Evaluating software

Your task for this week's blog entry is to evaluate a piece of educational software. If you do not have access to any, you may borrow some from me or you can go to the Curriculum Materials Center and check out one of their pieces of software.

As you are previewing the software, you should take notes for yourself using the one of the review/evaluation forms listed below. After having completed this, use these forms to write a review of 200-250 words for your software.

Evaluating software is not a simple task. It is necessary for every educator to develop sufficient software literacy. To begin the process of gaining this software literacy, students should start the process by reading the items below.

• What is appropriate software for the classroom?
• Seven Steps to Responsible Software Selection

What criteria do you use to judge what is good and what isn't? As you write your reviews, use the hand-outs, the readings above, and the following examples to help guide you.

• Teacher Review Form
• Student Review Form
• Evaluation form #1
• Evaluation form #2
• Evaluation form #3
• Evaluation form #4
• Evaluation form #5
• Evaluation form #6