Spreadsheets have been used by accountants for hundreds of years. Computerised or electronic spreadsheets are of much more recent origin. In the realm of accounting jargon, a spreadsheet was and is a large sheet of paper with columns and rows that organises data about transactions for a business person to examine. It spreads or shows all of the costs, income, taxes, and other related data on a single sheet of paper for a manager to examine when making a decision. An electronic spreadsheet organises information into software defined columns and rows. The data can then be “added up” by a formula to give a total or sum. The spreadsheet programme summarises information from many paper sources in one place and presents the information in a format to help a decision maker see a more complete picture.
In 1961, Professor Richard Mattessich pioneered the development of computerised spreadsheets for use in business accounting. These operated on mainframe computers. The wide use of spreadsheet programmes had to wait till the personal computers became common. Spreadsheets made their first appearance for personal computers in 1979; this was the VisiCalc, created by Dan Bricklin and Bob Frankston for the Apple-II platform. It was conceived and developed as a tool to do repetitive calculations for Bricklin’s studies at Harvard Business School. The name VisiCalc is a compressed form of the phrase visible calculator.
The basic paradigm of an array of rows and columns with automated updates and display of results has been extended with libraries of mathematical and statistical functions, accompanied with powerful graphing facilities. VisiCalc was succeeded by the Lotus 1-2-3. It incorporated integrated charting, plotting and database capabilities. Lotus 1-2-3 established spreadsheet software as a major data presentation package as well as a complex calculation tool. In 1984, Microsoft came up with its own version of the spreadsheet programme called EXCEL (http://www.microsoft.com/office/excel/). When Microsoft launched the Windows operating system in 1987, Excel was one of the first application products released for it. Now the Microsoft Excel has superseded all the other spreadsheet programmes. It was one of the first spreadsheets to use a graphical interface with pull down menus and a point and click capability using a mouse pointing device. The Microsoft Excel spreadsheet with a graphical user interface makes it very attractive for the users. Moreover, the Microsoft Excel has established itself as a ubiquitous programme.
The electronic spreadsheets such as the MS Excel can be used effectively in education and science. MS Excel is readily available and one need not buy costly packages. The MS spreadsheets are easy to use enabling a middle course compared to the extremes of fully coding an algorithm in some programming language (such as FORTRAN or C++) and using a readymade package. The spreadsheet approach is more suited for learning. Moreover, the MS Excel has a highly developed graphical interface with an inbuilt help module. Beginners can do statistical analysis (calculation of mean, median, mode and standard deviation, etc.) of data and make a graphical presentation (pie charts, bar charts, etc.). Students can also do many complex mathematical operations (including topics such as applied calculus) using the MS Excel with ease. Excel enables numerical analysis in an easy and lucid manner requiring no prior knowledge of computer programming. Presenting information in graphical form is useful in studying many phenomena in science. Excel is a very useful tool in analysing the data collected in the laboratories and in the field trips.
Using Excel can enhance understanding of content within a graphic presentation of the information. It provides a visual representation of data that makes it easier to analyse. Excel reduces the difficulty of plotting data and allows students a means for interpreting the data. Excel can easily convert any chart or data set into a web page, making it very easy to share information among groups. Excel’s ability to dynamically generate charts and graphs in seconds makes it easy to quickly demonstrate relationships between numbers. As a teaching tool, students can see how different types of graphs and charts can be used to represent the same series of data. A major advantage of an electronic spreadsheet is that it can be stored (in devices such as flash-memories and CDs) and reused later. Moreover, the stored data can be used for a comparative analysis.
[The writer teaches at Engineering Department, Salalah College of Technology (SCT), Salalah, Sultanate of Oman. [email protected]]