Alphasmarts & Excel

2/4/08

This week in Chapter Three, we learned about more computer basics, just as hardware, software, and school networking. We also talked about Alphasmarts. I’ve never even heard of an Alphasmart. At first, I thought they were a little silly because it seemed to be just a keyboard, but when I saw that you could upload the information onto a big screen so that the entire classroom could see it, I thought that was kind of cool. We also learned about Excel. Excel has always been something I’ve avoided because it looks messy, but after the Tutorial, I learned that it’s not nearly as bad as it seems.
In my future classroom, I do not know if Alphasmarts will be handy. It depends on the level at which my students are functioning, but if I am placed in my ideal classroom, which would be about seven students with moderate disabilities, I do not think I will have much of a use for Alphasmarts. Excel could be useful for me at the teacher, however, because I can store information about the students in an easy-to-use and easy-to-access spreadsheet.