I found the Google Trends/Insights assignment really interesting and found myself spending considerably more time there than I needed to, just because I couldn't stop digging around.
With politics on my mind, I decided to have a look at how the recall movement was going. My project that got going in my head was that if you could see at what rate recall traffic had happened in the past, you could compare it to current recall traffic and see if it compared.
I began looking for data from the last known successful recall of a governor, which happened to be Gray Davis. This is where I ran into my first problem, which was Gray Davis was recalled in 2003, which happens to be the year before Google started following this sort of data.
My second question was then, which recall efforts would have the most success? Those against the Republicans or those against the missing Democrats. From this I found that the traffic of searches recall and Republican was much greater than those of Recall and Democrats. To me this indicated that the recall efforts against the Republicans would have more traction than those against Democrats.
I did come upon one problem with this, which is the search amounts when I got into smaller regions of Wisconsin was often times too small to see much in the way of difference, whereas when I search in the Madison area, the volume was much greater. This concerned me because those recalls weren't going to be happening in Madison, but rather in La Crosse, or Green Bay or Wausau areas. My concern is that Madison is skewing the traffic and I'm not sure if the sentiments are the same in other parts of the state? Regardless I really enjoyed this tool, and am making it a regular part of the online work.
Friday, April 1, 2011
Week 4 - 540
Denise and I talked this week about the future jobs that could arise surrounding the internet and the information that it creates/gathers. They are on the page in the wiki, but one of the things that I was surprised with was the level of comfort that people have with being 'watched' online. Some people I have found take the view that it doesn't bother them in the least, and they feel that sharing is the new norm.
I find that these people are the ones who have come of age, with Facebook being the norm. Zuckerberg has stated clearly that he feels privacy is a thing of the past, and Facebook makes it very difficult for people to hide. The whole idea is that you are out there for everyone to see, and likewise you can see everyone else.
I then also run into people on the entirely other end of the spectrum, who are really disturbed by the openness of the internet and do all in their power to hide from it. They have avatars for everything, they are not going anywhere near facebook, they are involved in no social media, their emails have pseudonyms. While this isn't a common character that I run into, it does occur occasionally, especially with parents and their kids at my school.
I'm not sure one of these groups is right and the other is wrong, but after watching the Tancer videos, I'm absolutely assured that our activities are being watched. While is seems Tancer is using all this information to inform business, and marketers and in general for the good of all, but who is to say that someone could use all that information in another, less socially acceptable way?
By the way in case you are wondering, I'm out there on the social media scene and am not really concerned about hiding my information. I figure if someone really wants to do me harm, it will happen regardless. Why make it easier? Is it easier if everyone is in the same boat, it seems the odds would pretty much stay the same, if the vast majority of people were to follow the same strategy, no matter which one they choose?
I find that these people are the ones who have come of age, with Facebook being the norm. Zuckerberg has stated clearly that he feels privacy is a thing of the past, and Facebook makes it very difficult for people to hide. The whole idea is that you are out there for everyone to see, and likewise you can see everyone else.
I then also run into people on the entirely other end of the spectrum, who are really disturbed by the openness of the internet and do all in their power to hide from it. They have avatars for everything, they are not going anywhere near facebook, they are involved in no social media, their emails have pseudonyms. While this isn't a common character that I run into, it does occur occasionally, especially with parents and their kids at my school.
I'm not sure one of these groups is right and the other is wrong, but after watching the Tancer videos, I'm absolutely assured that our activities are being watched. While is seems Tancer is using all this information to inform business, and marketers and in general for the good of all, but who is to say that someone could use all that information in another, less socially acceptable way?
By the way in case you are wondering, I'm out there on the social media scene and am not really concerned about hiding my information. I figure if someone really wants to do me harm, it will happen regardless. Why make it easier? Is it easier if everyone is in the same boat, it seems the odds would pretty much stay the same, if the vast majority of people were to follow the same strategy, no matter which one they choose?
Week 3 - 540
I really felt good about class this week, using the z-tables. This actually made sense to me and I could see how you could break down your data into pieces to analyze each section. I was able even to help my partner with the process and explain it on our homework this week, and that was some confirmation to me about my understanding.
The second part of the work from this week excited me, because of the relevancy to what is going on around the state with the Budget Repair Bill and Governor Walker. I knew though that our survey had to be personalized to what we wanted to do and couldn't simply copy the work done by professional surveys gather people's opinions on the issue.
What Denise and I ended up doing was to survey our school districts to determine where they are getting their information and how well/poorly is their local union doing in communicating out information.
This should be an interesting survey to review afterward. I would also have like to have a chance to see the difference in answers between the Oregon teachers and those in Winter. Unfortunately the sample coming out of Winter was a little too small to make any broad based conclusions about the difference between the two.
