Instructional Software for

 
Classroom Use  
Drill-and-Practice Software  

Selecting  

●C
​ ontrol Over the Drill-and-Practice  

Answering  the  given  questions  or  problems  are  given  a  time  limit,  however,  a  good 
drill-and-practice  software  still  gives  users  enough  time  to  think  and  answer  before 
proceeding  to  the  next  question.  Users  may  be  given  a  signal  to  the  software  if 
he/she  is  ready  to  go  to  the  next  question  by pressing/tapping a key or clicking on a 
mouse button.  

●A
​ nswer Judging  

A  good  drill-and-practice  program  must  be  able  to discriminate correct answers from 

incorrect  ones,  especially  if  the  user  is  required  to  enter  a  short  answer  rather  than 
simply choosing from a selection.  

● ​Gives appropriate feedback  

Two  errors  must  be  avoided  when  programs  give  feedback.  First,  the  program 
displays  sample,  readable  and  understandable  feedback,  not  overly  designed 
 feedback. Second, Programs carelessly give more interesting feedback when the 
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user  answers  incorrectly.  This,  therefore,  encourages  users  to  give  false  answers  to 

see the interesting response from the program.  

Benefits  

● ​Immediate feedback  
● ​Motivation  
● ​Saving teacher time  

Limitations and Problems  

● ​Perceived misuse. Some teachers make use of the drill-and-practice as part of lesson 
introduction and not really for practicing the students’ skills.  
● ​Criticism  by  constructiveness.  People  consider  this  drill-and-practice  as  an  outmoded 
approach to teaching for this contradicts the aim of a restructured curriculum.  

You may want to visit the following sites for sample drill-and-practice software:

Vocabulary practice ​http://www.brainpopesl.com  

Chemistry formulas h ​ ttp://www.chemistry-drill.com  
Name the note ​http://www.musicdrills.com 

Tutorial Software  

Selecting  

●E
​ xtensive Interactivity. R
​ egular and thorough responses to questions must be regularly 
given throughout the tutorial to continuously guide students’ learning. ​● ​Thorough User 
Control​. Navigation buttons must always be present to allow students to go around the 
program and give them the freedom to return or move forward or even end the 
program at their own pace.  
● ​Appropriate  pedagogy​.  The  instruction  must  provide  complete  and  sufficient 
explanations, examples, and demonstrations when necessary to enable the students 
to  understand  the  lesson  well.  The  lessons,  examples,  and  exercises  must  be 
arranged logically and sequentially. 
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 ● ​Adequate answer-judging and feedback capabilities​. When students are asked to answer 
in short responses, all possible answers must be included in the program. Appropriate 
feedback must likewise be present wherein answers will be provided by the program 
after 2-3 tries rather than frustrating the students by requiring them to supply the 
answer which they do not know.  
●A
​ ppropriate Graphics. G
​ raphics should always support the topic being discussed. 
These should always be in line and appropriate for the instruction.  
● ​Adequate  Record  Keeping​.  The  summary  of  the  progress  report  of  students  must  be 
present  and  can  be  easily  accessed  by  the  teacher  to  enable  them  to  keep  track  of 
the students’ performance.  

Benefits  

The benefits enumerated in the drill-and-practice software are also the same 
benefits of the tutorial software.  

Tutorials are self-contained and self-paced instruction that allows the students to 
learn at their own pace.  

Limitations  

● ​Criticism  by  constructivism.  ​Tutorial  contradicts the objective of constructivism learning 

since  tutorial  software  delivers  directed  instruction  rather  than  allowing  students to 
construct and generate their own knowledge through hands-on projects.  
● ​Lack  of  Good  Products​.  This  is  being  encountered  due  to  the  difficulty  and  expense  of 
designing  and  developing  tutorial  software.  Difficulty  in  programming and including 
suitable  graphics  to  give  appropriate  pedagogy  in  teaching  and  demonstrating  the 
concepts well are the dilemmas in producing well-packaged tutorial software.  
●R
​ eflect Only One Instructional Approach. ​What should be taught for a given topic how to 
teach the topic or lesson effectively, in what sequence the learning tasks that will be 
presented are always the questions in producing effective tutorial software. 

