Daniella's Educational Technology Blog!

Saturday, March 13, 2010

Microsoft Office Publisher

Microsoft Office Publisher 2007

Tired of spending endless of money to buy greeting cards and invitation cards? Microsoft Office Publisher 2007 is a publishing application created by Microsoft that gives a variety of publications templates which helps you create, personalize, and share a wide range of publications and marketing materials right on your computer. Publisher has a variety of customizable design templates, blank publications, including greeting cards, newsletters, brochures, flyers, postcards, web sites, email formats and more. Alongside the built-in templates and layouts, users can easily create their own template content and color schemes. Users can also insert their personal pictures onto the templates.

Microsoft publisher is simple to use and has a user friendly interface. Children can use this software to create valentine's day, mother's day, father's day or even happy birthday cards for their friends and family. Students can also create newsletters and flyers for their class or school.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QHzcFQEQNzE

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C9G6jZfUv_I&feature=PlayList&p=0A51137EA121ABC4&playnext=1&playnext_from=PL&index=1

Blogs that I comments on

http://edutechnology111.blogspot.com/

Friday, February 19, 2010

Educational Software Tool - Jolly Phonics

Enter the interactive world of Jolly Phonics which is an educational software that teaches how to read and write. It has been developed by two primary school teachers, Sue Lloyd and Sara Wernham in 1987 and is ideal for children at all levels of early reading.

http//www.jollylearning.com/

Jolly Phonics uses the synthetic phonics method of teaching which first teaches the letter sounds and then builds up to blending these sounds together to achieve full pronunciation of whole words. This method allows children to learn how to use the letter sounds to read and write words.

Jolly Phonics teaches five basic skills for reading and writing in a way that is fun and multi-sensory. Teaching this way reinforces learning and the use of the hand with the eye encourages seeing in the proper left-to-right direction, thereby avoiding reversals of letters. Jolly Phonics teaches learning the letter sounds, letter reformation, blending, indentifying sounds in words and spelling tricky words.

The software is designed to be fun for students as it provides attractive graphic-rich images that is colourful and fun for learners. It uses three interesting characters that captures children's imagination whilst helping expand their reading and writing. These characters interact with each other in the teaching process of sounds and words.

The video clip below shows how Jolly Phonics work

Jolly Phonics has been developed so that parents can use it confidently and easily. It is equipped with support products such as audio tapes and a range of Jolly Learning literature to enhance learning for learners who learn at different paces. It enables teachers and parents to deliver lessons in a fun and engaging way using a wide variety of activities.

On my Practicum Field Observation I observed a teacher in one of Trinidad's primary schools using another Jolly Phonics resource in first year classroom. This resource seemed to be very effective in the classroom as the students were engrossed in the exercise, they paid full attention and was very interested in the phonics programme.

For more information of Jolly Phonics you can click link:

http://www.sunshinefortune.com/en/main.php?optionid=29&auto_id=46

Here is a catalog which gives thorough information on The Jolly Learning process

http://www.jollylearning.co.uk/2009%20US%20Catalog.pdf

Share

Blogs that i have commented on

http://denisehiliare.blogspot.com/2010/02/arthurs-math-games_22.html

http://jamilapennie.blogspot.com/

Friday, January 29, 2010

Educational Software Tool - IXL Math

EDUCATIONAL SOFTWARE TOOL

Product name : IXL Math

IXL is a math practice tool developed by Quia Corporation, which was founded in 1998. The goal of Quia Corporation is to revolutionize education through Web technology. The web site is http://www.ixl.com/math/. IXL's fundamental mission is to improve and invigorate the learning experience for students, parents, and teachers.

This software tool is for educators and families that adapts to a student's individual level of proficiency and includes achievement awards and progress. The relevance of the software is to track their students’ progress using IXL’s vast library of detailed reports.

IXL is suitable for children from the pre-kindergarden stage to Standard 5.

There is over 1,000 topics which provides unlimited math questions. This allows students to improve their skills and confidence in a subject that so many students struggle with. New challenges are often met and new doors are open to a new world of academic success.

The image below shows the different skills offered at different stages at IXL Math.

The software is designed to be fun for students. It provides attractive graphic-rich screens and a challenging game board, which motivated the student to keep at it. Instant feed-back helps them learn from their mistakes, the students are then rewarded with certificates for their accomplishments. Progress reports are emailed to parents or teachers.

An image showing IXL's straight-forward interface that is colourful and attractive.

IXL’s problems include a mix of styles, including audio-enabled practices, multiple choice and fill-in-the-blank, to ensure actual skill mastery. It is easy to use as it is designed with a clean, uncluttered interface, which provides an environment that won’t distract students from their math goals, and parents and teachers can monitor students with simple, yet powerful, tools. IXL provides an engaging environment to strengthen children's math skills and an opportunity to learn at their own pace.

Here are some examples of questions: