. 

     Develop a project for your classroom that will incorporate at least 4 of the software applications on this page.  The project can be in any content area, but must include pre-reading, during reading and post reading strategies (Internet searches will provide many ideas for these) AND the integration of 4 technology applications from this webpage.   Please use this lesson plan format. 

Scoring Rubric for this assignment:  http://edtech.wku.edu/~ppetty/518SoftwareCompetenciesRubric.doc

     You will find useful resources on the following two webpages (other assignments are designed for those pages, but information about on-line stories, pre/during/post and vocabulary instruction can be found on these pages):

• http://www.pampetty.com/518eresources.htm

• http://www.pampetty.com/518techbased.htm

   This series of pages regarding software for teaching and learning is in no particular order of importance.  It is impossible to cover all the many choices of software applications that are available on the market to date - this is an attempt to highlight a few of the MOST used, EASILY learned, and that provide the most bang for the buck! 

Submit to Dr. Petty in the Assignments section of Blackboard (please note that you must SEND me the file as opposed to clicking ADD when you upload the file)

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PowerPoint

Our textbook indicates that 30 million PowerPoint presentations are being made each day (Literacy Online, p. 24).  I recently counted and have written 230+ so I feel like I am doing my part!  I find that PPT presentations allow me to be very creative and the format keeps me on track when I am speaking.  I like that I can use video, music/sounds, and images to make my PPTs interactive, attractive, and effective.  Here are a few that I enjoyed making: 

• Example of PPT combined with a song (Tim McGraw's Blank Piece of Paper):

The PPT is in COURSE DOCUMENTS in BLACKBOARD - when you start the PPT and the song at the same time the slides move with the music.  Let's just say I had that song THOROUGHLY memorized by the time I got the timing right on that one! 

• Here is an example of a PPT I wrote as an pre-reading for the book, Koala Lou (Mem Fox). http://edtech.tph.wku.edu/~ppetty/koalaloupre.ppt  taken from:  http://www.pampetty.com/koalalou.htm
   

• PowerBacks:  100 free PowerPoint backgrounds (also available 2,000 backgrounds for $49.99)

• PowerPoint Plug-ins - commercial products (plug-ins) available to expand your PowerPoint capabilities - free trial downloads allow you to preview applications

• PowerPoint in the Classroom  - This is more than a little "hokey," but if you are in the beginning stages and need a very basic explanation of "how-to's" related to designing PowerPoint presentations, you might find this useful.   

• Frequently Asked Questions about PowerPoint - Information for more advanced users ... comprehensive site that includes how-to's, troubleshooting, special effects, etc.  

• PowerPointAnswers.com - A little heavy on the advertising, but does contain some useful information especially for those wanting to try out some new applications.  

• Technology for Teachers:  PowerPoint Tutorial - Another VERY good tutorial that includes screen shots, explanations of all buttons and tool bars, and a presentation that gives many good design tips.  This would be a good site for anyone still working on the "basics" of using PowerPoint or a site you would recommend to your students for their use in designing PowerPoint presentations as part of your coursework.  

• PowerPoint Links - Nice collection of on-line resources ... very comprehensive. 

• PowerPoint Tips and Tricks - Just what it says it is. 

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Desktop Publishing

         Publisher:  http://desktoppub.about.com/od/software/f/software_list.htm

                         http://desktop-publishing-software-review.toptenreviews.com/

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Word Processing:  http://www.webopedia.com/TERM/W/word_processing.html

                                     http://education.uregina.ca/iteachered/modules/faculty/module1.html

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Tutorials Just for Teachers

• One thing to keep in mind when you are setting your technology goals is that if you expect your students to be able to USE technology for learning, someone will have to TEACH them HOW to use the technology.  That "someone" is likely to be you, as you are the "expert" on what technology applications you want your students to use and HOW you want the technology used in the classroom or as tools for learning outside the classroom.  To that end, Microsoft offers a large variety of tutorials for educators to use that are geared for specific age groups, content areas, and software applications. 

   

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Microsoft Office Tutorials. 

• A site that offers video training on Office applications. 

• This is a website that offers training courses (for a price) on all of Word and other applications:
  http://www.customguide.com/ 

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Excel

• Need to view an Excel file and do not have Excel on your computer?  No problem - MSN allows a quick download of an Excel file VIEWER

• Learn 10 secrets about Excel from a Microsoft webcast. 

• Video training on-line:  http://www.customguide.com/excel_training/excel_training.htm (click on eLearning)

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Templates

• Microsoft offers dozens of fabulous templates you can download and use in many office applications. 

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