I have to say that my first experience working with Google Spreadsheet was an extremely frustrating one. I had an inordinate amount of trouble simply trying to do what I wanted, including copying the spreadsheet into another window, failing to find where I could click to Delete Row or Delete Column, failing to realize I can apply the "Average" equation across multiple boxes; all of this was on top of the fact that I had trouble grasping what Barry meant by growth above the overall average. In fact, I'm still not entirely sure on that, which makes it all the more frustrating as I've probably done a good deal of it wrong, or at the least included plenty of students that I shouldn't have and not included other students I should have. Frustrating to say the least!
Also, here is a link to my final spreadsheet here
It is clear from the graph that every student showed signs of improvement. Some student's growth was minimal, as in the case of Blair and Walter. Other students improved their overall grades by great strides such as T. Owens (clearly a much better football player than student). Having the graph is a strong visual indicator of which students need more help as the term goes along and which students are having a better grasp of the material as time goes one. It also clearly shows students who have weak performances accented by strong ones and then have weak performances again. These students should be encouraged study hard (not that I wouldn't encourage everyone to study hard) because they demonstrate the ability to do well sometimes but not all the time.
Amazingly enough, six out of the twelve students lower than the 191 average got well above that score on their final test. For the six who did not get higher than the average on their final test, the score for each person did increase from Test 9 to Test 10 by an average of almost 11 points. There were two students from the underachievers group whose test scores decrease from Test 8 to Test 9, and even then the average was 1.5 point decrease, which could easily be explained by a "bad day". Whoever is teaching this class can be sure that towards the end of the semester that they are doing a good job of trying to bring the students up to speed on their work.
Thursday, October 14, 2010
Wednesday, October 13, 2010
Web 2.0!
Web 2.0 refers to any application on the web that centers around people doing what they would like to do in terms of productivity, networking, having fun and being able to do it anytime, anywhere!
Screen Recorders: UStream defines itself as "an interactive broadcast system" so it basically means that anyone can record themselves with their webcam talking about anything and upload it to an internet site (ustream.tv) where it can be easily accessible to anyone!
How UStream can be used to increase productivity: UStream can definitely be used in a variety of ways, but the first thing I thought of was being able to record a professor's lecture in class to be able to listen to it again and again. I'm not sure if that is legal though...? Another thing I was thinking of would be for practicing speeches, for instance, the debates we had in Educational Psychology yesterday. It seems like not a whole lot of us, myself included are used to speaking in front of a group of people or in front of a camera under the circumstances we aren't just sharing what we are thinking or feeling... UStream would give us all a way to sharpen our public speaking skills and help give us confidence in our abilities.
Personal Productivity: Tiny URL is a tool that allows a person to shorten the web address from a long line of jibberjabber to something that is short and easily remembers, cut-able, paste-able, and share-able.
How Tiny URL can help us: It seems pretty obvious that Tiny URL is going to be used more and more as web based products are going into the classroom more in the future. By shortening the URL, students will be able to access the information they need to faster, and encounter less stress in doing so. For instance, the URL in my last post the linked to my groups Google Form was fairly lengthy. By putting the long URL in the Tiny URL generator, we get this instead: http://tinyurl.com/2fspnqz pretty cool!
Screen Recorders: UStream defines itself as "an interactive broadcast system" so it basically means that anyone can record themselves with their webcam talking about anything and upload it to an internet site (ustream.tv) where it can be easily accessible to anyone!
How UStream can be used to increase productivity: UStream can definitely be used in a variety of ways, but the first thing I thought of was being able to record a professor's lecture in class to be able to listen to it again and again. I'm not sure if that is legal though...? Another thing I was thinking of would be for practicing speeches, for instance, the debates we had in Educational Psychology yesterday. It seems like not a whole lot of us, myself included are used to speaking in front of a group of people or in front of a camera under the circumstances we aren't just sharing what we are thinking or feeling... UStream would give us all a way to sharpen our public speaking skills and help give us confidence in our abilities.
Personal Productivity: Tiny URL is a tool that allows a person to shorten the web address from a long line of jibberjabber to something that is short and easily remembers, cut-able, paste-able, and share-able.
How Tiny URL can help us: It seems pretty obvious that Tiny URL is going to be used more and more as web based products are going into the classroom more in the future. By shortening the URL, students will be able to access the information they need to faster, and encounter less stress in doing so. For instance, the URL in my last post the linked to my groups Google Form was fairly lengthy. By putting the long URL in the Tiny URL generator, we get this instead: http://tinyurl.com/2fspnqz pretty cool!
