Inspiration

I reviewed the content exploration tool called Inspiration, specifically for Language Arts Education. I plan to teach middle school English, so using this tool would definitely benefit my teaching. Inspiration offers more efficient ways for both teachers and students to organize their ideas. It allows them to create concept maps, webs, and/or idea maps. Then, in one click, any diagram can be turned into an outline.

Another feature of Inspiration is that it can help improve writing proficiency. It does this by providing users with auto spell checker and an innovative dictionary and thesaurus called Word Guide. Inspiration also allows its users to "drag and drop" their information, allowing teachers and students to organize their thoughts in a quicker manner. It offers many different symbols and templates for people to utilize if they desire and permits video and/or audio to be inserted into projects or assignments. Inspiration presents teachers with 50+ curriculum packets that provide unit plans with multiple templates that they could use to teach high school-level English, Social Studies, or Science. In addition to the packets, Inspiration also has on-demand training videos that either teach one how to use the program or how to complete a project in an efficient manner.

As I said, Inspiration provides teachers with many different templates that can help them teach their students a concept or idea that will benefit their learning. But a teacher can also create their own diagram or outline to help teach a more complicated topic by providing an organized visual aid for the students to see. For example, if a teacher wanted to explain to his or her students how to write a proper biography, the teacher could create a diagram similar to this one.

Inspiration also offers certain tutorials, videos, and webcasts that can help teach an important concept to students. For instance, here is a video that explains how students can write a research paper with Inspiration. Once you have clicked on the link, scroll down and select the video that says "Writing a Research Paper with Inspiration" under Webcast Archives in order to view the correct one.