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While there is a wide range of software available, its use is driven by curricular needs. Rather than start with software, Star-W professional development stresses that teachers must first look a the curriculum and then determine how technology can help them deliver the curriculum, improve teaching, and facilitate learning.
While some of the software was already in the district and some or it was purchase with initial grant dollars, much of the freeware, shareware, and later purchases were obtained as the direct result of curricular needs
By focusing on curricular needs and setting curricular goals that are achieved through the use of technology the end assessment focuses on curricular objectives rather than technology objectives. In this way, technology is used as a tool for learning rather than becoming the objective of the lesson.
Below is a listing of software that is available to all teachers in the program. It includes free software resources that were brought in through the efforts of Star-W mentor, Art Wolinsky.
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Microsoft Office is a standard fixture in classrooms throughout the country
Kidspiration is used to develop concept mapping and planning skills, as well as being a powerful visual learning tool that reaches all learning styles.
Kid Pix is used in a wide range of motivational writing activities
HyperStudio is a powerful multimedia tool that will introduced to teachers toward the end of the 2004 school year and will be used during year two.
3DWriter is software developed by Star-W mentor and donated to the Atlantic City Schools. It is the world's simplest WYSISYG HTML editor. It allows teachers to maintain their own web pages here at the Star-W site and will be used by students in hypertext narrative writing and web publishing. This site was created with 3DWriter.
Documents to Go allows teachers to move Microsoft Office documents from computers to their Palm device.
QuickOffice allows students to create MicroSoft Office documents on their AlphaSmart Danas that can later be beamed to the teacher's Palm device.
Macromedia Contribute allows teachers to create and maintain their own areas of the web site with the ease of word processing and without the danger of impacting other areas of the site.
Typing Tutorials used by student in their free time and in guided activities, helps meet NJ and ISTE technology literacy standards. There are two freeware tutorials (10 Finger Breakout and Typing Test) that are loaded on each student station. Together with more formal activities using the AlphaSmart Danas that provide a good set of tools for achieving state and national keyboarding technology literacy standards.
Teemz Discussion Forum is a free CGI discussion forum used by students and teachers for response journal writing and many other activities such as poetry writing and problems of the week. Combined with lessons on Internet privacy, safety, and netiquette this is a important tool in attaining state and national technology literacy standards.
Hot Potato Software allows teachers to create interactive lessons, puzzles, tutorials, and quizzes that can be published to the web.
Blogger is a tool for instant publishing of journalistic material to the web. It's being used by Star-W mentor, Art Wolinsky, as a personal journal to document the project and to supplement the material being offered to grant evaluators. While state reporting must of necessity be in a format that can be easily handled, it doesn't portray a full or accurate picture of many things that are going on. The journal stands as a source of material for anyone who wants to get the big picture.
Web-and-Flow is a web based tool developed by WebQuest co-creator, Tom March. It is a complete professional development environment that allows teachers to create six different types of top quality, online, web-based activities that meet a variety of curricular needs.
ICT Literacy is the education division of the Learning Times Network, a group of online communities devoted to promoting online learning and Information Literacy. It provides a suite of interactive tools that will be used by StarW Mentor, Art Wolinsky to conduct online training and to facilitate collaborative activities of teachers and students.
CGI & Perl freeware scripts from Matt's Script Archive are used at the Star-W site to provide forms capabilities. Even if you don't have access to your own server, you can use online forms by taking advantage of the free service offered by Response-O-Matic.
Good Old Email is used extensively to communicate with teachers and grant coodinators as group and individually between visits. It extends the mentoring to become 24-7 and allows for planning which helps make each face-to-face visit effective and efficient.
All networked computers also have access to each computer can access the Compass Learning Software for Reading/ Language Arts, Compton's Encyclopedia, Idea Shaper, and Writing Expedition.
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