This week I finished reviewing my last 5 free online spreadsheets. EXpressoCorp was no longer available for new accounts as it will soon be integrated into Lotus Live, which will be a subscription service. InputWebWizard is not free, Peepel looks promising, but will not open. Sheetster was very buggy, the graph window appeared, but did not contain the graph. SimpleSpreadsheet only offered source code. Now I have reached my 20th spreadsheet to evaluate: ThinkFree. Despite its name, ThinkFree is not free. It is still in beta and may be one to watch as it has many of the features I am looking for based on my free 30 day trial evaluation.My conclusion, at present there is no free online spreadsheet that can rival Excel or the Texas Instruments Graphing Calculator for data analysis.
I am not giving up. It appears there are many online applications in beta like MashUp and Microsoft Fuse Labs which is designed to share Docs on Facebook
http://docs.com/
that may be available soon.
For my refocused GAME plan:
1) Locate a web based graphing program or calculator that can print professional looking full page graphs. I researched all graphing tools at Cool Tools for Schools
http://cooltoolsforschools.wikispaces.com/Graphing+Tools
and found two can make nice xyscatter: ChartTool and ChartGizmo, but they only have auto scaling and will not connect the ordered pairs.
2) Locate a web based site that will calculate the 5 types of regression equation my students are expected to perform. The best one I have found so far is at:
http://people.hofstra.edu/Stefan_Waner/RealWorld/newgraph/regressionframes.html
Still searching…..In the “Looking for a Needle in the Haystack” division, I also searched and downloaded multiple freeware and shareware products: MATHGV4, SPR, Kalkulator, Statiscope, SHAZAM, Graph-Free Graph Plotting Software, Sagata Regression Pro 1, and ZGrapher 1.4
and located more (unusable) online options:
http://www.mathcracker.com/scatter_plot.php
http://www.socr.ucla.edu/htmls/SOCR_Charts.html
http://www.statcrunch.com/5.0/googlemap.php
http://www.swivel.com/
http://www.wessa.net/slr.wasp
http://web2.0calc.com/
I did find www.calculator.com has a statistics view coming soon – another technology to watch.
Late to this entry, I have discovered Google Just announced new tools new Chart tools which I will investigate next week.
http://www.freetech4teachers.com/2010/10/new-visualization-charts-in-google-docs.html
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Here is a link to two free online graphing calculators. I am not sure how well they work, but I know my co-worker really likes this one:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.zonalandeducation.com/ezGraph/ezGraph.html
Our book also has one. Click on:
http://www.classzone.com/cz/books/algebra_2_2011_na/book_home.htm?state=MT
then choose electronic function library.
These may not be what your looking for, but you never know, its worth a look.
Nancy, You are an internet search demon. Where do you find the time to search all this information and put it together? You have provided so many helpful tools on your blog. I am amazed. Your game plan seems to be working out well. Keep up the good work and helping out the rest of us lowly technology novices. I am interested using Google Docs more. Do you have any suggestions for using this software or a good place to seek out instruction in using Google Docs?
ReplyDeleteThanks again,
Rhonda
I am tenacious when it comes to finding resources for my students. I don’t feel as I have found exactly what I am looking for, but next week I will post the best options for graphing and printing data with Google Docs.
ReplyDeleteNancy - I am truly impressed with your perseverance when it comes to researching the necessary information needed for your students. I am interested in continued reading of your blog to stay up-to-date with your spreadsheet data since I am planning to incorporate a spreadsheet station in a lesson circuit I am planning for this course.
ReplyDeleteNancy,
ReplyDeleteWow! What else can I say! I have enjoyed keeping up with all of your research! You are doing a great job!
Sally