One of the major advances of personal
computers in the early 1980'2 was the spreadsheet which appeared under
the name Visicalc. Visicalc appears as a large accounting balance sheet
where you could add across the rows and down the columns almost magically.
And if you changed a number on the sheet all the totals would automatically
change. This feature was so desirable that people would buy computer
just to have and use the Visicalc program.
In the last quarter of a century many changes have
been made to the spreadsheet concept to the point where many persons
don't directly use spreadsheet but instead unknowingly use the concept
in other applications, typically on the Internet. Still the spreadsheet
remains a basic tool on personal computers along with word processing
and presentation programs.
Because spreadsheets can be very simple or very complex,
it's computational feature is very useful in the educations setting,
especially when gathering data and making calculations.
Microsoft Excel is a very popular spreadsheet and
comes with many tools similar to those in Microsoft Word, and in both
the PC and Mac platforms. In this class three exercises will be used
to refine our skills.
Exercise One - A Pre-/Post-Assessment Tool
The first exercise is one designed
as an activity for all in the teacher training programs. The essence
is that a class of students will be tested on their knowledge of a
topic before a lesson is taught and then tested again after the lesson.
In part the idea is to see how much they learned. The pre-lesson scores
and post-lesson scores are entered on a spreadsheet. The spreadsheet
computes the difference between the two scores (the learning gain)
and also the averages of smaller clusters of students within the class.
The third exercise allows more
flexibility and creativity. The instructions are open for the individual
to choose and design a project that would be used by students in a classroom
setting. This could a the gathering of daily temperatures and determining
the average, minimum and maximum temperatures for a week, month or year.
It could be a statistical analysis or a mortgage amortization or a mathematical
table. The complexity of the project and functions will depend on the
age and skills of the students and the purpose of the lesson. Refer
to the textbook "Microsoft Office of Teachers" for additional ideas.
Also use this textbook as a reference for enhancing your spreadsheet
skills.
Submitting the Spreadsheet Assignments
The first and third exercises
will be submitted as attachments to an email and sent to the instructor.
The second (the weighted gradebook) will be saved as a webpage in the
student's public_html folder or p-drive on the WOU server. These are
due March 16.
Office hours: Tuesday mornings: 9:00 - noon
Thursday mornings: 9:00 - noon
Other times aby appointment
Also contact me through email at saxowsd@wou.edu
or denvygail@saxowsky.com
