CEDO 540 Week 1

This week we were introduced to the basics of statistics.  For the most part, statistics is the gathering and analyzing of data.  To many this is very boring stuff.  For me, it depends what I am doing with the data.  In many cases, I use data to try to predict what would happen in a future occurrence of something such as weather (which is all about statistical analysis) or even to predict the results of a future experiment.  I also attempt to use statistics along with the scientific method to help either prove or disprove a hypothesis that I might have.  For the most part, my hypotheses are relatively simple.  They can range from "Can I hit the snooze button and still get the kids onto the school bus?" to "How can I best make sure that I won't be one of the teachers on the cutting block next year?"  The snooze button hypothesis is tested on almost a daily basis, which adds to the amount of data that I have (for the most part, I can hit the snooze button at least once and get the kids on the school bus successfully). 
One of the books that was recommended to us in class, (How to Lie With Statistics) is a good review of how statistics can be used to attempt to prove a specific point of view if used in a biased manner.  I liked what I read enough to order a copy from Amazon.com.  The link for the book at Amazon is here.

CEDO 530 Week 5

This week we were able to see what others did with the Prezi's.  I was amazed at the ability of others to convey stories through pictures.  Just tonight, my wife was asking me to help empty her phone of all the pics my kids have taken with her phone.  She started deleting many b/c there "was a mess" behind the target.  I was crying "No! Don't!" because these were some amazing pictures that I could only hope to be able to take.  Unfortunately, my wife won the argument since it was her phone involved. 

The other things that we did were to finish our Pecha Kucha, create rubrics to score multimedia assignments, and review some technology in our groups.  I put in quite a bit of time on the Pecha Kucha, but in order to be perfectly understood, I will need a voice double so that my mush mouth won't impede other peoples ability to get my point.  The rubric was relatively easy since I used one of the websites to create it.  I just needed to modify the assignment a bit in order to add more technology to it.  The technology review has yet to happen as of this writing.  But I am sure that there will be much learned.

Prezi, Pecha Kucha and more.

First off, I apologize that I am posting late on Sunday.  I just got back home after a family weekend trip that surprisingly did not have internet connectivity.  I will definitely be suffering from the sunburn I got while fishing (well, not actually fishing, but taking off the fish of everyone else).
                 

This week we used the photos that we have been taking for the last month.  We needed to use them in our Prezi.  I am really impressed with the ease of use of Prezi as a tool.  I showed several of my co-workers and they were amazed at the way the non-linear and size as hierarchical organization.  I have a feeling that there are going to be many people asking me to show them what I know about Prezi over the summer.

Great Pictures on Prezi

We also needed to storyboard our Pecha Kucha.  This has been really helpful with the planning and execution of this exacting presentation.  I even had some of my former students critique what they saw.  The information was good.  I just need to work on my audio component.

Here is the link to the Pecha Kucha storyboard.