Multiple Intelligences - TechTools & Software

The University of Rhode Island and

The Rhode Island Foundation

Teachers in Technology Initiative

RITTI-Fellows Research
November, 1999
Jane Carlson-Pickering
Coordinator/Teacher Multiple Intelligences & Technology
M.I. Smart! Program
Chariho Regional School District
jcpic@chariho.k12.ri.us
http://www.chariho.k12.ri.us/curriculum/MISmart/mi_smart.htm

The following list provides examples of specific tools of the trade that are geared to activate different intelligence areas. Please keep in mind that this is merely a sampling of the thousands of software programs available for today's classrooms.

Verbal/Linguistic Intelligence - The capacity to use language, your native language, and perhaps other languages, to express what's on you mind and to understand other people. Poets really specialize in linguistic intelligence, but any kind of writer, orator, speaker, lawyer, or a person for whom language is an important stock in trade, highlights linguistic intelligence.

• Word processing programs
• E-mail programs
• Web Page Composers
• Multimedia Presentation tools
• Foreign Language programs
• Storybook CD's
• Typing tutors
• Desktop
• Electronic libraries
• Word games/programs

Logical/Mathematical- People with highly developed logical/mathematical intelligence understand the underlying principles of some kind of a causal system, the way a scientist or a logician does; or can manipulate numbers, quantities, and operations, the way a Mathematician does.

• Math skills tutorials
• Computer programming tutors
• Spreadsheets
• Map Making tools
• Data Bases
• Logic games
• Science programs
• Critical thinking programs
• Problem Solving programs

Visual/Spatial Intelligence- The ability to represent the spatial world internally in your mind – the way a sailor or airplane pilot navigates the large spatial world, or the way a chess player or sculptor represents a more circumscribed spatial world. Spatial intelligence can be used in the arts or in the sciences. If you are spatially intelligent and oriented toward the arts, you are more likely to become a painter or sculptor or architect than, say a musician or a writer. Similarly, certain sciences like anatomy or topology emphasize spatial intelligence.

• Animation programs
• 3D modeling languages
• Clip Art programs
• Computer-aided visualizations
• Digital Cameras and Microscopes
• Draw & Paint programs
• Electronic chess games
• Modeling tools
• Research Group)
• Spatial problem solving games
• Electronic puzzle kits
• Geometry programs
• Digital Imagery/Graphics Programs
• Virtual Courseware

Bodily/Kinesthetic Intelligence- the capacity to use your whole body or parts of your body (your hands, your fingers, your arms), to solve a problem, make something, or put on some kind of production. The most evident examples are people in athletics or the performing arts, particularly when dancing or acting.

• Hands-on construction kits that interface with computers
• Motion-simulation games
• Virtual reality system software
• Eye-Hand coordination games
• Tools that plug into computers
• Haptic Tools

Note: Voice recognition programs may help the bodily/kinesthetic student create his "written" report while he paces back and forth across the floor. (Over the years I have observed that pacing commonly helps students with strong proclivities in this area, process information and think more clearly).

Musical/Rhythmic Intelligence- The capacity to think in music, to be able to hear patterns, recognize them, and perhaps manipulate them. People who have strong musical intelligence don't just remember music easily - they can't get it out of their minds, it's so omnipresent.

• Music literature tutors
• Singing software (voice synthesizer)
• Tone recognition and melody enhancers
• Musical instrument digital interfaces
• Create Your Own Music Programs

Interpersonal Intelligence- Interpersonal intelligence, is understanding other people. It's an ability we all need, but is at a premium if you are a teacher, clinician, salesperson, or a politician. Anybody who deals with other people has to be skilled in the interpersonal sphere.

• Electronic bulletin boards
• Simulation games
• E-mail programs

Intrapersonal Intelligence - Having an understanding of yourself, of knowing who you are, what you can do, what you want to do, how you react to things, which things to avoid, and which things to gravitate toward.

• Personal choice software
• Career counseling software
• Any self-paced program
• Downloadable multi-media applets

Naturalist Intelligence- The human ability to discriminate among living things (plants, animals) as well as sensitivity to other features of the natural world (clouds, rock configurations, etc.).

• Scientific plug-ins
• Nature sound and/or image files
• Classification of Flora/Fauna software
• Animal sounds identification programs
• Earth Science programs

Existential Intelligence- Individuals who exhibit the proclivity to pose (and ponder) questions about life, death, and ultimate realities. (Gardner only recently disclosed the existence of this intelligence area. I am unfamiliar with any software at this time that would focus primarily on this intelligence. Perhaps if there were programs that deal with Socratic questioning, they would fall into this category).

Also:

• Software such as the "Dr. Brain" series incorporates many of the above intelligences a
• Web sites that incorporate any/all of the above
• Videodiscs in any discipline can draw students into a topic in which they may not otherwise be interested.