Spreadsheet-based interactive materials increase student engagement

I recently learned how to use spreadsheets to make interactive materials for students. While it made sense that spreadsheets could be used for math or graphing exercises, I was impressed to learn that they could also be used to make interactive worksheets for practice activities or even quizzes. I included an image of the simple worksheet I created to help fifth-graders practice the planets at right. Since students seem to embrace activities involving computers, they might find these activities more engaging than their paper counterparts.


I like the idea of being able to create my own worksheets, especially as this will enable me to tailor the material to my curriculum. Since these worksheets tell the student if they gave a wrong answer, the feedback is immediate and allows for multiple attempts to supply the correct information.


I am also impressed that clip art and images can be added to spreadsheets. This has the potential to help students who struggle with text-based activities, have reading difficulties, or respond best to visual images. Digital images can also serve as a visual reminder that can help students recall the correct answer. With the variety of images available, they can be specific to the focus of the worksheet. For example, a music lesson on the composers could include faces of the composers, and an unlabeled graphic of the carbon cycle could help remind students of the different elements of the cycle during a quiz.


Regardless of the content areas, computer-based interactive materials have the potential to make learning more exciting, engaging and more accessible for all students.