EDTECH 541: Spreadsheets Relative Advantage

Several benefits for integrating spreadsheets in the classroom stood out to me as I read Chapter Four. One of the benefits is clearly from a student perspective: the ability to add spreadsheets that can then create useful (and easy to read!) charts, graphs and timelines. The ability to make graphic displays of data is often a very powerful way to show both understanding by the student, as well as clearly explain concepts to others.  Being able to think about and answer "what if" questions as data changes and being able to quickly see results helps students develop logical thinking skills, and promote problem solving as well. The ability to change the data and demonstrate the accompanying changes to the timeline, chart, etc. is very valuable from a learning standpoint. In this case, for example, using spreadsheets to evaluate demographic data in a Social Studies class could provide valuable insight into comparing and contrasting nations, cultures, timeframes and more. The ability to easily generate charts that make visible data changes over time can lead to some extra critical thinking, communication and problem solving practice for students.

My subject matter area is high school biology, and (even though I don't teach that subject), it's easy to envision how collecting experiment observations, measurements, etc. via spreadsheet (or, even easier, via a Google Form) can lead to better record keeping, faster results, and more time to evaluate and truly understand the experiment and the outcomes.

In Math, used with care, spreadsheets can also remove some of the 'mundane' number crunching and replace that with some deeper thinking opportunities as students evaluate "what if" scenarios as the data changes. This can either be teacher led, perhaps more on the front end of a unit, or done by students as they delve into more complex mathematical constructs. This does assume that the students have learned the basic mathematical calculations that underlie the learning and are not using spreadsheets as a crutch.

As Roblyer and Doering noted, there is still a fear of "math" by some students (and, I would submit, some teachers too...). So, that would need to be overcome to ensure there is a level playing field in the classroom if the teacher wanted to utilize spreadsheets to support students'  deeper analysis and problem solving.

Here's my High School Biology - Spreadsheet site.

Thanks for any feedback you might have.


References



Roblyer, M.D., & Doering, A.H. (2013). Integrating educational technology into teaching. Boston,    
      MA: Pearson Education, Inc.