Stats By Any Other Name - Week 4

This was another one of those weeks where the terminology got in my way. I was confused about standard scores and z-scores. I thought that the standard score was the number on the table axis, and that the z-score was the number that you would find in the table itself. This would explain why my group was getting the same answers for the percentage questions, but different z-scores. Once we got this straitened out everything made a lot more sense. Again this week was more about the interpretation of the data, which is a lot more interesting than just crunching the numbers.

I found the videos on Bill Tancer to be intriguing, if not just a little bit frightening. It's amazing to me how much information can be gained just from analyzing peoples search inquiries. As long as the information remains anonymous, I think people should be able to use anything that's out there. If my personal information starts to get shared, that's when I feel it crosses over into an invasion of privacy.

Stats By Any Other Name - Week 3

This week our groups were supposed to start creating our own survey. We had a number of ideas, among which were the surveys that Zac and I were both working on for our respective districts. Zac's was smaller in scope (fewer questions and fewer people involved) and we thought it would be easier to analyze once we got the results. This is the part of stats. that is actually interesting, being able to interpret the data once you have it. It's funny that none of my other stats. classes in college really focused on this aspect. Isn't this the main reason that we do surveys in the first place?

Stats By Any Other Name Week 2

I'm not bad at math, I've actually always done pretty well. This class however, has been a struggle. It's not that the work is overly difficult, or the amount overwhelming. I find myself having a hard time with definitions. Words that I have used often with a fair amount of certainty as to their meanings, no longer have the same definitions. Take for instance the word "sample", I had no idea there were so many different types of samplesm and the word "statistic" more often I have actually meant "parameter" when I used this word. Once I can wrap my mind around the definitions, the actual math hasn't been that hard. Having said that, it still has to be my least favorite subject so far. I still think that's why they tried to disguise the name by calling it "Decision Making Using Data Collection & Analysis" and hoping that none of us would notice.

Week 5 Facil Collaboration

This week we were working on our Google Site. I created a wiki 2 years ago (I used it as part of my resume to get my current job), but I haven't done a lot of work on it since then. I decided to try a google site this time to see if there was a lot of difference between the two. I found that the google site was very easy to create and I liked the different layouts that I could use for each page. I am trying to find a way to present some of the information that I want my students to use in a more visually appealing way. Currently we each have a "webpage" on the district site. However, these pages all have to use the same size font, design set-up, etc. and allow for no creativity. I also have many of the same links on the Library Catalog home page, but that too is not visually appealing. I am learning that I can embed some things, but I have to know HTML code in order to do this. Alas, I am HTML illiterate. So I have my wiki site. However, that is just one more place to put all of the information and for students to have to find. I really want to be able to put all of the relevant information in one place, but I want it to be engaging and user friendly. Is this really too much to ask? Although the google site, like my wiki, is easy to use...again it is just one more place to make my students look....

Week 4 Facil Collaboration (Social Bookmarking)

I was introduced to Delicious three years ago and absolutely loved it. I loved that I could bookmark the sites that I had been looking at for research and be able to easily find them again no matter where I was, and what computer I was using. I also learned that adding people to my "friends" list made it easy to benefit from their research as well. If I was struggling to find some information, I was pretty sure that someone else from my class had found something useful. The one thing that I didn't pick up on right away was the importance of tagging and notes. I would bookmark a site, but I wouldn't put a lot of thought into the tag. Then when I would go looking for it, I would have to wade through a lot of other bookmarks to find the one that I wanted. I also realized that a good note as to why I had chosen this website could be equally important. Last year Delicious was sold and I eventually moved my bookmarks to Diigo. One thing that I like about Diigo is the ability to annotate the sites that you bookmark. This makes it much easier to find the relevant pieces of information when you finally get back to it. The social aspect of these bookmarking sites is becoming more and more important to me. I get much more productive search results from searching the bookmarks of people who work in similar fields, than just doing a random google search on the same topic.

Week 3 Collaboration Using Web Tools

This week we were looking at RSS feeds. I love RSS feeds. I barely have time to check my own e-mail somedays, there is no way that I would be able to keep up with the blogs that I like to follow. RSS feeds allow the new posts to be sent to me, all in one location. It makes it a lot easier to check the posts once every few days and know that I haven't missed anything. It also makes it easier to quickly glance through and decide what I would like to read, and what I can save for later. I have gotten a lot of really valuable information this way. The blogs that I follow have varied, I've dropped a few - only to pick them up again later - and added a couple of others, but it really makes the whole process a lot easier to keep up with (I love one stop shopping). I have tried getting my staff to use these without a lot of success. The ones who like the feature were already using RSS feeds when I started last year. Those who weren't using them yet, really haven't seen the use yet. I did manage to convert a couple of teachers last year, and I hope to grab a few more this year. Maybe the word of mouth will finally get the rest of them to crack. Those that have switched love how much easier it has been to get good information. They have it sent to them, instead of having to go looking for it!!!!!

I think one of the problems that I had with Twitter the first time that I used it, was that I was following basically the same people on Twitter as I had RSS feeds for. Therefore, I really felt that I was just getting the same information twice - in different formats. This time around I am trying to follow some different people of Twitter and I think that it will actually be really beneficial.

The other topic we were supposed to be looking at this week is photo sharing sites. Good, Creative Commons and/or copyright free image sites are really important. However, my students have run in to a number of inappropriate images on Flicker. They had typed in very innocent search terms and pulled up some disturbing pictures that weren't being blocked by our system. I have created a list of other sites that they can use as an alternative to google, ones with either Creative Commons or copyright free images, but Flicker is not on the list.

Blogs, Wikis and Twitter Oh My

I know that I am a week behind with this blog but I will try to make up for it. It's funny to me how much harder the writing part is than the reading. The same thing is true for my reading challenge blog. I have read close to 50 books since I began the challenge, but I have only managed to blog about 27 of them. Why is that? It really makes me stop and think about some of the work we ask our students to do - and why they sometimes have difficulty getting it done.

I have to say that this class (and the last) became even more relevant to me this week while at the TIES conference in Minneapolis. Bernajean Porter (of DigiTales fame) was one of the featured presenters, most of the sessions had to do with blogging, on-line discussions, wikis, etc. and you couldn't go anywhere without seeing a tweet!!!

I had been following a few people on Twitter before, but I found that I was getting a lot of overlap from the information on my RSS feeds. It seemed that people were tweeting about things they were reading on these blogs and I found that I got more information from reading the blog than the tweet so... I guess I will give it another try. Maybe I need to find different people to follow. I think I will start with some of the fabulous presenters at the TIES conference. (Can you tell that I loved this conference? The only bad part is coming back down to reality when you return to work. I would love to see all of these innovative ideas implemented TODAY but I will be patient and try to keep taking the little steps that will get us there in the future.)

The readings this week have motivated me to make some changes to my Reading Challenge Blog (and to work on updating my postings) and to make some other changes to my wikispace. I am considering switching to Weebly, we'll see. All of my reading over the past 2 weeks has really convinced me that we are on the right track with My Big Campus and some of the other wiki's and blogs that are being used in my school. I will continue to push for some of the more reluctant teachers to at least try blogging themselves in order to see how effective it can be and to follow some other educators on their blogs. Rss feeds are a perfect way to build you personal learning network and continue your education every day. What a great way to connect with fellow educators/experts from around the country and around the world. I have said it before to my staff, but I think it's worth another push.