Google Productivity Assignment
Here is a link to the Google Document that my group created:
https://spreadsheets0.google.com/viewform?hl=en&formkey=dHdUVTY3azR0MFdmUWFCTGhlLU94X0E6MA#gid=0
Google Forms is a tool that will let an aspiring teacher create tests, surveys, and other forms. In addition to creating the forms, it will also allow the teacher to collect, organize and display the collected information in a variety of ways, including graphs and charts!
Google Forms can enhance teaching and learning in a variety of ways:
https://spreadsheets0.google.com/viewform?hl=en&formkey=dHdUVTY3azR0MFdmUWFCTGhlLU94X0E6MA#gid=0
Google Forms is a tool that will let an aspiring teacher create tests, surveys, and other forms. In addition to creating the forms, it will also allow the teacher to collect, organize and display the collected information in a variety of ways, including graphs and charts!
Google Forms can enhance teaching and learning in a variety of ways:
- proofreading and editing
- forming templates
- it can eliminate paper waster
- google is non-proprietary so everyone can use it for free!
- because it is internet based anyone with a computer can access the forms
- a teacher can see in the areas students are strong and and the areas they are weak
- excellent in being able to identify trends
These were my initial thoughts: I was honestly blown away by this application. The fact that I can collaborate with fellow students and write my own response at the exact same time that someone else can on the same document is mind blowing. I would have killed to know about this during my time as an undergraduate student here at Willamette. At this point, I don’t see why Willamette bothers with assigning their own email addresses. It would be much easier to have everyone do gmail and give a short seminar when everyone starts at the university. Everyone would be much more productive and collaborative learning, which in part is a major goal of the university, could be achieved much easier. I’m going to work a bit more on the questions and see how it goes... I just finished typing out the rest of the questions on the spreadsheet but I still don’t know how to make it so that people can respond to the questions without having others see their answers, which is an obvious and important aspect of a questionnaire. I can see under the form subheading that you can see a summary of responses and embed the questionnaire in a webpage making it accessible to everyone who might need it. Overall, I’m very impressed with this application and as I learn to use it more, I can put it to better use.
I think that it simply takes a little bit of time before getting to know the program before being able to quickly and proficiently do things. I often find myself just swinging my mouse around as my brain searches for where the button is that allows me to do what I want to do.
Saturday, October 9, 2010
October 6 Education Week Reflection
A report was released from an executive in the Baltimore school district "showing that chronically absent students scored 15 to 20 percentage points lower on state assessments than did students who attended school more regularly." Honestly, all I have to say to most of this article is "DUH!" So much of primary and secondary school is simply showing up to class and having a pulse! This isn't that hard people. I have a hard time believing that people don't get this concept. It's pretty simple in my opinion. Show up, do what is expected of you even moderately (excuse the language) half assed and you are going to pass. I don't think that changes for most any place you are going to attend. It's not limited to primary and secondary school either. Plenty of my classes at Willamette Undergrad have felt that way too. Obviously a little bit of reading is going to be required outside of classtime, but even then some people can't do that. I'm not sure whether its laziness or what, but I have a hard time believing that people fail out of WU because of ineptitude. Anyways, I was impressed and slightly mortified at the degree to which one of the employees of the school district went to get students in class. Having someone drive up to a student's house to get them to go to school is ridiculous. Where are the parents in those situations? How is it that responsibility to get kids to go to school is falling on school districts like the one described in Baltimore? This all feels much to obvious to me...
The other article I reacted to was the one about China giving the United States more money to teach Mandarin in schools across the country. I honestly couldn't believe how naive the people who opposed to this sounded. With China becoming a dominant power in the world market (not to mention a military power as well) they will probably become our biggest ally (in which case we certainly would want plenty of people around who know how to speak Mandarin for the sake of business) or our greatest enemy (in which case we will want people who know how to speak it for military purposes). We are still fighting in the Middle East and the government is recruiting extensively anyone who knows how to speak Arabic. I'd rather not have people educated in the language and culture when we go to war with these people, so if China wants to help us pay money to teach United States citizens how to speak Mandarin its perfectly fine with me. It's not that I don't care that they violate civil rights or don't follow our ideas of child labor laws, I not naive enough to think that those are good enough reasons to turn down money from someone that will help us out in the long run.
Quick Hit: It's too bad there aren't more folks like Mark Zuckerberg. The dude dropped 100 million dollars to help turn the Newark, NJ school districts around. Thats pretty awe inspiring.