You may want to visit the following sites for sample tutorial software:

Trigonometry challenge h​ ttp://www.etcai.com/page10.html  

Laws of motion 
http://www.physicsclassroom.com/Class/newtlaws​ ​Constitution 
by Congress for Kids  
http://congressforkids.net/Constitution_writingconstitution.htm 
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Simulation Software  

Selecting  

There  is  a  realistic  and  accurate  representation  of  a system. A clear set of directions 

must  be  present  in  the  software;  models  a  real  or  imaginary  system.  Can  model  physical 
phenomena,  procedures,  and hypothetical situations. The impact of actions must be clearly 
seen.  

Benefits  

● ​Compress  time.  students  do  not  have  to  wait  for  the living thing to grow and develop 
its  cycle  in  real-time  for  this  can  be  presented  in  the  simulation  software  in  just  a 
couple of minutes.  
● ​Slow  Down  Processes.  Events  or  processes  that  happen  that  are  invisible  to  the 
human  eye  can  actually  be  played  in  slow motion to enable the students to see how 
such an event or process happens in reality.  
● ​Get students involved. Participation of the students is necessary for them to be able 
to learn what may happen in a particular situation.  
● ​make  experimentation  safe.  Simulation  software  is  best  in  keeping  the  students  safe 
and  learning  some  things  like  driving  vehicles,  handling  volatile  substances,  search 
and rescue situations. etc.  
● ​Make  the  impossible  possible.  walking  on  the  moon,  traveling  to  the  universe, 
witnessing  the  volcanoes  erupt,  are  just  a  few  examples  of  allowing  students  to 
experience the impossible and learn the possible.  
● ​Save  money  and  other  resources.  Though  learning  by  doing  is  the  best  learning 
experience,  simulation  software  may  still  give  rightful  learning  experience  at  a 
fraction of the cost like dissecting animals, hardware units, and the like.  
● ​Allow repetition with variations. Simulations allow students to repeat events may 
 times until they master the lesson they wish to learn  
● ​Allow  observation  of  complex  processes.  Simulation  software  makes  learning  and 
understanding  of  complex  lessons  and  processes  easier  for  students  to  see  what  is 
happening. 
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Limitations and Problems  

● ​Criticism  of  some  virtual  lab  software.  Students  may  not  get  actual  and  quality 
learning  real  experiments  will  be  taken  in  substitute  virtual  labs  than  doing  it in the 
hands-on labs. Simulations can just be used as supplements to regular labs.  
● ​Accuracy  of  models.  Simulation  software  may  give  inaccurate  or  imprecise 
perspectives  of the subject matter. Real experience is still better than being replaced 
by the substituted learning experience.  
● ​Misuse  of  Simulations.  There  is  a  possibility  that  students  would  unlikely  to  develop 
effective  problem-solving  skills  due  to  plainly  mastering  the  activities  given 
simulation.  

You may want to visit the following sites for sample simulation software:

BioLab Fly ​http://www.biolabsoftware.com/bls/fly.html  

Stock Market Simulation h ​ ttp://www.nationalsms.com  
Digital Frog h
​ ttp://www.digitalfrog.com 

Instructional Games  

Selecting  

● ​Appealing formats and activities​. Adventure and levels of complexity that match 
learners’ abilities make fun learning.  
● ​Instructional Value. T
​ he instructional game should serve as educational and 
motivational tools which give importance to the value of learning  
● ​Physical  dexterity  is  reasonable.  ​The  purpose  of  motivating  the  students  should  be 
evident  in  the  instructional  game  and  not  the  other  way  around.  However,  if  the 
object  of  the  game  is  to  learn  physical  dexterity  (e.g.  For  students  with  physical 
challenges),  the  focus of the game should be learning content-area skills, rather than 
physical  dexterity.  The  level  of  physical  dexterity  for  content  area  games  should  be 
 untroublesome to all students.  
● ​Social,  Societal  and  Cultural  considerations.  ​Instructional  games  should  highlight 
positive  messages  rather  than  war and violence among peoples of different nations’ 
beliefs and cultures. 
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Benefits  

● ​Games are more interesting than traditional instruction (Randel, et al, 1992) 
● ​retention of information is longer  
● ​assist teachers to get students to focus on the topic  
● ​makes learning morning gauging and motivational(Ash, 2011; Corbett, 2010; Squire 
2005)  

