Using Spreadsheets and Databases in the Classroom

Considering the impact computer-based spreadsheets and databases have had on the business world over the past few decades, it is astounding how rarely they seem to be used in the classroom.

Sure, teachers these days often use spreadsheets or databases to record class rosters or digital gradebooks, and that's useful and great... but it doesn't address the fact that our students are growing up in the information age and will be finding work in a global knowledge-based economy. Because of this, it is more critical than ever that students know why and how to use tools that help them sort, organize, and explore the vast amounts of information that is being created and shared every day via the Internet.

This is where spreadsheets and databases come in.

Spreadsheets
Most teachers in classrooms today have at least some experience with Microsoft Excel. This is a spreadsheet program, but it is not the only one. There is a free online Google Spreadsheet program which is similar (but not as full-featured) as Microsoft Excel. There is also OpenOffice Calc, which is a free download to install on your computer and also reads/writes Excel files.

Spreadsheet software provides a large table of cells which can contain a variety of data -- text, dates, numbers, currency, etc. Although the spreadsheet can be used as a basic storage and organization system this way, its real strength lies in the ability to perform long or complex calculations as well as the ability to easily visualize data sets using charts and graphs.

Relative Advantages: Spreadsheets allow both students and teachers to perform calculations on large sets of numbers quickly and efficiently. One benefit is that the spreadsheet software allows for quickly creating visual representations of data using a variety of charts and graphs, which can sometimes help to illustrate disparity or similarity between numbers far more quickly or powerfully than the numbers themselves could. Another benefit of working with calculations and formulas is that students can quickly see how changing certain numbers affects the overall output or result of the formula. This allows them to focus on higher-level concepts (Roblyer, 2006, p. 132) but it is important, if students are new to spreadsheets, to teach spreadsheet concepts and familiarity before using it to teach math concepts (Thorsen, 2009, p. 237).

Databases
Database software seems to be much more daunting for teachers to approach, perhaps because they are a little more time-consuming and complex than Excel, or perhaps because teachers are not as familiar with their use since they would not be a likely tool as a class gradebook (they are, however, perfectly suited as SIS software: student information systems.) Many databases -- especially high-end ones used by businesses -- cost money. However, there are several smaller and easy-to-use databases, including FileMaker and Microsoft Access (part of the Office suite) as well as OpenOffice's free version, Base. Computer programmers who want to create database-driven websites often use a free and powerful database called MySQL.

It's really a shame that databases are underutilized in the classroom, because they are truly powerful tools and are useful for organizing, filing, and "making sense" of large quantities of data. A "database" is just what it sounds like: a "base" or place for storing and organizing data. Like spreadsheets, this data can include a variety of formats such as dates, numbers, and text. However, the grouping and relationships between types of data can be more clearly defined in a database. Unlike spreadsheets, databases are used less for calculations or visual representations and more for organizing, analyzing, and predicting by using queries or "questions" to ask the database about what types of records it contains in its tables.

Relative Advantages: The biggest benefit of using a database is that it allows people to quickly find specific facts or information and to organize that information in a way that helps them determine relationships or answer questions. For this reason, it is an ideal problem-solving and inquiry-based learning tool. Effective uses of a database would be lessons that require students to describe something unknown based on its characteristics; make a decision or analyze a problem; or make a prediction based on existing data (Thorsen, 2009, p. 203). Databases also allow multiple people to access a central repository of data, which eliminates redundancy of storage and helps ensure accurate and up-to-date content. However, it is important that students have structured guidance in asking relevant questions and analyzing the results (Roblyer, 2006, p. 139).

Example Academic Activities
Click here to see examples of activities that could be performed by students as young as elementary school as part of a thematic unit about transportation.

References

Roblyer, M. D. (2006). Integrating Educational Technology Into Teaching (4th Ed.) Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson.

Thorsen, C. (2009). Tech Tactics: Technology for Teachers. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson.

The "Relative Advantage" of Educational Software

In a recent Silicon Tower posting, I wrote about a teacher who jumped right in to using Kidspiration software, believing it would give a great advantage over pencil-and-paper graphic organizers. But does it really?