The other article I reacted to was the one about China giving the United States more money to teach Mandarin in schools across the country. I honestly couldn't believe how naive the people who opposed to this sounded. With China becoming a dominant power in the world market (not to mention a military power as well) they will probably become our biggest ally (in which case we certainly would want plenty of people around who know how to speak Mandarin for the sake of business) or our greatest enemy (in which case we will want people who know how to speak it for military purposes). We are still fighting in the Middle East and the government is recruiting extensively anyone who knows how to speak Arabic. I'd rather not have people educated in the language and culture when we go to war with these people, so if China wants to help us pay money to teach United States citizens how to speak Mandarin its perfectly fine with me. It's not that I don't care that they violate civil rights or don't follow our ideas of child labor laws, I not naive enough to think that those are good enough reasons to turn down money from someone that will help us out in the long run.
Quick Hit: It's too bad there aren't more folks like Mark Zuckerberg. The dude dropped 100 million dollars to help turn the Newark, NJ school districts around. Thats pretty awe inspiring.
September 29, 2010 Education Week Reaction
Lo and behold! Another article pertaining to concussions on the cover of another esteemed publication. That sounded sarcastic, but it really wasn't. For those of you who follow sports (in particular, the NFL) closely, you would already be well aware of concussion debate going. A few weeks ago, the TMQ (Tuesday Morning Quarterback of ESPN.com) had a great article on concussions, calling for not only more attention to concussions at the high school, college, and professional level, but the youngest level as well. The main focus of his article is how concussions at a very early age, before the age of 12, has an even greater effect on the development of children than at the later stages. This seems to be a big theme this year, and even though it is in part due to the death of the UPenn athlete mentioned in this article (which I honestly don't think had anything to do with concussions) it is important that more attention is drawn to the subject. I'm happy that wrestling wasn't one of the sports listed in the article as having a large number of unreported concussions because I wrestled in high school and I will tell you that our trainers didn't let anything get by. It also helps when the rules of the sport are designed to promote the safety of its athletes and punish those who break the rules. I remember a match in high school where a teammate got "slammed" (official term) to the ground and the match was immediately stopped and he was evaluated for a concussion. Not showing any symptoms, he was allowed to continued the match and his opponent slammed him again, at which point he was disqualified and my teammate won. Of course, in football, big hits are praised (another thing mentioned in TMQ) and there is more incentive to hit big and also more incentive to stay in the game after receiving a big hit. I was surprised at how little of this article actually pertained to education, since it was relegated to pretty much the last paragraph...
Another article I found very interesting was the one pertaining to the sale of video games to minors. Being a kid who grew up on video games, and being frustrated at the idea of not being able to buy a video game if I wanted it, my history says I'd be slightly biased towards arguing the point that kids should be able to buy "expressive media" as the article likes to call it. I do express some concern about very young kids playing games that depict violence such as heads being lopped off etc. It largely is a job that falls on the parents of children though. It is not the state's or the governments job to raise children. If you think that, you probably should have not had kids yourself. This feels like a growing trend in which parents shirk their responsibility to their kids and is absolutely ridiculous. Also the article mentioned a brief from the Entertainment Merchants Association and the Entertainment Software Association about violence playing a long standing role in expression properly consumed by minors." What does it mean when something has been properly consumed by a minor? Under what circumstances is violence properly consumed by minors? In school? Only in books? Feels all very wishy-washy to me!
Another article I found very interesting was the one pertaining to the sale of video games to minors. Being a kid who grew up on video games, and being frustrated at the idea of not being able to buy a video game if I wanted it, my history says I'd be slightly biased towards arguing the point that kids should be able to buy "expressive media" as the article likes to call it. I do express some concern about very young kids playing games that depict violence such as heads being lopped off etc. It largely is a job that falls on the parents of children though. It is not the state's or the governments job to raise children. If you think that, you probably should have not had kids yourself. This feels like a growing trend in which parents shirk their responsibility to their kids and is absolutely ridiculous. Also the article mentioned a brief from the Entertainment Merchants Association and the Entertainment Software Association about violence playing a long standing role in expression properly consumed by minors." What does it mean when something has been properly consumed by a minor? Under what circumstances is violence properly consumed by minors? In school? Only in books? Feels all very wishy-washy to me!
