Journal+3

What are some effective methods of using the Microsoft Office Suite in your classroom?

As demonstrated in class, perhaps the most obvious way a teacher may make use of Microsoft Office is by using Excel to maintain a grade book. I found the idea of having students create and maintain their own grade record intriguing as a means of giving students a greater sense of ownership over their academic efforts.

PowerPoint is also a useful tool for making lectures more exciting, but it does not in itself ensure effective teaching and learning. It does give teachers a way to present information in a more visually compelling style including the use of digital images and even videos. Students, too, can use the program to create non-linear projects, be they hypertext fiction or poetry, user-guided reports, or exploratory projects. Students can also simulate the process of designing a webpage without the distractions and dangers of the internet.

Word is probably the most ubiquitous use of Microsoft Office in schools. Aside from using this to write papers, letters, and reports, teachers and students can use it to produce webpages. Used in combination with Excel, it can also be used by a teacher to conduct a mass mailing, say of letters to parents. A major positive of using this software is that it is operable on a PC or a Mac. Completed documents can even be made into .pdfs so that the author (or teacher) has a virtual proof of what was written.

THE END

Back to Elizabeth's Page