| Home |
 |
Chapter 3 |
|
On the Web! Activities |
|
Before you take the time to review and evaluate software that you might use in your classroom, you must first determine if the software is compatible with your classroom computers. Different types of software require different hardware and perhaps even a specific operating system. Software package are designed to run on those specified operating system and need to have specified hardware in order to run properly. Software manufacturers, aware of these differences, all list system requirements on the back or side of every software package. System requirements detail the level of operating system necessary and the minimum hardware specifications including the speed of the CPU chip, the minimum amount of RAM and how much hard disk space must be available. Ignoring these specification requirements can cause you to purchase software that will not run on the computers you have available.
Activity:
Go to the following popular teaching websites or others that you find and look for the hardware specifications for at least three software packages of interest to you. Imagine you had a computer in your classroom that has a Pentium 4 processor running at 2.33 gigahertz, 128 megabytes of RAM, a 40 gigabyte hard drive, and that runs Windows XP. Would the software packages you selected run on this machine?
Want to know more? Check out these sites:
http://www.knowledgeadventure.com
http://www.riverdeep.net/learningcompany/
|