Friday, October 1, 2010
Education Week September 22, 2010 Reaction
Since we talked about the possibility of responding to education week here on our blogs, I decided to go ahead and kick things off by doing so:
I have heard a lot of things recently about how ethnic studies courses in Arizona are trying to be wiped out by the state government, and an article in Willamette's Collegian was the first significant thing I had read about it. This article was even more telling. In a way it is not all that surprising as this is the same state that was trying to straight up build a fence from border to border in order to keep illegal aliens out. I'm not saying that the two issues are one and the same, merely that both of these reflect a train of thought meant to keep the "other" out, and to maximize the "U.S. vs. them" mentality (I hope people catch that pun...). Of the 2,900 students at the Magnet High School, almost half, (1,400) are taking the ethnic studies courses. I will tell you this: my high school was that big, and if any of those classes are even mildly educational, its a good thing that that many students are interested and willing and excited to be taking them. There is no way any class outside of underwater basket-weaving would get that many people interested at my school. Give the people what they want! Not only that but it definitely feels like Nazi Germany to be cutting off funds to a school for learning about other cultures. People who agree with it might say "But they are fostering Anti-American feelings!" to which I will say "get over it. America has done some pretty hate-inspiring things"
Another article I reacted pretty strongly to was the article on the front page labeled "Rhee Reflective in Aftershock of DC Primary." It talks for some time about how well Ms. Rhee and others have done turning things around for the Washington DC public school districts. But, *GASP*, to her and other's surprise, her boss lost a primary because despite their good work, their public image isn't that impressive. Who would have thought that education was more than just about teaching kids and trying to raise the bar. It reminded me of our class discussion of whether or not we were going to fire or retain Mr. Smiley at the cost of funding, etc. It is the case with any profession that if you don't "play the game" to a certain degree that you aren't going to get very far. It's not that I'm saying that people shouldn't be zealous about education reform or that they shouldn't do what they think is right. I'm just saying that they need to temper zealousness with realism, power with savvy and technique. People, Ms. Rhee included, will find they'll get a lot farther towards accomplishing their goals than they would otherwise. A tree that won't bend will surely break...
I have heard a lot of things recently about how ethnic studies courses in Arizona are trying to be wiped out by the state government, and an article in Willamette's Collegian was the first significant thing I had read about it. This article was even more telling. In a way it is not all that surprising as this is the same state that was trying to straight up build a fence from border to border in order to keep illegal aliens out. I'm not saying that the two issues are one and the same, merely that both of these reflect a train of thought meant to keep the "other" out, and to maximize the "U.S. vs. them" mentality (I hope people catch that pun...). Of the 2,900 students at the Magnet High School, almost half, (1,400) are taking the ethnic studies courses. I will tell you this: my high school was that big, and if any of those classes are even mildly educational, its a good thing that that many students are interested and willing and excited to be taking them. There is no way any class outside of underwater basket-weaving would get that many people interested at my school. Give the people what they want! Not only that but it definitely feels like Nazi Germany to be cutting off funds to a school for learning about other cultures. People who agree with it might say "But they are fostering Anti-American feelings!" to which I will say "get over it. America has done some pretty hate-inspiring things"
Another article I reacted pretty strongly to was the article on the front page labeled "Rhee Reflective in Aftershock of DC Primary." It talks for some time about how well Ms. Rhee and others have done turning things around for the Washington DC public school districts. But, *GASP*, to her and other's surprise, her boss lost a primary because despite their good work, their public image isn't that impressive. Who would have thought that education was more than just about teaching kids and trying to raise the bar. It reminded me of our class discussion of whether or not we were going to fire or retain Mr. Smiley at the cost of funding, etc. It is the case with any profession that if you don't "play the game" to a certain degree that you aren't going to get very far. It's not that I'm saying that people shouldn't be zealous about education reform or that they shouldn't do what they think is right. I'm just saying that they need to temper zealousness with realism, power with savvy and technique. People, Ms. Rhee included, will find they'll get a lot farther towards accomplishing their goals than they would otherwise. A tree that won't bend will surely break...
OTEN Conference!
Below is my Yodio reaction post to the OTEN Conference that we attended last weekend on Saturday September 25, 2010 in Forest Grove, Oregon at Pacific University. Absolutely beautiful campus, and also very impressive facilities. I was surprised at how large of a showing Willamette University students had. It seemed like we made up the majority of the conference. My vote is to have it at Willamette this next year. I will say that they were very accommodating at Pacific and wouldn't mind going again, provided I wasn't getting up at 6 in the morning on a Saturday to do so... enjoy!
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