540 WK 5

This entire class on stats has been different than what I thought it would be. I was not happy to see the first bit of actual math, but once we got past that and began exploring how we can use data in education, I was pleasantly surprised. This week we explored google trends which would be useful to follow the trends of any hot topic. Students could use this tool to follow a hot current event and see when the topic peaks and also find some useful links on the topic. I also enjoyed looking at some of the stat sites. As you would expect, the CDC and National Archives have a ton of information. The CDC site is great, but the Archives site was difficult to navigate and it would be challenging to find specific information. I also enjoyed searching the internet for automotive trends and stats. Automotive and especially domestic automakers is a hot topic these days and finding stats is not all that difficult. What I enjoyed most about this class is reminding me that stats can be easy to find and useful. They should be part of any research and report.

540wk 4

This week learning about Bill Tancer and how cookies are actually used is very interesting to me. In the past I just assumed that someone was keeping track of my browsing habbits, but now I know who! Tancer has a unique business with Hitwise and I am sure that his data is strong evidence of browsing trends and user characteristics. If I owned my own business, much less ran a large corporation, I would NEED to employ the Hitwise group in some way, or be left behind by those that do. To monitor, track, and collect data on web browsers is absolute marketing brilliance. Using this data companies can better place their products in front of consumers and better serve them as well. I am glad that Hitwise claims to collect this data anonymously, but I am not naive enough to think that someone else might be tracking ME! Or that's just paranoia.

540 wk 3

This week as a group we designed and implemented our own survey. We chose to survey our peers on the advantages and disadvantages of block scheduling. The survey was short and simple, but I believe we got a clear view of how our fellow educators feel about block scheduling. During the survey process, I was impressed with how easy it was to create a survey with survey monkey and be able to analyze the data and draw conclusions from it. I enjoyed using survey monkey as an online tool for data collection. Survey monkey allows you to create your survey and share it with you participants as a link, on your website, or by email. This was a useful tool and a good experience.

540 wk 2

Ok! so I feel better now. I was worked up last week with all of the math that we had to do. I was not eager to do pages of stats homework, I thought that I was done with all of that math. This week I am glad to see us looking for survey tools on the web, this is more what I envisioned when we started this class. I do not use surveys currently, but after discovering a few new tools on the web, I might find a use for them. One thing I may use them for is student feedback. I have to collect data for my PDP anyways and what better way than using a web based electronic survey. I have used survey monkey in the past and know it to be useful in small surveys. I was really excited to find esurveyspro which allows for the creation and distribution of larger surveys. This could be useful for larger data collection. I currently assess student feedback at the end of each semester, but after finding more of these data collection tools, I should start collecting feedback More often. These tools will grow on me at some point, just like everything else, it may take time.

540 wk 1

Wow! I hate stats. I am not a big fan of math even though my grades in the past have not been bad, but it does not come quickly to me at all. I took an accelerated stats class in college, got like a B+ or A- and hated it. I am not sure what the correlation is between this class and the rest of the program, but I am eager to find out. I do not collect any data or use a lot of stats in my life or classroom. I will from time to time review a statistical finding that interests me, but I could definitely live without it. I have had my doubts about other classes over that last 10 months, but I will find it difficult to make this useful in my daily life. I will keep an open mind because I do view myself as a lifelong learner, but the outlook is bleak.

535 WK 5

This week there are a few things that I can translate into my professional and personal life. I have found myself slightly enjoying Richardson's book and agreeing with a lot of what he says. There were a lot of good points in chapter 9 that made me reflect upon what we have learned. One of the bennefits of using web education is that not only are these great tools to enhance education, but mastery of these technologies comes as a byproduct of that education. Students that use technology in school become even more comfortable with it in life.
I also took some time to explore other web 2.0 tools that we didn't necessarily cover in class. Social bookmarking sites like Diigo and Delicious are very useful for myself and my students. Media sharing and storing sites like Flickr, Zoto, and Pixorial make it easy to share, edit and store pictures and video. These tools are things that I plan to put to use in my technology classes. Any tool that I can use that is web based that allows for easy storage and access of materials.
As we progress through this program I am pleasantly surprised to find more and more useful tools for myself and my students. Web 2.0 tools will not only enhance my information delivery systems, but excite students about technology tools and the content that I teach.

535 wk 4

This is kind of an interesting week for me. I am crazy busy right now at school and with my personal life and I was dreading even starting our homework this week. As you may notice I always post my blog by at the latest Friday afternoon and here we are Saturday morning. Might not seem like a big deal, but for me its crazy. I am excited to start my Ning, I finally made the desicion and I am ready to get started. I also found screencasting to be really cool. It is something that I had done once a long, long time ago and forgot how to even do. I used ScreenCastle and it was AWESOME! Really easy to use and I recorded the steps to setting up a blogger account. I plan to use this screencast shortly when I get my kids ready to start blogging. I also thought the conversation about crowdsourcing was interesting and I was really interested in the R&D innocentive site. This week was very busy, but very useful for me.