Nerding out with Numbers

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In this week’s post, we focus on Numbers.  New to Numbers?  Think Excel or Google Sheets, but with whiteboard capabilities, easy to use charts and more.

“With Numbers, you can create beautiful spreadsheets that include impressive charts, tables, and images. And with real-time collaboration, your team can work together on a Mac, iPad, or iPhone — even on a PC using iWork for iCloud."  - Apple


As I prepared to write this post, I had to laugh at myself.  If you would have told me 3 years ago that I would have become a champion of the Numbers program, I would have never believed you. I had so many misconceptions of what Numbers was that I didn’t even give it a chance when designing learning.  So in the spirit of someone who has seen the light, I will use this post as my confession.
I used to think Numbers was for “data geeks” but now I know it is for “creativity geeks” too.
Numbers doesn’t have to have gridlines visible in a sheet - this makes for a clean white space that can mimic a whiteboard allowing a learner to create using shapes, text and media.

Photosynthesis Model
I used to think I had to understand spreadsheets to use Numbers, but now I know that the charts and graphs make it easy to organize data to build clean, simple graphics.
Simply select a type of chart and plug in your data - like magic, your data will be visualized.


Pet Graphing Example

I used to think Numbers was too hard for our little kids, but now I know that they can make meaning easily with shapes, charts, text and more without a login.
With features that are just like the options in Keynote and Pages, learners can use what they know about the other programs and apply them to Numbers.  No login is needed as long as they are not trying to use the collaboration features.  This makes it easier for our littles to create and show data.

Community Helpers Making Meaning Wall

How can Numbers be used in the classroom?  Here are some ideas!
  • Create deeper connections with a digital Making Meaning Wall
  • Document through a Digital Journal/Scrapbook
  • Organize tasks and observations  through an anecdotal checklist 
  • Collect media and images into an interactive lab report
  • Design Rubrics or Anticipation Guides for pre and post assessments

Inspired to learn more about Numbers?  Check out this resource we will be using at TCEA in just a few weeks - explore basics and ideas for using it, design something of your own and reflect with others on our Numbers topic on Flipgrid.


Have more ideas or want to share one of your “I used to think…” statements about Numbers? Let me know  in the comments!

 Check out other posts from this series here.

Comments

  1. AnonymousJanuary 23, 2018 at 2:56 PM

    I used to think that I had to know all of the formulas to make a beautiful numbers document , but now I know the tools in numbers are as easy to use as any other Apple product!

    ReplyDelete

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