Software Review-Kidspiration
Betsy Sellers
I used Kidspiration to create a family tree for Social Studies that follows my second grade curriculum on ancestors. This program was not as easy as it looked, and I was grateful for the tutorials on Atomic Learning. I referred back to the Atomic Learning videos several times when I couldn’t get the result I wanted. Creating a basic product wasn’t too difficult and I like that the software had a lot of templates already set for students to just fill in information. Curriculum areas included Reading and Writing, Social Studies, Science and Math. There is a wide variety of graphics and symbols available in many topics that are easy to add to a document. Students are able to save incomplete work to finish later. Students are able to choose different letter fonts, sizes and colors, and it is easy to “erase” or edit work by clicking on the eraser in the tool bar. It was time consuming to use the software for the first time, but I can see where students who are able to use Kidspiration regularly would enjoy it and benefit from the variety of creative ways to share information. I especially appreciated that the software “talked” to you and identified each tool as you used it. This is great for auditory learners. This software might be difficult for students who struggle with following steps in sequence as some tasks required several steps in a specific order. However, this program would be easy to adapt to a variety of learner abilities. Students with below grade level abilities would be able to use a template already created, and students above grade level could import their own graphics, record sound and even add web hyperlinks. I think this would be a very beneficial program to use in elementary classrooms (K-5) provided the students have enough time to use it on a regular basis.
Betsy Sellers
I used Kidspiration to create a family tree for Social Studies that follows my second grade curriculum on ancestors. This program was not as easy as it looked, and I was grateful for the tutorials on Atomic Learning. I referred back to the Atomic Learning videos several times when I couldn’t get the result I wanted. Creating a basic product wasn’t too difficult and I like that the software had a lot of templates already set for students to just fill in information. Curriculum areas included Reading and Writing, Social Studies, Science and Math. There is a wide variety of graphics and symbols available in many topics that are easy to add to a document. Students are able to save incomplete work to finish later. Students are able to choose different letter fonts, sizes and colors, and it is easy to “erase” or edit work by clicking on the eraser in the tool bar. It was time consuming to use the software for the first time, but I can see where students who are able to use Kidspiration regularly would enjoy it and benefit from the variety of creative ways to share information. I especially appreciated that the software “talked” to you and identified each tool as you used it. This is great for auditory learners. This software might be difficult for students who struggle with following steps in sequence as some tasks required several steps in a specific order. However, this program would be easy to adapt to a variety of learner abilities. Students with below grade level abilities would be able to use a template already created, and students above grade level could import their own graphics, record sound and even add web hyperlinks. I think this would be a very beneficial program to use in elementary classrooms (K-5) provided the students have enough time to use it on a regular basis.
1 comment:
I like your project Betsy! I wish I'd used this software for my family tree in ed364. I did a similar diagram (see my Blog Journal 9). Great description - I can't wait to use this in the classroom!
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