CEDO 550 Entry Two

I chose to focus on comparing blended learning and online learning. Although I really enjoy online learning and feel it has been a great experience for me, most of the students I teach may not be at a developmentally appropriate age to experience full online learning. Most still need frequent monitoring and to be held accountable by a teacher on a face-to-face level. For that reason the blended learning model seems most appropriate for most high school students. They are still able to experience many of the benefits and flexibility of online learning while still having a teacher closely monitor and work with them.

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CEDO 550 Entry One

Prior to enrolling in this masters program my online learning experience had been limited to a select few assignments in college that were posted on a Blackboard website. I joined the program because it was an area I was very interested in and the flexibility & convenience it offered were very appealing.

So far I have truly enjoyed my experience with online learning. The flexibility it has offered fits my lifestyle because I teach full time and coach two sports plus keep a very active social life. Being committed to traveling and attending several hours of class every week is not something that I was particularly excited about. Being able to do assignments when and where I want has been great and has made this a more enjoyable educational experience. Getting my master's was something I thought would be drudgery but has turned out to be a truly valuable experience. To me the true to test of an educational experience's effectiveness is whether or not it deepens and expands my interest in the subject or not. In this case I have become significantly more interested in Instructional Technology and spend a great deal of my free time expanding upon what I have learned, even if it is not required for class.

The only part of the program that I do not always enjoy, and it is not due to the other people I work with, is the group assignments. Scheduling and having to set time aside for a group meeting can be inconvenient. While I understand the purpose of them and have enjoyed everyone I have worked with it can be difficult finding a common time to meet and work. I have also had some technical difficulties during class with staying connected because my wireless connection is not always the greatest.

Overall my online learning experience has far exceeded my expectations. How anyone could not enjoy learning at their own pace and convenience is beyond me. After going through this process myself one of my career goals is to spread my professional development to others and hopefully make Online Learning part of my career.

CEDO 540 Entry Five

It was interesting taking a look at the annotated resources list and it really just shows the vast amount of information that the internet makes available. Seemingly any piece of data or statistic that one could ever need is available somewhere. And the accessibility of this information is the best part. Most of this information was only available to a select few in the government or with the influence to access it. The United States government has done a great job opening all of this up for the general public and the transperancy it creates is liberating.

Although not entirely applicable to this class inparticular when I saw this video it truly led me to buy in to the power of Web 2.0. Watch if you haven't had a chance to see Kony 2012:

The way information is created and distributed truly is undergoing a fundamental change with the world wide web and I cannot think of a better example than this.

CEDO 540 Entry Four

Quite a week for me personally in this class. Jessica, James, and me had a very tough time figuring out the Guided Practice assignment so I did some "old fashioned" note-taking with a pen and paper while re-listening to the recording of the class and we got it figured out. I do appreciate the assignment offering practical scenarios as one of the big problems I had with mathematics growing up was that the teachers I had rarely integrated practical uses of what I was learning. This definitely goes hand-in-hand with the idea of authentic learning. I am a history teacher and sometimes it can be difficult to make the content extremely relevant and authentic to the kids but exercises like the guided practice make me realize how important it is to constantly do that.

Watching the Bill Tancer video scared me a bit. Although he is obviously a brilliant man the whole idea of data collection and the potential risks of companies keeping digital footprints in some sort of database makes me nervous and wonders what it could do to our privacy. I hope the day never comes when using a computer for a lot of different tasks (which I currently do) makes it okay for my online activities to be registered and monitored.

CEDO 540 Entry Three

This week in I happened to have the experience of being involved in two surveys. The first was a Census Bureau survey that required me to keep and expense diary to help the government adjust the Consumer Price Index. The second was a long survey about technology usage and ability for the tech department at my school. I do not believe that I will be able to see the results or how the data will be interpreted for either survey but it was interesting to participate in both of them considering that I am currently enrolled in a class about collecting data.

On a side note I had students in my World Cultures classes do research and create Prezi's. They turned out so great! The kids really got into making them and took pride in their work. I knew it was a successful project because the kids seemed enthusiastic presenting them and I learned a lot myself from watching them. For anyone skeptical about the power and effectiveness of having students create digital projects I would direct them to view these and there minds will be changed quickly.

CEDO 540 Entry Two

Doing the guided practice this week helped get some ideas regarding statistics and using them in my profession. Historically I have always used the class average (mean) when looking at a particular groups performance but by doing that I have clearly limited what I could have learned from my data. I believe that having more hard data to support teaching strategies, particularly those using technology. What I have discovered is that many teachers and even students are skeptical of new ideas and having data that has been examined may help promote buy-in. The next thing I need to find out is what types of data I should collect and what types of questions to ask

CEDO 540 Entry One

After really enjoying the last two classes in the program (Digital Storytelling, Web 2.0 Tools) I will be honest and say I'm a little more suspicious/apprehensive about a stats class. It has been a while since I've had any type of mathematics class (first year of college to be specific) so remembering some of the vocab might be tough. Despite the fact that I initially do not have the excitement my attitude always is to be open-minded and to always find things that I can use or that will help me improve.

I look forward to finding ways that I can gather data to improve my teaching and potentially my collaboration with other teachers. I have been seeing a need to have hard data about how effective using technology has been in my classes. Several teachers in my department and school are suspicious as to whether or not technology actually improves student learning and it would validate what I do if I have some hard evidence. On a personal level it may also help me determine what is having a measurable impact and what is not for my students. I will need to learn what type of questions to ask, how to gather the data, and most importantly how to interpret and apply the data.

My most extensive experience with statistics has to do with sports stats. When I was a kid I learned a lot of math from studying and playing around with football statistics and basketball statistics. I've been able to use that going forward so hopefully I get some stuff from this class that does the same...