In that example, the teacher would have actually been better off using graphic organizers on paper, even though one big advantage of Kidspiration is that it will convert a visual organizer into a basic writing outline -- a transition that isn't always easy to do otherwise. This advantage of using the software tool is its relative advantage -- the advantage that it has in relation to an alternative or traditional method of meeting the same goal. However, software -- like other educational technology (and all technology, in general) -- is just a tool, and thus must be weighed for both its advantages and disadvantages. Although there are many, many applications and instances where educational software tools will provide a clear advantage, we must be sure we are using the right tool for the right job at the right time. It cannot be denied that, sometimes, computers are simply not the right tool.

In the example here, the relative advantages of using Kidspiration versus pencil/paper organizers was that it was new/novel (thus inspiring and motivating students) , that it saves resources (paper and time needed to make worksheets), and that it helps students transition from concepts and ideas to structured, organized writing. However, the disadvantages were that the teacher was unwilling or unable to teach the students effective use of the software, and that the students could only use this tool once per week for 30 minutes (whereas they could have repeated and unlimited practice in class or at home on paper.)

It is extremely important that we evaluate and understand the advantages of educational technology tools before spending valuable resources (time and/or money) on them. Software tools need to be purposefully selected and integrated into instruction not based on how "new", "cool", or "powerful" they are, but based on whether the technology provides an advantage in meeting an educational goal. Let us consider some of the ramifications of jumping headfirst into using a technology before evaluating its purpose or advantage for the educational task:

1. If the software is poorly designed, or is brand new but untested or unproven, it may be worse than using traditional methods or older technologies.
   
2. If the software is a good tool, but not the right tool for the lesson at hand, student performance will suffer and students will learn less than if they didn't use the technology at all.
3. If the teacher is untrained, unwilling, or unable to teach and guide students in effective use of the software, it will not be effectively integrated.
   
4. If using traditional methods (pens, pencils, books, paper, verbal discussions, etc) would result in superior performance or better learning, then it is a waste to use technology.
5. If any of the above occur, instructional time is wasted, learning is impeded, and the reputation of using educational technology is harmed. If low performance is perceived to occur in spite of (or even "because of") technology, this will make it difficult to convince anyone to invest future time, money, or effort in acquiring and using educational technology.

So what is the solution?

The solution to this problem lies in carefully weighing and considering the benefits or relative advantage of a given technology when applied to a specific learning task, challenge, or obstacle. We must consider:

• What is the problem that needs to be addressed?
• What tools (traditional or cutting-edge, or anything in-between) are available to address that problem?
• What tool(s) provides the greatest advantages in addressing the problem or meeting the goal?
• Is that tool's relative advantage worth the cost? If not, is there another relatively-advantageous tool that is more cost-effective?

One way to do this is by creating a "Relative Advantage Chart" (click here to see an example) in which you list problems/needs in one column, solutions in another column, and advantages of technology solutions in the third column. If the technology does not offer a clear advantage, it probably should not be used. If it does offer clear advantages, this helps to make the case to administrators or teachers who may be reluctant to spend time or money in purchasing, learning, or integrating these solutions into the curriculum.

One great way to evaluate the (potential) advantages of educational software is to use one of the many existing sites or instruments for software evaluation. Click here and scroll down to "Educational Software Review Instruments" and "Educational Software Review Sites" at Kathy Schrock's guide on DiscoveryEducation.com: http://school.discoveryeducation.com/schrockguide/sci-tech/scicom.html

In addition, I will soon be updating TechEdWorld.com to be a full-featured educational software resource, including:

• links to multiple educational programs (to buy, download, or use online), searchable by grade and/or subject
  
• review and evaluation of each program
• basic training tutorial videos to help teachers (and students and parents) quickly learn how each program works and how to effectively use it
  

What is "Technological Literacy"?

I remember when, during my first year of teaching, I approached some of the administrators at my school and said "You know, literacy is very important... but I don't understand why we aren't teaching these kids digital or media literacy. I mean, words are wonderful and they serve a powerful purpose that visual media can't; but on the other hand, our modern society, global economy, and ease of media creation means more and more communication is occurring via graphics, video, animation, and websites. Why is there no focus on new literacy, including analyzing, using, and creating multimedia?"

I was lambasted for having such a thought, especially since I was a language arts teacher. Ironically, this was at a middle school in San Jose, California -- in the heart of Silicon Valley, the birthplace of "new media." This was the home of Apple, Cisco, Oracle, eBay, Adobe, and Google. And these schools were saying that technology and multimedia literacy are irrelevant??

