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April 15, 2001
Quick Picks
SchoolKiT.com
Emphasis: Common software applications, core curriculum topics, professional development.
Grade level: K-12 and teachers.
Platform: Web-based.
Price: $49.95; site licenses are available.
Publisher: SchoolKiT.com, Inc.; Bellevue, WA; (425) 454-3373
SchoolKiT.com delivers classroom-ready computer activities and professional development modules designed to help educators introduce and integrate technology into the K-12 curriculum. The program offers two services: SchoolKiT REX, a file management program; and SchoolKiT GOLD, a fee-based subscription site with access to all SchoolKiT content libraries and lesson-building software.
SchoolKiT is a multilayered teacher resource and student activity package. SchoolKiT GOLD features two resource libraries: a Student Activity Library and a Teacher Professional Development Library. Generally student activities present challenges in question form. Students respond to each challenge by working with an automatically launching application such as Microsoft Word or PowerPoint. For instance, if they choose the science activity "Recycling-Are We Doing Enough," students use Excel to answer the question, then Word to create a newsletter that shares their findings with others. Each activity is clearly written with printable instructions, and help is available for all Office applications. SchoolKiT's Teacher Professional Development Library is where teachers will find quick lessons on how to use particular programs (e.g., Working with Text in PowerPoint 2000).
SchoolKiT's strength is its efficient use of commonly used software applications for building lessons and managing projects. For strapped school budgets, SchoolKiT offers a cross-disciplinary way of integrating technology into the curriculum, but without the price tag of several specialized programs. The program is in its infancy, so lesson plans and professional development modules are somewhat limited. However, what's currently available is intuitively designed and thoughtfully presented.
Evaluator: Carol Holzberg, Ph.D., technology coordinator at three schools in western Massachusetts.
Take a Stand
Emphasis: Violence prevention, conflict resolution.
Grade Level: 7-12. Platform: Mac/Win CD or VHS video.
Price: $129 includes program on VHS video and CD-ROM, 25 student guides, lesson plans, and reproducible worksheets.
Publisher: Leo Media, Urbana, IL; (800) 421-6999
Schools are looking for effective ways to teach conflict resolution and violence prevention. Of course it's always ideal to have person-to-person interaction when dealing with such volatile and important issues, but when that's not possible, electronically delivered programs such as Take a Stand can be useful tools for getting a conversation started.
Offered in both a 25-minute video and a CD, the program presents five vignettes in which young people from a variety of ethnic backgrounds angrily confront one another over relationship issues, rumors, sharing space, and even economic opportunities. Students are then presented with a five-step process, appropriately named PEACE, that they can follow to resolve these conflicts peacefully. The actors use the PEACE process to reach conciliatory conclusions to their conflicts. In the CD, students are asked to arrange peacemaking steps into sequence and identify which step of the process is being applied, but unfortunately the effect is more confusing than instructive.
Students should respond well to the vignettes. Unlike similar programs, the actors and situations are believable and fairly realistic. Teachers should know in advance that some violence and mild swearing are portrayed in the video segments. Making best use of this program will require more than just showing the video or popping the CD into the class computer. Teachers will want to invest additional time helping students practice the PEACE process through role-playing and other exercises. Nevertheless, Take a Stand can provide students and teachers with a useful starting place for developing conflict resolution skills.
Evaluator: Paul Fleisher, middle school teacher and author of Brain Food: Games That Make Kids Think and other children's books.
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