5 Types of Instructional Software

Drill and Practice:
Drill and Practice is based on Direct Instruction. Drill and Practice software was popular when software programs were first being developed. This software allows students to work on simple problems and then move on to more difficult problems. Students answer questions, get immediate feedback, and advance to different levels of difficulty depending on the number of correct answers. Freeware is a website that you can download free drill and practice games. Freeware.com
 

Tutorial:
A tutorial is another form of drill and practice. A tutorial is like a virtual tutor that can take the place of a teacher entirely. However, this one includes instructions and explanations to help teach a concept.  According to our textbook,  "Integrating Educational Technology into Teaching", tutorials require some necessities to be effective. These include ability for user to adjust how fast/slow program works,  having extensive interactivity, and which pages can be viewed (self-paced), loads of feedback, and is at an appropriate level for the learner. The textbook mentions Physics Classroom as a good tutorial source.

 

Simulations:
Simulation programs are very popular in science. They are programs that "simulate" an environment or situation, allowing the use to experience it using the computer controls rather than authentic hands-on experience. Simulators can be a very useful tool in the classroom. These programs and allow students the ability of probelm solving and higher order thinking. You can find loads of examples of simulation software, Farmville is a popular simultion that allows you to create a virtual farm.  Going back to the beginning, as schools are getting less money to perform science disssections, the virtual frog dissection is a good one to use. (Its less messy too!!!)


Instructional Games: 
These are educational games that we use in the classroom. These are computer games where students are "playing" and learning at the same time.  The best of these should be appealing, exciting, challenging, and flexible to the user's abilities. As educatores, it is important to make sure that all games are researched and made sure that they are appropriate fro the students. Lakeshore Learning is a publisher of many types of games. I use the games in my classroom through my Promethean Board. My students adore these games. BrainPop is a good example of instructional games.

Problem Solving: 
This kind of software has students use thier higher-order thinking skills. Problem solving software allows the student to develop the skills of analyzing and solving problems.  Problem solving games use a variety of strategies, and increase motivation to learn. They can be used to teach or to reinforce a concept being taugh in the classroom.  Students are typicaly more interesting in solving problems like this on the computer because it is not a sheet of paper. PBS KIds has a lot of different problem solving games.