Lo and behold, 8 years later and the higher powers (NCLB) certainly haven't shifted their focus... but a lot of sensible and rational people have started to realize the validity and importance of a "new" definition of literacy. The North Central Regional Educational Laboratory and the Metiri Group (2003) provide a definition of Literacy for the Digital Age which includes verbal/traditional literacy, scientific literacy, economic literacy, technological literacy, visual literacy, information literacy, multicultural literacy, and global awareness. These are all things which I argued were becoming increasingly critical skills for students to be independent citizens and contributors in our global society.

The original (and often still-held) viewpoint on learning "tech skills" or tech literacy is that students can get those abilities by occasionally attending a computer class or computer lab session, or (even more fallacious) that they will automatically acquire these skills on their own since most students have computers at home.

Fortunately, many forward-thinking schools and teachers are starting to realize that, although students may become quite adept at learning skills they want to learn (Facebook, MySpace, iPhones, texting, Twitter, YouTube and video games), these may not exactly be the skills that will translate into productivity or success throughout their lives. For that, they need frequent guidance and opportunity.

To see how such skills can be seamlessly incorporated into other important higher-order thinking, we can look to Bloom's Taxonomy -- a long-standing and widely adopted hierarchy of cognitive abilities in students. If we simply look into what actions are required at each level of the taxonomy -- as Andrew Churches (2008) has done -- we will see that computer skills can be incorporated, learned, reinforced, and used as tools at every stage of cognitive growth.

Given the reasonableness and reality of this situation, it would be wise to start adopting and strengthening such skills immediately. To this end, ISTE (the International Society for Technology in Education) has developed National Educational Technology standards (NETS) for students. These standards reinforce and delineate the types of skills laid out both by the Metiri Group and by Mr. Churches -- and, by extension, Benjamin Bloom -- to prepare the students of today for the world of tomorrow.

Technology is not an automatic panacea. When can you expect technology to be effective?

Recently I had the pleasure (from a sociological perspective) of observing an older, self-proclaimed "tech-savvy" teacher on my staff come into the computer lab and begin telling me about a professor he heard on NPR who used computers with students to plan and make concept-maps for their writing, and how brilliant that was. "Oh, you mean like Kidspiration?" I replied.

He blinked. "Kidspiration? What's that?"

"Well, it's basically what you just described -- it's a software program for visually organizing, sorting, and organizing informaion for writing assignments. It's based on a program called Inspiration, but this one is tailored to kids."

I loaded it up and showed him the basics, and he said "Wow. Wow, it's amazing what technology can do these days. I would have loved this if I had this available when I was a kid. Why isn't everybody using this? I should be bringing the kids in and having them use this."

To which I cautioned him: "Whoah, whoah, whoah. It's a great tool, but in essence it really isn't any different than using the graphic organizers which you can print on paper and give to kids. You have to do it in a guided, purposeful way... and you have to explicitly teach the kids how you want them to use it. There needs to be a clear end-goal, and you'll have to demonstrate with some direct instruction. It's just a tool... if you bring them in and plop them in front of it, they may find it neat or intriguing, but they're not going to learn or accomplish much."

Completely disregarding what I said, he brought his students in later that week, and I saw many of them using Kidspiration -- but not in any logical or purposeful way. They were merely clicking the buttons, adding pictures, and linking them. While proponents of constructivist learning might argue that this is learning, the fact is that such exploration was not going to result in any meaningful product or applied cognitive connections, at least not any time soon (ie. before they graduate from 6th grade.)


I relay this anecdote because it perfectly illustrates multiple hurdles of technology education:

1. Access to hardware, software, and other resources is essential
Part of the problem in the above scenario could be that the teacher did not have resources available to provide whole-class direct instruction in use of the computer tools. There are only 3 computers in his classroom of 24 students, and those students only get 30 minutes per week of whole-class computer access in the school computer lab.

It might seem obvious that, in order to learn with and about technology, technology must be present. Although access to computers in schools has grown significantly over the past few decades, many schools have only a few or even just a single computer in the classroom. The average computer-to-student ratio is currently around 4 or 5 students per computer. Yet studies are beginning to show that students provided computers in a 1-to-1 ratio outperform peers in traditional classrooms. For one thing, it should be intuitively obvious that more computers means more time on the computers for practice. But, perhaps more importantly, a one-to-one ratio means that whole-group instruction can be provided with explicit teacher guidance.

