Integrating Spreadsheets, Databases and Concept Maps

Blog 5 Spreadsheets, Databases and Concept Maps

It is the goal of every educator to assist students in getting beyond the use of simple facts to answer a question or solve a problem.  Enabling students to use higher-order thinking skills can be accomplished by the integrating the use of spreadsheets, databases and concept maps in classroom lessons.  Spreadsheets and databases are software found as part of an office suite.  Microsoft offers the most used versions of the spreadsheet and database, Excel and Access respectively.  However, if money is an issue when deciding whether or not to introduce these tools into the classroom, there are alternatives.  Probably the most widely used alternative to Microsoft?s products is called Open Office.  Open Office is an open-source software that can be downloaded free of charge at www.openoffice.org.  Base is the database and Calc is the spreadsheet portion of the suite.  In addition, Koffice is also available free of charge and can be downloaded at www.koffice.org.  Kspread is the spreadsheet portion of the suite and Kexi is the database.  Teachers need to realize there are alternatives to Microsoft?s products that are available free of charge. 

Utilizing spreadsheets will allow kids to first recognize the information that is vital to their decision-making process and then analyze that information in various ways by using the capabilities of the spreadsheet.  For instance, which product is most profitable or at what point would we reach a break even point.  There are many scenarios students in business education could utilize spreadsheets? capabilities to determine the correct course of action.  Determining how a factor in a scenario changes the entire outcome, or recognizing how dynamic scenarios effect an outcome is why spreadsheets are categorized as dynamic modeling tools.

Databases can also be used to push kids to recognize relevant information, analyze and create a viable solution to a problem.  Databases can be manipulated and reorganized to produce information that contains only what the operator is seeking, thus they are categorized as a semantic organization tool.  This would result in the students recognizing patterns or forming theories as why something is occurring for instance.  Filtering information and utilizing the database to store information for science class, animal science in horticulture or a business scenario in business Ed class makes a database a very useful tool.

Concept maps can be utilized at any grade level.  Smaller kids that can?t write yet can use this tool with the help of their teachers.  Concept maps allow students to visually create links to and from information they know in order to improve their overall understanding of multiple concepts.  After all, one piece of information is not isolated but is linked to many other concepts.  In addition, concept maps help kids recognize how information falls into place by placing more general topics at the top of the map and placing more specific detailed information in the lower links.  Concept mapping software can be purchased or downloaded for free.  Smartdraw is commercially available at www.smartdraw.com, Inspiration is commonly used in schools.  CMap is a free software available for download at http://cmap.ihmc.us/.

Integrating spreadsheets and databases in to my Computer Engineering Curriculum would entail creating a portion of curriculum related to maintaining maintenance records using databases with customer lists and records of service calls.  Kids could learn how to search for trends in breakdowns and use the records as a selling point to customers when trying to sell maintenance agreements.  The same concept holds true for the Home Technology Integration class.  In terms of spreadsheets, what-if scenarios for profitability for business margins could be a use as well as keeping track of expenses, parts costs etc. 

Concept maps would be extremely useful in both these classes.  Kids could use concept maps to solidify their knowledge of how the components of the computer work together as well as how software interacts with the hardware.  In my Home Technology Integration class, we could use concept maps to literally map how all of the components interact and terminate with the ?brain? of the system.  Both scenarios would ensure that the kids fully understand the concepts of the curriculums.   

Posted at 01:08PM Oct 22, 2006 by BISHOP, KIMBERLY in General  |  Comments[25]