Spreadsheets

I'm not use to excel yet but I do see many advantages that spreadsheets could have. For the most part I feel that it easy to use i.e. you can find most everything you are looking for with a touch of a button. Being in the math field the ease of graphing is a great advantage for me. Right after I learned some of the basics in this class I had to make a graph on excel for Physics and it was very nice not having to do it by hand. I would definitely use that options in my class room just for the ease of not having to be like all my other teachers and say "I am not an artist, we will pretend that's a straight line."

As teachers I believe that the most useful thing of spreadsheets is the grade book. Every teacher I know uses it for that purpose if nothing else. Also, it could be used to keep up with assignments kind of like a syllabus. Modeling problems on excel keeps the work nice and organized and easy to read. It also is better then a calculator because though some of the newer calculators let you see what you typed in along with the answer, you are able to see what data you typed in and can find mistakes a lot easier. Also with calculators you have to remember the formulas you want to you and you have to do the operations in the right order, but with excel all you have to do is click on a button and it does it all for you. I like that kind of simplicity.