Relative Advantages of Spreadsheet Software

This week’s topic presents interesting challenges to me in regard to the relative advantages of using spreadsheets in the classroom.  I can think of a variety of ways that I use them myself, mostly for data collection purposes.  But even still, I do not have extensive background knowledge in spreadsheet use.  In fact, I think it might be the area of technology I am the least familiar with.  As the only way I will overcome this unfamiliarity is through experience with the tool that I cannot report on at this point, I would like to focus on the other challenge that I face with this topic, and that is the advantage of integrating spreadsheets into 3rd Grade English Language Arts.

Roblyer and Doering (2013) propose four major advantages to the use of spreadsheets in the classroom in general.  The first advantage is that spreadsheets are able to quickly calculate mathematical equations quickly, as a result both teachers and students alike are able to save time spent on hand calculations.  Another advantage is that spreadsheets provide an organized way of displaying information for charts and schedules because of the row and column layout of the worksheets within each spreadsheet file.  Spreadsheets also allow users to analyze “what if” scenarios by manipulating numbers within formulas and observing the results that follow.  The final advantage proposed by Roblyer and Doering is that the use of spreadsheets in the classroom increase students’ motivation to engage in mathematics, as they provide an interactive way to calculate numbers that is not often utilized.

There are also additional advantages to the use of spreadsheets in the classroom, many of which are discussed in Teachnology’s article outlining how Excel can be used in the classroom.  Spreadsheets make it easy to compare data between sets of information.  Also, the ease with which students are able to create graphic representations of data allows them to spend more time interpreting data then they do structuring the data.  This allows for more efficient teaching methods as well, because students are able to see a variety of ways to represent data based on the same set of information.  This allows teachers to address concepts in one day, that traditionally may have taken several days.

There are a multitude of ways that teachers can integrate spreadsheet-use into mathematics, but language arts seemed, at first, to be a little more difficult.  I had to think a little bit deeper than just the face-value functions of the spreadsheet tool.  After I had some ideas of my own, I set out to search for activities that others have used to implement spreadsheets into the classroom.  It was through this process that I came to discover what I believe to be the most relevant relative advantage for using spreadsheets in my language arts instruction. The curriculum my school district uses for ELA places great emphasis on the ability to comprehend information in graphic sources.  Spreadsheets are an efficient way for students to collect and enter their own data, create their own tables and graphs based on the information, and then write a summary of their findings.  Interpreting data that is meaningful to students adds an extra element of relevance to their learning experience.  

Spreadsheets are predominantly used as a mathematical teaching tool, but there are also many relative advantages involved in the use of spreadsheets in a cross-curricular nature.  I am looking forward to exploring other opportunities to integrate spreadsheets into my classroom instruction.

References:

Roblyer, M.D. & Doerling, A.H. (2013). Integrating educational technology into teaching (6th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson.

Teachnology. (n.d.). Excel in the classroom. Retrieved from: http://www.teach-nology.com/tutorials/excel/