Greetings,
Blogging is not my style of communication. I prefer email because I like to write with a face in mind. Plus, I’ve discovered the hard way that it’s really best to compose in a word processor, then paste to my blog. The last time I tried to post directly online, a single glitch at upload wiped out my bytes of wisdom and I had nothing to show for my efforts after 45 minutes of work. Microsoft Word is so old school I feel guilty about using it for composition and wordsmithing. But I know it saves regularly and that’s pretty reassuring.
This week’s blurb will be about a program I just reviewed for Technology & Learning (http://www.techlearning.com/content/about/tl_current.php0). It’s not Microsoft Office 2008 (Macintosh), although my review of that product is currently online at the magazine’s Web site (http://www.techlearning.com/showArticle.php?articleID=196605064). Rather, it’s the new version of Kidspiration by the folks who also publish Inspiration. Kidspiration 3 brings concept mapping to the K-3 desktop. Folks at Inspiration claim the program is for grades K-5, but Kidspiration 3 has a “kiddie” look to it which older students find too young. They prefer Inspiration because it’s a more “grown up” tool.
There are those who say that concept mapping applications like Kidspiration or Inspiration accommodate the visual learner because users can work with pictures to represent words and ideas. But that would be doing Kidspiration 3 a disservice. The versatile program has tools for visual, auditory and tactile learning and this version has really beefed up kid-friendly tools aligned with NCTM (National Council of Teachers of Mathematics) Curriculum Focal Points for grades K-5 (http://www.nctmmedia.org/cfp/focal_points_by_grade.pdf).
Like previous versions, Kidspiration 3 features the familiar Picture and Writing views. In these workspaces kids use pictures to represent ideas, convert pictures to words, hear text read aloud, and transfer work to a word processor for further editing. The added Math View includes 5 highly interactive math activities targeting problem solving, reasoning, and critical thinking in Numbers and Operations (for whole numbers and fractions), Geometry (angles, orientation, and both 2-dimensional and 3-dimensional shapes), Measurement (including area and length), and even Algebra (multiples, factors, patterns and number sequences).
I haven’t seen an educational product this good in a really long time. It has several activities you can use with your students, plus really good online help with more resources if you want to build on the work of other educators (http://www.inspiration.com/productinfo/kidspiration/using_kids/index.cfm). If you teach younger children or work with students who could benefit from visual, auditory and tactile learning supports, this product is certainly worth a second look. Download a 30-day free trial (http://www.inspiration.com/freetrial/index.cfm) and give it a test drive.
Company: Inspiration Software, Inc, http://www.inspiration.com, 800-877-4292
System Requirements: Macintosh or Windows; Will work with older (PowerPC G3 or Pentium II) or newer processors running at 266 MHz or faster (Windows) or 300 MHz or faster (Macintosh); OS X version 10.2.9 or later; Windows 98 or later; 192 MB RAM or more (Macintosh); 128 MB RAM or more (Window), 75 MB free hard drive space.
Price: $69 (single copy); $310 (5-computer licenses); $550 (10-computer licenses); $895 (20-computer licenses); volume pricing available.
About the Author: Carol S. Holzberg, PhD, cholzberg@gmail.com, (Shutesbury, Massachusetts) is an educational technology specialist and anthropologist who writes for several publications. She works as District Technology Coordinator for Greenfield Public Schools and the Greenfield Center School (Greenfield, Massachusetts) and teaches in both the Licensure program at Hampshire Educational Collaborative (Northampton, MA) and online in the School of Education at Capella University. Send comments or queries via email to: cholzberg@gmail.com.
3 responses so far ↓
Carol, I always look forward to reading your reviews in Technology and Learning. Your RSS feed works great. You really did not have to add a separate feedburner link. When you register to Feedburner you create an account so that you can broadcast other content you might create like a podcast or a wiki. Most blogging services today setup an RSS feed automatically. I have everyone in my Google Reader now. I created a video to explaine how to setup Google reader and posted it on the Ning. If you have an iGoogle acccount you will be able to access it and Google Reader 24/7/365 anywhere. Bloglines is another choice that I use, but it is outside of Google and I have to make an extra click. Go ahead and click on the orange RSS symbol and then the “Add as live bookmark” the next window will give you options according to which RSS aggragator/reader you have.
Maybe we can go over this at the next SIG meeting.
Carol,
I noticed in one of your postings (…kids) that you write something on micro word, then paste it to your blog. How do you do that? I’ve tried several times and failed?
Hi Peter
In my word processor (Microsoft Word), I drag- my cursor across the text I want to select, holding the mouse button down while I drag, then once everything I want is selected I go to the Edit Menu and press Copy (Ctrl-C shortcut), then in my blog editor, I click once where I want to paste the text, then I do a Ctrl-V for paste (if you’re using a Mac, press Command-C to copy and Command-V to paste.
Then I format the text for bold, italics, and URLs once it’s pasted in the blog editor.
Hope this helps.
Carol
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