The Basic Suite of Software Support Tools

 Software Suite Defined:  

      The basic software suite for education is the same as the basic software suite for most of the rest of society.  The suite generally includes three separate software tools; Word Processing, Spreadsheets, and Presentation Software.  Each of these tools has a specific and designed purpose in the productive workplace.  They have a dual value in education as discussed by Roblyer in Integrating Educational Technology into Teaching.  The value of the software suite is "not only because they have qualities that aid classroom instruction and help make classroom time more productive, but also because they give students experience with 21st century tools that they will see again and again in their workplaces."(Roblyer, 2016)

     It is an interesting point.  The use of tools in Education may be one of the most productive activities that students engage in as far as preparation for future careers.  As students go through high school, college, and into careers, the tasks and challenges change while the tools remain the same.  One could argue that the tools change over time, since software is frequently updated and one organization might use a different set of tools as compared to another.  However, over time the different suites have developed similar dashboard functions and transference of skills is not overly complex.  

Software Suite for Physics:

     The software suite that I currently use in physics is the Microsoft Office Suite.  The relative advantage to this suite over others is the utility of the Excel Spreadsheet tool.  Excel is a highly functional spreadsheet with extensive mathematical, logical, and statistical applications.  It also allows for a significant variety of trend-line options that would encourage students to consider the mathematical relationship between variables.  Recent developments in the MicrosoftCloud Office 365 will allow for the same type of sharing and collaboration available from Google.

     The Google suite offers great promise and has developed since introduction so that it is more supportive of scientific applications and it has the advantage of being an established cloud-based suite.  In addition, GoogleClassroom is a recent development by Google to try to package a suite in a manner that will allow collaboration and grading within a classroom setting.  

Relative Advantage:

Student:  Use of the Software Suite whether Google or Office 365 would allow students to organize their educational portfolios.  The utility of the suite tools will allow them to produce documents, spreadsheets, and presentations and give them the ability to combine these components in a meaningful way.  

Teacher:  Documents and student work can be easily shared.  Teachers can open and edit student work and give frequent, meaningful feedback.  Organized and thoughtful student work can also enable a teacher to more effectively evaluate student progress.

Thoughtful Progress:

Concern #1:  All Software Suites offer similar functionality.  Therefore, it is really not important whether an educator chooses Google or Office or some other Suite.  The important factor is that the choice should be student-centered.  Therefore a school should choose one suite to use.  If a student needs to access both Google and Office 365, and possibly even a third suite, to produce and organize work then the relative advantage of using the suite is diminished.

Concern #2:  Offers frequent, meaningful feedback.  Office 365 and Google are excellent for sharing and collaboration in the workplace.  They do not necessarily allow for teachers to easily evaluate students, provide feedback, and communicate progress.  These are functions that extremely important and are not made easier or more efficient with a Software Suite.  While teachers can build in utilities to use rubrics or give feedback in other ways, this takes a good deal of extra time and the effectiveness will vary from teacher to teacher.  Some stand alone products like LabArchives.com, are designed for the classroom and allow for assignment creation, submission, and grading.  This particular product includes widgets that act as a Software Suite.  It is similar in many functions to GoogleClassroom.  Some of its features make it more appropriate for mathematical and scientific course work while maintaining value as a Language Arts based product.  However, back to concern #1, a school would need to decide if this product was acceptable as a software suite and then make it the product of choice for educators.