Home File Management Pathfinder Multimedia Online Communication Teacher Tools Internet Tools

Teaching and Technology E-Portfolio:

Teacher Tools

Productivity software is a versatile way to use computers for professional effectiveness. In this module, I explored a variety of programs and tools to use in the classroom.

Grade book – I customarily use a grade book as part of Blackboard to keep track of numerical data. For this module, I chose to create an electronic spreadsheet using Microsoft Excel.

Reflection: I customarily use the gradebook part of BlackBoard for student grades.  This was my first attempt at using Excel for such a purpose.  Since I'm not teaching a course this semester, I chose to make up a gradebook loosely based on past classes.  I am familiar with Excel and have used it for other such numerical data that lends itself to spreadsheet application.  To add to the project, I decided to also insert a bar graph on the second page as a visual of the data and to improve spreadsheet analysis.

Newsletter – This is my first attempt to create a newsletter. It is also my first attempt at using Microsoft Publisher. Using this software offered me an opportunity to deliver the newsletter via email for online distribution to our faculty. It was created to alert our University patrons of library services and information, especially our upcoming move.

Reflection: This is my first attempt to create a newsletter.  It is also my first attempt at using Publisher.  I found the program to be user friendly and easy to manipulate.  Templates were helpful at times, but at other times, I felt restricted with the format in customizing to my needs.  I found the ability to convert the publication into PDFs helpful and was able to quickly provide copies for our patrons.  I also value the feature of storing frequently used text and graphics in the 'Content Library'.  It allowed me to put the newsletter into an e-mail template for online distribution to our faculty.