Monday, July 16, 2007

Inspiration Software

Inspiration software is available on the web and in stores. It encompasses various subjects that cover grades K-12. The most attractive use for Inspiration is for its visualizations. The visualizations are often simple, yet attractive representations of tables, charts, venn diagrams and maps. Many students are visual and kinesthetic learners who are not akin to learning hypothetically. Rather, visual representations of the topic or information is the best manner in conveying information. Inspiration is not flashy; however, it does offer excellent content. That is probably the key to the software. It does not forget about the content, rather it focuses in on it. After reading the discussions on the resource sharing unit, it is clear that these resources must be useable. Resources that are mainly for show and have very little educational value are useless and a complete waste of time. Educators are constantly working hard to refine their material. In addition to marking, meeting with parents, instruction, assistance and prep, their time cannot be taken up with resources that do not get to the point. In addition, they simply do not have the time to sort through the quagmire of useless information. Consequently, when a software does what it's meant to do, simplistically and effectively, then it is considered good.