When students must share resources, it is possible that only some will monopolize the machines (in a group setting, this could result in off-task behavior as well as disenfranchised students.) Even more troubling, certain beneficial tasks such as direct instruction in use of the tools, collaborative communications, and direct-response quizzes and polls are rendered impossible.

2. Technology solutions must be well-planned and rationally selected
Clearly, there is a need to acquire more technology... but it isn't as simple as that. Technology changes rapidly and schools never have ideal funding for the technologies they may want, so it is important to prioritize based on needs rather than on buying whatever cutting-edge gadgets may be available (Roblyer, 2006, pp. 64-65). Instead of thinking "This shiny new gadget seems pretty cool! How can we use it?" schools should be asking "What needs do we have and could they be met by technology? Which technology would best fill that role?" Just because something is newer or more expensive does not mean it is the right tool for the job.

Consider these examples:

• Students need to learn how to locate and evaluate online information for research and synthesis. The teacher may like using his or her Mac at home so the firt thought might be "Let's get a Mac lab." Yet purchasing a full class set of iMacs is going to run $1000 per computer... and that doesn't include the problem of finding space and electrical wiring for the workstations. A little diligent research would reveal that the exact same online research activities could be done with $250 netbook computers, which are small enough to be easily stored and portable enough to be shared between classrooms.
• Students are required to learn how to create spreadsheets for a math or science activity. The first thought may be to teach students Microsoft Excel, since that has long been a "real world" standard. Yet a cash-strapped school could save a lot of money by using either Google Apps (free, but requires internet connectivity/bandwidth) or OpenOffice (free, Microsoft-compatible, and runs on local computers)

3. It's not the medium, but instructional methods that cause learning
Even when technology is acquired and becomes available, teachers must be proficient in using that technology effectively. It was absurd in the example above for the teacher to assume that placing students in front of the software would automatically lead to successful creation of a product or knowledge because technology is, essentially, a "tool." Merriam-Webster defines technology as: "a manner of accomplishing a task especially using technical processes, methods, or knowledge." Thus technology can be mental tools or physical tools. If you hand someone a hammer, wood, and nails (the tools for building a house) does a house automatically construct itself? No. Tools must be used or applied. The same goes for technology; you cannot simply sit someone in front of a given software or hardware device -- especially ones designed for synthesis, creation, or other higher-order tasks -- and expect them to automatically create something. Patricia Deubel writes in The Great Debate: Effectiveness of Technology in Education:

... Robert Kozma, emeritus director and principal scientist at SRI International, who stated in a recent debate (The Economist, 2007) that "technology can make a particularly significant contribution when coordinated with the training of teachers to integrate technology into their teaching, with applications that draw on the unique capabilities of technology, and with supportive curricular, assessment, and school contexts that advance complex problem solving, creative thinking, and life-long learning--skills that are needed to support an information society and knowledge economy" (sec: Con Opening Statement). However, it's not the medium, but instructional methods that cause learning. Educators need to think in a systematic way about how and when to incorporate any new pedagogical strategy, including media, into instruction.

But the question remains: how does such knowledge come about? Studies summarized by Roblyer (2006, p.65) make a few points about teacher training clear:

• "One-shot" inservice training is ineffective; training must be ongoing and incremental.
• Most teachers learn technology through effect modelers, mentors, and colleague interaction.
• Teachers need support and guidance even after training.

References

Deubel, P. (2007). The Great Debate: Effectiveness of Technology in Education. Retrieved February 8, 2010 from Eduscapes website: http://thejournal.com/articles/2007/11/08/the-great-debate-effectiveness-of-technology-in-education.aspx

Johnson, L. and Lamb, A. (2007). The One Computer Classroom. Retrieved February 8, 2010 from Eduscapes website: http://eduscapes.com/tap/topic84.htm

Roblyer, M. D. (2006). Integrating Educational Technology Into Teaching (4th Ed.) Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson.

Suhr, K. A., Hernandez, D. A., Grimes, D., Warschauer, M. (2010, January). Laptops and Fourth Grade Literacy: Assisting the Jump over the Fourth-Grade Slump. The Journal of Technology, Learning, and Assessment, 9(5). Retrieved February 6, 2010 from http://escholarship.bc.edu/jtla/vol9/5/