Week #4 in CEDO 540 - Z Scores and Data Mining

This week we wrapped up our research project involving Facebook users and their Internet habits.  It was neat to do some data analysis on our survey.  You can check it out below:
https://docs.google.com/a/wolfmail.stritch.edu/document/d/1QLPxqDrAD-fiIPsR9UFQStQ2AsMF3woOFsERCY5wFeg/edit?hl=en_US

We also did some work with z-scores and talking about how you can use normal distributions to look at data.  It has been interesting to use statistics for meaningful comparisons of data.

Lastly, this week we did some predictions about what the future would look like in terms of technology.  We took a look at Bill Tancer's use of data and data mining techniques. If you are interested in this data and how scary it can be take a look at the You Tube video below:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BDrMajs9aiU

CEDO Week #3

This week we have done a little more practice with mean, median and mode as well as standards of deviation. We are also dipping into other measures of variance such as z-scores.  This will all culminate with our group designing and implementing a survey in which we can do some statistical analysis.  It will be interesting to implement what we have learned in the class to look at some real data.   hopefully the data will show some kind of trend, but who knows.  That is the fun of statistical analysis

Week #2 In CEDO 540

This week we took a look at measures of central tendency a bit more in depth.  We used Excel to crunch some numbers and run some formulas to pull out the mean, median, mode and standard of deviation on a host of different data.  This was a lot better than running it all by hand and reminded me of labs I did back in college.  We also took a look at a lot of vocabulary that is tied to quantitative analysis.  The most interesting stuff I found was on "Sugging" and "Frugging" where someone pretends to be conducting market research, but is really just trying to figure out the best way to turn around and get you to buy something from them almost immediately. You can read more about the practice here and I suggest you do because it is both diabolically clever and evil at the same time.

Week #1 of CEDO 540

This is the first week of CEDO 540 and I'm pretty excited.  CEDO 540 is all about Statistics and I have not had a math class in years so it feels good to be back talking about new STEM stuff.  We've been right in the beginning of the talk about statistics and how to use them so it has been fun to watch a couple of early 90's videos outlining the various ways that stats can be used.  If you feel like a fun blast from the past and learning about statistics at the same time check it out here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5YsiVJFSwGo

Week #5 in CEdO530

This week we looked at how to grade multimedia projects.  This has been something that I have always had trouble with.  On one hand I have a checklist of what the students need to accomplish and if they complete those tasks they get full credit.  On the other hand I have always felt like some students who do the bare minimum are getting the same grade as students who really go above and beyond.  It has been very helpful to examine rubrics so that I can better create my grading criteria so that my grades can reflect this stratification of effort in my students.

Tomorrow I will be finishing my Pecha Kucha as over the past few days I have been doing "principle photography" with the help of a few coworkers.  I will be interested to see how it turns out and to see if my 1950's PSA feel comes through.

Week #4 in CEDO 530 - Prezi & Pecha Kucha

This week (two actually) in CEDO 530 we looked at a multitude of new tools and wrapped up our books Presentation Zen and Digitales

In the books they dealt with tying everything together to actually give the talk or tell the story.  I thought it was neat that after the previous 3 weeks of prep work we were in the "get out there and do it" stage.  Both books have excellent tips for content creation and I look forward to applying it all to my classes.

One of the new tools that we used for content creation was Prezi (http://prezi.com/).  This slick power point alternative has an easy to use interface and a very short learning curve.  I can see it as a great alternative to text heavy power points as it makes the words dance and move on the screen in a very interesting way.  You can check out my Prezi below:

How to choose a great picture on Prezi

We are also investigating Pecha Kucha on a topic of our choice.  I am killing two birds with one stone and putting together a beginning of the year presentation for the technology committee at my school. It might turn out campy and fun or it might turn out to be a mess.  We'll see how it turns out, but I really like the constraints as it gives me a great framework to create my presentation.

Week #3 in CEDO 530

Since the power went out last night I was not able to post. Luckily I wrote this in Word and now I can just copy, paste!

With a pretty awesome thunderstorm raging on in the background I’ll need to be brief incase the power goes out, but this week in CEDO 530 we took a look at multiple ways of planning for and executing presentations.  Were as the book Presentation Zen started off being a little philosophical in the beginning, now we are totally into the nuts and bolts section of the text.  There is an absolute ton of great tips in chapter 6 that give you a very quick introduction to the many different facets of design.  This turning from philosophy to practice has made the book endlessly more enjoyable and practical. 

In DigiTales we are looking at the different steps needed to make a proper digital story.  The checklist seems very good and I look forward to using it with my students when they create digital stories or projects.  To help facilitate quick creation of digital stories we also investigated the website animoto.  Animoto is a great website that instantaneously creates very professional slide shows using only the music you upload and the pictures that you provide.  This seems to be a great system for displaying a series of pictures if you do not have an artistic vision that you want complete control over.

The last tool we explored this week was Pecha Kucha, a method of presenting 20 power point slides in 20 seconds each.  It is structured in a way to maximize the presenter’s effectiveness and minimize the death by power point that happens quite frequently in meetings.  It will be fun to try this out in coming weeks.