I really enjoyed navigating through this site! I thought the subject matter provided exceptional visual tools for elementary learners. Additionally, the various challenging tasks, which appears to be appropriate for the targeted audience [K-5 learners], both provokes deep thinking and fosters creativity. Kidspiration covers the basic fundamental subjects of elementary education: Reading/Writing, Math, Science and Social Studies.
The "Writing View" exercise is "spot on" in terms of gauging the students' ability to grasp, comprehend and justify their answers to the various tasks. In brief, in this exercise, the students must explain why they made the decisions they did [an excellent metric].
As a future educator, with the aspiration of teaching math, I spent a great deal of time examining the math feature. The concept of consistently utilizing "building blocks" for the various math applications will make the learning process much more effective in garnering a success rate.
This may be a strong statement, but in my assessment, software of this caliber should be mandated/part of the NJCCCS for K-5 learners [as it relates to mastering educational software].
Throughout this course, both out of curiosity, and in an effort to ascertain if "textbook learning" is actually applicable to what is being taught and/or utilized in today's classroom settings, I often make a point of consulting with current educators to solicit feedback.
Not sure if this is indicative of the districts in the aggregate, but in this instance, to my dismay, in speaking with K-5 educators, overwhelmingly, most are not using this software. The reason was consistent - Apparently, Kidspiration does not adequately adhere to/addresses the New Jersey Core Curriculum Content Standards [NJCCCS].
Instead of using Kidspiration, a large majority are utilizing various Scholastic Software packages, which based upon their archived achievement levels, better suits/prepares students in meeting the state mandated standards.
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Ron, great comment about Kidspiration not meeting NJ standards. I wonder if this company has any intention of upgrading its material to meet the needs of our state. I would think that most states have the same standard criteria (at least that makes sense in my mind)and that the products available to teachers should meet most of these requirements. Interesting point you make!
ReplyDeleteTo go further in the idea that many are not using this software, I think there are two reasons. First, the components two use this software in the classroom are expensive. Not every district has realized the importance of technology and thus has not budgeted properly for it yet.
ReplyDeleteSecond we also need to consider the number of classroom teacher who began their careers prior to the technology boom of the early 2000's. A lot of this type of equipment is relatively new, using would force some teachers to change the methods and experiment with things that are not proven in their minds.
Taran,
ReplyDeleteAs always, thanks for providing both very thoughtful and candid feedback! I particularity appreciate the fact that you provide further validity to some of my, although unscientific, solicited feedback from other educators.
Eddie,
You presented an angle I did not fully consider [the number of educators in today's classrooms who began their careers prior to the boom in educational technology]. You make an excellent point!
Having made that point however, from my perspective, not only as educators, but as effective educators, learning must never cease. We need to be willing to stay current, be contemporary, retrain, retool...