Taming the Wild Data points of life.

This week I had to ask my brilliant children for help. I remember loving the lab work in college but hating the calculations especially determining standard deviation. I even whined to my son and daughter when they told me I had to calculate the cumulative differences between the data and the mean in a field with only 7 entries. They tried to console me and tell me that if I entered the data into the graphics calculator and did some logical and simple (Magical Mystical digital manipulations) calculations it would all become clear and I could reach a transcendent level of data understanding. Of course I didn't. I take it on faith that the statistical manipulations are useful and I have seen some evidence though the clarity of the moment quickly fades into a fog of confusion. I know with time and training I can tame the wild numbers and learn to ride this wave of data, but I have to tell you I fear that this horse truly hates me.

Week 5 0535

I have yet to use twitter in a very productive manner though I did share an interesting web source with follower this week MIT Course info. I am beginning to see how microblogging can be used professionally as a information and network tool. I would not have thought miroblogging to be or any interest or benefit to me professionally. I still keep forgetting to use twitter (checking now that I thought of it). I had thought of it entirely as a social networking tool for those wanting to stay in touch with friends. I can see how it can be used as a tool for networking with individuals on a professional level and a group interest level.

Social bookmarking has been the most helpful tool I have begun to use. I use it on my computers and a click of a button on my tool bar brings me to my Course management system, my school email etc. I can have my office anywhere I can hook up to the internet.

Last week I started a Wiki designed to be a warehouse of ideas and information for the start of a online student resource for my online science classes. I really like the ease of use and the idea of our science department collaborating to build these courses using this tool. My fellow teachers have really not added much to the wiki as of yet but I hope that once they explore the application a bit it will encourage them to contribute.

Ok, I must apologize for th3e lateness of this blog. I have been busy over the last 4-days caring for my elderly Mother. Serious stuff but she is doing fine at the moment. With that uplifting introduction let me say that I was able to do many things related to what we are discussing in the section or our class.
As my mother spent the day on Thursday getting a stress test I sat in the waiting room working. I logged on using a guest password form the secretary and was able to access my iQ Academy course management system and was able to grade for hours and hours (still not caught up). I was also able to access my iQ Academy online email application so I could answer parents and assist students. I easily managed all these application using the delicious online bookmarking application I am using.
I actually did forget that I had the convenience of Twitter as well. This would have come in handy as my wolfmail account would not function due to password ageism regulations. Though in defense I did try to change before the deadline but every time I logged into the change password application it kicked me to the wrong page and so I sent email to pc support which went unanswered even though they probably would have sent the message to the email I could not access.
But Props go out to Louis who once again saved the day to day with his helpful Twitter reply. (tl3johnson) I also want to add that the young man who answered the help desk number and walked through the fix was very helpful.
So hurried and busy as usual, the tools we are using do help me in a real way.

3rd blog for 0535

This week I set up a flickr account, I had received photos from my brother on his account before and searched for pictures for projects in the past. I will be adding some picture of the basement project now that I have electrical set up and dry wall on the inside looks like a room.

I also set up a Google reader account and added a couple of feeds to it. I added classmate’s blogs as well. It looks like it will be a useful tool once I have used it for a while.

That reminds me I also set up a twitter account and never remember to tweet or follow any one but Louis.

So I will be going there next and seeing what he has been up to as well as looking to add folks to follow and RSS feeds to feed upon.

I checked out Wikibooks as our science department is in the middle of planning to create some open source information to provide to our online science students. We are in the research and discussion stage though I really think that a creating our own wiki resource is a great option.


So this week was very relevant to one of our science department goals is for this year. We have a goal to explore creating some open source materials for our online course. We have some classes that use text books and others that use the online information provided by our partner. The main issue with the information provided is that it is not as comprehensive as we would like and is currently supplied in a very rigid structure. Assignments and activities are inbeded into the online source. Which makes it very difficult to adjust or modify the curriculum as we would wish.

It looks to me like we can start to collaborate on producing such an online source by using a wiki. I checked out the online text book project at Wikibooks which is a web wide effort to do the same. I specifically looked at the biology section and found that it was started but just barely. There are other such movements that we are looking into as well as just creating our own information as well.

As a department we have all agreed philosophically that the information should be open source and available to all. This does bring up the interesting fact that with the open enrollment system we could very well be contributing to the success of other online schools in the near future, who under the current system are in direct competition for our potential students. With the current capped enrollment system in place this could be potentially fatal to our endeavor.

Week 1 Ced 0535 Opportunity Lost?

I found the bookBlogs Wikis, Podcasts and other powerful tools for classrooms to be a very exciting read. I really got caught up in looking forward to the possibilities described in the read/write web. We have used some of those tools in this class effectively. My first thought was how difficult incorporating these tools into a face to face class would be and then how difficult it would be to incorporate these tools in to the rigid system we have in my online environment. Richardson's advice to start by using the web tools to learn about and develop your own passion seems to be great advice. it is nice that we have the added advantage to explore them in our grad class but I also feel that the tools will be most useful to me professionally in the context of organizing, building and communicating online materials with my science department. We have established a delicious group were we share bookmarked web pages. We also cooperatively work on projects using Google docs.



It is interesting how different districts are reacting to the changes taking place. The school district of Arrowhead moved this year to allow the students to use their cell phones throughout the school day and some teachers have encouraged their use in class. My son downloaded a Spanish English Dictionary on to his cell phone for use in class. While the school district of Waukesha has banned teacher participation in online social networks such as face book and twitter and blogs. What are your thoughts on this topic?


Students are currently learning how to interact in these environment on there own, with very little guidance. Wouldn't it be beneficial to give students experience in using these tools productively? Of course the fear of their misuse can out way the opportunities . Information security and privacy issues is one area that we need to address. Sooner better than later as it seems opportunities are being lost.

Week 5

I decided to create my Pecha Kucha on the 5-2 monster defense that I have coached and played in during high school. I had countless documents that I had put together over the years that I had used as informational packets for my assistant coaches and as a way of developing game plans. It was very enjoyable going through the schemes and developing a basic presentation. I found the activity to be very time consuming and the timing on the voice thread to be an obstacle. It would only start counting down the 20 seconds for each slide after you finished the voice over. So I had to time my speaking to fit in a 19 second window. I look forward to seeing how everyone did, though I am sure Kara will wreck the curve.

In conclusion is was interesting to use the rubric for the rubric assignment.

CYA,

Terry