Limitations and Problems  

● ​Learning  versus  having  fun​.  Some  schools  disagree  in  incorporating  game  destruction 
for  they  believe  that  games  draw  away  the  attention  of  the  students  from  the  real 
purpose  and  that  is  learning  the  lesson. The focus of the students is toward winning 
the game instead of instruction/learning.  
● ​Confusion  of  Game Rules and Real-life Rules​. Rules in games differ from rules in real-life. 
Game  rules  may  give  students  difficulty  in  transferring  the  skills  learned  through 
games to real-life situations.  
● ​Inefficient  Learning​.  The balance between motivation and learning must be maintained 
in  the  classroom  so  as  not  to  lose  the  value  of  education  when  using  instructional 
games.  
● ​Classroom  Barrier​s.  Instructional  games  sometimes  cannot  be  implemented  in  the 
classroom  due  to  some  difficulties  encountered,  such  as  requirements  of  the  game 
software  do  not  match  with  the  specifications  of  computers  in  schools,  some 
teachers  have  negative  views toward computer games, the time needed to complete 
the game is longer than the normal class hours, and others. 

You may want to visit the following sites for sample instructional game software:

Spore ​http://www.spore.com  
Lure of the Labyrinth ​http://www.labyrinth.thinkport.org  
Jeopardy Review Generator ​http://www.superteachertools.com/jeopardy 
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Problem-Solving Software  

Selecting  

Teachers  should  see  to  it  that  the  software  should  be  able  to  develop  the  skills  of  the 
students  in  solving  various  kinds  of  content-area  problems.  The  software  should  also have 
the  feature  that  would  keep  the  interest  of  the  students  in  moving  on  in solving problems. 
The problems should be challenging to bring out the level best in the students.  

Benefits  

● ​Promotes visualization in mathematics problem-solving.  

● ​Fosters better understanding in the visualization of abstract concepts. ​●
Improves interest and motivation in doing problem-solving activities. This will 
allow students to become more active and impulsive problem solvers.  

Limitations and Problems  

● ​Effective  of  Problem-solving  software​.​   The problem-skills that students supposed 

to  be  developing  through  the  use of the software may not actually be helping 
them  to learn these skills though the software catalog claims that it can foster 
problem  skills.  The  students  may  be  enjoying  solving  problems  using  the 
software  but  they  are  not  actually  learning  or  developing  the  skills  needed. 
Teachers  have  to  use  the  problem-solving  software  first  to  confirm  its 
effectiveness  that  it  truly  achieves  the  end-results  of  developing  skills  in 
problem-solving.  
● ​Suitability  in  Learning  Strategy  of  Students​​.  The  instructional  strategy  of  the 
problem-solving  software  may  not  suit  the  learning  strategy  of  the  students, 
thus  will  limit  their  learning  and  developing  of  problem-solving.  The  kind  of 
instructional  strategy  of  the  software  may  bring  negative  effects  in  directed 
instruction. 
 You may want to visit the following sites for sample problem-solving software:

Memory challenge h ​ ttp://www.criticalthinking.com  

Sequences h
​ ttp://www.toolfactory.com  
Crazy machines h​ ttp://www.viva-media.com 

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Software Support Tools  

These tools help both teachers and students in various classroom situations. The 
following are some of the advantages of these tools:  

● ​Improved efficiency and productivity  

● ​Enhanced product appearance  
● ​More precise and aptness of information  
● ​More support for collaboration  

Software Support Tool Categories  

1. Materials generators  
2. Data collection and analysis tools  
3. Graphic tools  
4. Planning and organizing tools  
5. Research and reference tools  
6. Content-area tools  

(Reference: Vindollo, S.C., & Buendia, M.M.C. (2016). Instructional Software for Classroom Use. In E
​ ducational 
Technology 2 (​ pp.86-103). Adriana Publishing Co., Inc.)  

Task:  

Explore the internet to look for at least 3 instructional software of your chosen topic 
related  to  your  field  of  specialization  that  may  be  used  in  instruction  and  giving  of 
activities  to  improve  students’  skills.  Identify  whether  it  is  a  Drill-and-practice, 
Tutorial,  Instructional  Game,  Simulation,  or  Problem-Solving  Software.  Describe  its 
function and usability.  

Name: __________________________________________  

Topic: __________________________________________ 
Instructional Software   Website from where the   Functions/Usability 
instructional software is found