InspireData
© 2006 Inspiration Software, Inc.
Every teacher needs a utility to quickly and easily turn student survey's into visual data. That's the mission of InspireData. It was created with NSF funds (so why so expensive?) by Chris Hancock and Scott Osterweil of TERC, the same group that created TableTop Math (back in 1994) that was the basis for The Logical Journal of the Zoombinis. The program makes it easy to collect information--say a group of children's favorite flavors of ice cream, or the number of days it takes for a bean to sprout--and then pull the information into one database. Data can grouped in different ways or imported from comma separated text fields (e.g., from Excel). It is also possible to use a questionnaire feature, which also feeds data directly into a database. Once a data set is in place it can be displayed in a variety of ways. This is where this program shines. You can choose a Venn diagram where all the students who like chocolate ice cream are shown inside a circle. If you switch to a bar graphs, the icons flow to their correct category, in real time, making this an excellent way to help students see quantifiable relationships. You can also step through time units in order to see the rate at which the beans sprouted, for example. It is easy to change grouping criteria, or create formulas on the fly. Weaknesses include a limited ability to format the graphs, for publishing or presentation purposes. For example, we could not find a way to easily change a font or alter the patterns of legends. Graphs cannot be opened in Word, Excel, or other presentation programs. You can export graphs as a graphic file. You can also easily import or export raw data as comma separated text. The version we reviewed (1.0, build 974), on a new Gateway laptop, crashed when resizing windows or when when working with multiple projects. Perhaps is because InspireData was created using Lispworks. We did not test the Mac OS version. For making data come alive in a visual sense, and for transforming students into researchers, InspireData is a welcome addition to any teacher's toolkit. We'll look forward to version 2.0, with some of the kinks hopefully worked out. Note that a new free upgrade has been offered. New features include an e-Survey function for online data collection, more plot and expanded table options, 100 new databases, and expanded teacher resources. Current InspireData users can upgrade their software free at http://www.inspiration.com/upgradeinspiredata.
$79, Windows XP, Mac OSX
Teaches: math, statistics, quantitative relationships, science, social studies
CTR Rating: 86%