Best New Software
Volume 30, Number 1, October
2002
Joanne Troutner
Learner Profile 3.0 and Learner Profile to Go 3.0.
Sunburst Technology (www.sunburst.com).
Teacher tool.
This assessment program provides teachers with options for taking attendance,
having an electronic grade book, a lesson plan creator and an observation
tool. The setup is simple and features are flexible enough to fit any teacher’s
grading methods. The ability to access the features via a PDA makes this
tool even more useful in the classroom.
A Wheel of Memory.
University of Michigan Press (www.press.umich.edu).
Grades 7 and up.
Developed with support from the US National Endowment for the Humanities,
this CD-ROM provides a rich look at the medieval map, Hereford Mappa Mundi.
The treasure trove of images and history found on the 5 ft. by 4 ft. map
are easily accessible along with concise explanations.
Reading for Meaning.
Tom Snyder Productions (www.tomsnyder.com).
Grades 3-8.
Students practice reading comprehension skills such as finding the main idea,
making inferences, developing sequences, comparing and contrasting, and discovering
cause and effect as they work through the five whole group and 30 individual
lesson plans. All activities are taken from quality literature excerpts.
Geography Principles.
Clearvue/eav (www.clearvue.com).
Grades 5-9.
Features five e-Learning modules: global problems; geography; natural and
manmade wonders; soil and vegetation; and civic units. Each module includes
video lessons, quizzes, glossary and encyclopedia links to the Internet version
of Encarta. Allows for updating the teaching materials, included in PDF format,
via the Internet.
CollegePro‘ Mathematics.
Topics Entertainment (www.topics-ent.com).
Grades 9 and up.
This set of four CD-ROMs provides well-developed explanations, tutorials
and quizzes on algebra, precalculus, calculus and statistics. A good tool
for improving advanced math skills.
Joanne Troutner is director of Media/Technology for
the Tippecanoe School Corporation and owner of Creative
Computer Enterprises in Lafayette, Indiana. She can
be contacted at troutner@mindspring.com.
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