spreadsheet+challenges

=Spreadsheet Challenges = You need to contribute to this page in the wiki, and share the challenges of using a spreadsheet for administration in teaching. You need to make a different point from the points raised by others. Please note, a wikispaces wiki does not automatically save frequently enough to cope with multiple people editing the same page at exactly the same time.

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//**One of the great things about a wiki is that it can foster a true sense of collaboration. To really bring this home, it is a good idea if you make the page look like a series of paragraphs and remove your names throughout. This is how pages such as those in Wikipedia are constructed to appear as one coherent document, even though lots of people have written on it. We can still see who has contributed what using the "history" tab (which will be used for marking your contributions). Can we be brave and remove names and place a combined bibliography at the bottom of the page?**//

Challenges to using spread sheets for teacher administration
Spread sheets are a very efficient way of recording summative assessment marks, however the tidiness and convienience of this assessment system may cause teachers to neglect more formative assessment procedures. Formative assessment procedures such as the development of portfolios, promote student choice and autonomy. Portfolios are considered to be a culturally sensitive way of assessingindigenous students (Skamp 2008, 208). In adition to this issue is the issue of the editing of multiple copies of electronic marking spreadsheets which have been created for ease of access on different computing systems or for back up purposes. It is essential that all electronic copies are regularly backed up a master copy to ensure that no marks and adjustments are lost. Bibliography: Skamp, K., 2008, 'Teaching Primary Science Constructively 3rd ed.', Thompson Learning Australia, South Melbourne, p 208 Angelle Hughes 204 156 388

Challenge of using spreadsheets in teacher administration. Keeping track of all software and hardware would be a challenge within itself. The ICT co-ordinator and/or ICT teacher would need to do some physical audits to ensure that hardware has not been relocated without their knowledge. All staff would also have to report/register any software they have personally brought to the school that they wish to be installed. One way around this is to restrict installation rights to certain people. A major challenge in using spreadsheets for software/hardware inventory is having everyone update the spreadsheets, resulting in information all over the place. Again to prevent this from happening, access to these files would be restricted to only the relevant people. http://www.donortec.com.au/resources/how-to-guides/managing-your-organization%E2%80%99s-technology-assets

 [|www.bcps.org/offices/oit/liaisons/05-06/nov%20secordary/managing%20a%20school’s%20hardware%20inventory.doc] Rouba Eid

The challenges posed by spreadsheets in identifying trends in learning arise when there are too many people involved in the creation of this data. Trying to collate information from more than one source could lead to compatibility issues from the formula used to calculate the results. This can be avoided by appointing one person to develop the spreadsheets to be used by the staff.

The greatest challenge of using spreadsheets for administration in the classroom is using spreadsheets for administration in the classroom. No I didn’t make a mistake. The use of spreadsheets is wonderful. The using of spreadsheets can be tumultuous at times. Many people state that using a spreadsheet is easy, once it has been set up. I would be one of these people that believe this (I love spreadsheets). But many people find the idea of a spreadsheet foreign and confusing. The ideas of rows and columns, formulae that perform calculations, graphs and charts absolutely bamboozles some people. Complex formulae in spreadsheets can be exhausting to try to understand, and considering the concept of spreadsheets, that one formula is built on another on another, an incorrect calculation, if the math is off in just one of those formulae, the whole spreadsheet is off balance. While there may be only one person that creates the spreadsheet, of it is not locked down properly, they may not be the only person to edit it. If say a staff member accidently deletes a formula, then tries to replace it, it may create havoc with student marks, and may not be picked up straight away, as the offending individual was unaware of their mistake. Data entry is considered a major problem with spreadsheets. A staff member could mistakenly give students the wrong marks or another student’s mark. This is not a new problem, as it would happen with hard copy recoding as well, but spreadsheets have not fixed the problem of human error. There is no structure to a spreadsheet. As you start you can place information in what you may feel as a logical pattern, but what if other people add information which alters the structure. As more information is added to a spreadsheet, while there may be plenty of room, this space can also become confusing and unwieldy to use and make sense of.

http://wiki.answers.com/Q/What_are_the_disadvantages_of_spreadsheets http://seniortechcenter.org/page/?printable&page_id=39 http://www.eusprig.org/stories.htm
 * //Matt Carrig//*

In general I don't believe that using spreadsheets for school administration is overly challenging.

The major challenge can be found in making the most use of the functionality of spreadsheets. Most people only use 20% at most of there softwares functionality and this is also true for spreadsheets. There are so many additional functions on spreadsheets such as graphing, data sorting tools, look up and reference functions.

Most administrative educational functions only for classroom teachers only require the basics but with further training and expanded capabilities teachers could find many more uses to capatilise on the use of spreadsheets in school administration

Matt Peade

Spreadsheets are extremely useful as a markbook system, but they do greatly increase the chance of error. Copying and pasting between cells, and simply entering results on the wrong row can mean students end up with the wrong marks on the spreadsheet. It is therefore critical that the marks are checked not only by the teacher entering them but a colleague such as HOD. I am sure we are all aware of the difficulty in editing our own work. Similarly reliance on automatic functions in a spreadsheet is problematic. Bugs and simple miscalculations caused by simply adding or deleting rows as students enter or leave subjects can cause errors. Recycling of spreadsheets from previous years can also cause errors as lockup tables and other links can be affected. The use of automatic functions requires careful checking as people often accept computer generated numbers as infallible. Access is another issue, as teachers need to be able to enter results in a timely fashion, and at a convenient time. This requires plentiful desktops computers in staffrooms or the provision of laptops to teachers. It also requires access from outside the school via a VPN or similar technology. Much of the usefulness is lost if teachers do not have sufficient access to computers, and so have to enter results in a paper based markbook, then transcribe them onto a spreadsheet and then transcribe them again into the reporting system. This wastes the teachers' time and adds an extra opportunity for transcription errors. Accountability and ease of access to results for students and their families also raises challenges for teachers. It makes it much easier for them to question teacher judgements and seek feedback on individual tasks. While this is a good thing in theory, it could place much greater demands on teachers' time due to the possible increase in communication between school and home.