Resources: Software Tools for Teachers & Students

Word Processing

Microsoft Word | AppleWorks

A handy-dandy word processor that can have text, pictures and link students to sites on the Internet!!!

Graphic Organizers

Inspiration | Kidspiration

Inspiration® is a powerful visual learning tool that inspires students to develop ideas and organize thinking. Inspiration's integrated diagramming and outlining environments work together to help students comprehend concepts and information. An intuitive interface keeps students' focus where it should be on their ideas, not the drawing process. Inspiration's powerful Outline view allows students to quickly prioritize and rearrange ideas, helping them create clear, concise essays, reports and more.

Multimedia Authoring tools

Microsoft PowerPoint | KidPix | Hyperstudio | WebPage Editors
A presentation graphics software--Create attention grabbing slides to enhance any oral presentation! Students write and illustrate their own storyboards! Historians design and narrate a documentary! Scientists present methods, data, and findings with pictures, graphs and text! Poets illustrate and orchestrate their own lyrics or understandings of published muses! Teachers and students create web pages for use on the Internet or individual computers!

Database & Spreadsheets

Microsoft Excel | Microsoft Access | AppleWorks
A database and spreadsheet dream! Scientists and historians record data, chart it and draw conclusions! Activists create a database of addresses and names to send letters to inform them about your issue! Mathematicians compound interest and learn the value of a penny saved! Budding social scientists do gender analysis on student books and compare the results in a grandly colored chart!

Desktop Publishing

Microsoft Publisher | AppleWorks
Desktop publishing software for creating brochures, pamphlets, business cards, postcards, and whole heck of a lot of other things--Journalists create a newspaper for the Roman Times! Health students write local versions of self-help brochures! Budding authors write and publish their own children's book!

Telecommunications

Video Conferencing | Web Browsers | E-Mail | Chats | Newsgroups | Instant Messaging
The world at your fingertips! Grab pictures, link students to informative and well-designed websites, connect with other students from around the globe! Connect with other teachers and other classrooms across the district, the country or even the globe!

Digital Peripherals

Digital Camera | Digital Video | Scanner
Capture candids of people, places, and things from around the world, your very own neighborhood, the hallways in your school, and even your very own classroom! Create a virtual tour for students to get to know the school! Shoot a brief commercial as salespeople try to capture your attention!

Math Software

Geometer's Sketchpad
Sketchpad is a dynamic construction and exploration tool that enables students to explore and understand mathematics visually. Students can construct an object and then explore its mathematical properties by dragging the object with a mouse. Sketchpad encourages a process of discovery in which students first visualize and analyze a problem and then make conjectures before attempting a proof. Teachers use Sketchpad to create worksheets, exams, and reports by exporting Sketchpad figures and measurements to spreadsheets, word processors, other drawing programs, and the Web.

Multimedia Reference Tools

Encarta | Groliers | Comptons | Britannica (CD-Rom/Online Encyclopedias)
Stuffed into a CD-ROM, what used to take bookshelves now takes a simple plastic case as these reference tools jam pack pictures, text, hyperlinks and animated graphics to give kids and you access to a world of interesting information!