Chapter Outline

SPREADSHEETS

I. Historical Overview

1. In the early 1970s, the microcomputer was used primarily by hackers and hobbyists.
2. Microcomputer use changed when Dan Bricklin, a Harvard student, and Robert Frankston, an MIT student, created the first spreadsheet, VisiCalc, in 1979. Primarily designed for microcomputers, VisiCalc had a small grid size and limited features. The program was first run by Apple Computers and became the prototype for other programs.
3. In the 1980’s, spreadsheets improved vastly, became faster, and offered more features.
4. In 1983, Lotus Development introduced Lotus 1-2-3, a new generation of spreadsheet that became the industry leader, because it was the first integrated spreadsheet. It combined several different programs, and information could be presented in different formats.
5. Later versions of spreadsheets added a telecommunication component, expanded spreadsheet size, and word processing.
6. Today, spreadsheets are used widely for preparing income tax forms, family budgets, loan information, pupil test scores, and business transactions.

II. Components of a spreadsheet

1. Every electronic spreadsheet is organized in a similar manner with two axes, rows and columns.
2. Three types of information can be entered into any spreadsheet cell: number, text, or formula. The ability to enter formulas onto the spreadsheet makes it a powerful tool for business, science, and education.

III. How a Spreadsheet Operates

1. Microsoft Excel 2000 for Windows and grade book examples are popular types of spreadsheets.
2. To use a manual spreadsheet for grade records, the teacher enters the students’ names and their quiz scores, then follows the steps discussed on pp. 142-144.
3. Every spreadsheet has its own collection of built-in functions, ranging from sum to average to sine, which make the use and application of formulas quick and easy. Functions are simply selected and pasted into the spreadsheet.

IV. Why Use an Electronic Spreadsheet?

1. A computerized spreadsheet has many advantages over a manual spreadsheet.

V. Integrating a Spreadsheet into the Classroom

1. The spreadsheet is not only a management tool, but also a tool for learning in the classroom.
2. The spreadsheet can be used as a grade book, for classroom budgets, attendance charts, surveys, and checklists.
3. The spreadsheet can be used to supplement instruction in a variety of curriculum areas.
4. The spreadsheet can be used by students to do timelines, gameboards, graphs, problem solving, classroom experiments, mathematical relationships, and social studies or scientific investigations.
5. The spreadsheet can be used by students in everyday life for comparison-shopping, expenses, calorie counting, calculating income tax returns, figuring baseball statistics, and creating a budget.

VI. Basic Features of a Spreadsheet

1. Many spreadsheets have safeguards built into the program that protect a group of cells from being altered or erased, allow confidential information to be hidden from view, and make hidden information easy to retrieve.
2. Powerful spreadsheets have logical functions that evaluate whether a statement is true or false, to ensure that calculations are valid.
3. Predetermined spreadsheet functions include built-in mathematical functions, including simple statistics, logarithmic functions, financial functions, and trigonometric functions.
4. Advanced features in more powerful spreadsheets can link other spreadsheets, have database capabilities, can chart or graph, and can print sideways through a utility program.

VII. How to Select a Good Spreadsheet for the Classroom

1. Spreadsheets were designed for adults, but a handful of programs are suitable for the classroom: the Cruncher 2.0 for grades 3 and up, and Microsoft Works 2000, AppleWorks, Microsoft Excel 2000, and Quattro Pro 9 for high school students.
2. Choosing a spreadsheet program for the classroom involves a six-step process. See the spreadsheet checklist on p. 152 and Transparency 7.1 for a complete list of criteria.
3. Teacher practice exercises appear on pp. 152-158 and include introduction to the spreadsheet, how to use it to calculate grades, and use spreadsheets in a variety of lesson plans for different disciplines.

VIII. Integrated Programs

1. Integrated programs combine word processing, databases, and spreadsheets. Each application can be used individually within the integrated program, or the free interchange of data among applications can occur. For example, budget information from a spreadsheet can be transferred to a document in the word processor.
2. Stand-alone programs involve laborious steps for transferring information.
3. Integrated programs such as Lotus 1-2-3, SuperCalc 3, MicroSoft Works 2000, and AppleWorks are single programs that share a similar command structure across the various applications of word processing, database, and spreadsheet.
4. Data is transferred seamlessly, but the integrated program requires more memory and has a weaker module, with more limited functions, than the stand-alone program.

IX. Alternatives to Integrated Programs

1. The user can use the stand-alone program as it is to cut-and-paste when necessary.
2. The user can retype data into each, separate application, which requires much retyping and opens the data to error.
3. The user can file share, which permits access to files of other programs, but little standardization exists across programs, and translator programs are not available for all software programs.
4. Software suites, introduced in the 1990s, are packages of individual programs designed to work together to share data easily and quickly. The user can install the entire suite or only the programs desired.

X. Similarities and Differences

1. Similarities between integrated packages and suites include the ability to run many programs at once that can work together, use a clipboard as a place to store text, graphics, audio, and video clips, and write more sophisticated reports and papers with access to a variety of programs.
2. Differences between integrated packages and suites are that the suite’s components are full-featured programs, not limited versions and are very economical, but they may not work as smoothly as those in the integrated program and require high speed, memory, and speed.
3. Features of integrated programs and suites should be scrutinized for the same features the user considers in selecting separate applications, such as mail merge and windowing.