The second part of the work from this week excited me, because of the relevancy to what is going on around the state with the Budget Repair Bill and Governor Walker. I knew though that our survey had to be personalized to what we wanted to do and couldn't simply copy the work done by professional surveys gather people's opinions on the issue.
What Denise and I ended up doing was to survey our school districts to determine where they are getting their information and how well/poorly is their local union doing in communicating out information.
This should be an interesting survey to review afterward. I would also have like to have a chance to see the difference in answers between the Oregon teachers and those in Winter. Unfortunately the sample coming out of Winter was a little too small to make any broad based conclusions about the difference between the two.
Week 2 - 540
Week 2 - I was still a little behind week 2, but I worked hard to catch myself up. I am really comfortable with all the ways of calculating the average, that was pretty easy. The issue I had was determining the standard deviation, but once I got myself into Excel that was also no problem.
Looking into the survey creation tools was pretty interesting. I personally like the zoomerang survey tool, because of its cost, and ease of use. I have used this survey tool before in the past and I like the way you can shape and personalize the questions to your needs. It also is a pretty good way of sharing information out. I have found that because of some of the limitations of its analysis you have to write/shape your questions in a certain way to make sure that you get the analysis you are looking for, when connecting one question to another.
What made this question a little different was that you weren't looking as a teacher doing a small survey, but rather a business doing much more surveying. This caused me to look more closely into the different ways for gathering data and the ability to personalize/brand your page. I would imagine that if you were a small business owner it would be important to have every piece of content with your brand/identity on it.
The second feature that ruled my decision was the support. Many of the companies offer on-line support, but in my experience that is often not sufficient to solve any complicated in-depth question. If it were my business, I think I would be willing to pay more for personalized service, someone that can work with me from the beginning to help avoid pitfalls that someone else may need to solve using their online assistance service.
Looking into the survey creation tools was pretty interesting. I personally like the zoomerang survey tool, because of its cost, and ease of use. I have used this survey tool before in the past and I like the way you can shape and personalize the questions to your needs. It also is a pretty good way of sharing information out. I have found that because of some of the limitations of its analysis you have to write/shape your questions in a certain way to make sure that you get the analysis you are looking for, when connecting one question to another.
What made this question a little different was that you weren't looking as a teacher doing a small survey, but rather a business doing much more surveying. This caused me to look more closely into the different ways for gathering data and the ability to personalize/brand your page. I would imagine that if you were a small business owner it would be important to have every piece of content with your brand/identity on it.
The second feature that ruled my decision was the support. Many of the companies offer on-line support, but in my experience that is often not sufficient to solve any complicated in-depth question. If it were my business, I think I would be willing to pay more for personalized service, someone that can work with me from the beginning to help avoid pitfalls that someone else may need to solve using their online assistance service.
540 Week 1
Here I am, once again in a statistics course. I struggle in these courses, because I have a predetermined bad attitude about them. I'm not sure exactly where it comes from, but I think it comes from the first few years of experience I have had as a teacher in my district. My district proudly proclaims regularly that we are a data driven district. As a result of this we are regularly shown tables, and charts and given all sorts of numbers. It is at this point my brain normally goes numb.
I find myself unable to concentrate on it all, and while I'm trying to work through what it all means, they are going on about their analysis. Unfortunately what seems to happen is we identify a problem, then sit. This is the part where I usually lose my patience. My sense is that we don't have any sort of protocol for using this information that we have been dutifully collecting over the last 1o years. I'm not even sure all of the data is accurate. When people stopped taking the collection seriously, because we never used it, that has to have compromised its reliability.
I think for statistics to be put to use for me, I need to understand it, see that it is accurate, and then follow with open discussions about how to best apply what we have learned from it.
I find myself unable to concentrate on it all, and while I'm trying to work through what it all means, they are going on about their analysis. Unfortunately what seems to happen is we identify a problem, then sit. This is the part where I usually lose my patience. My sense is that we don't have any sort of protocol for using this information that we have been dutifully collecting over the last 1o years. I'm not even sure all of the data is accurate. When people stopped taking the collection seriously, because we never used it, that has to have compromised its reliability.
I think for statistics to be put to use for me, I need to understand it, see that it is accurate, and then follow with open discussions about how to best apply what we have learned from it.
Wednesday, August 4, 2010
Final Project
I've been reading everyone's final blog posts with some envy, as I had some difficulty wrapping up my project. I have also been gone on vacation, so the time I've been able to work on it has been pretty sporadic. The project itself as been complete for about a week or so. At least it is as complete as it can be before heading into any significant action. The final parts I needed to do where the nuts and bolts of refining and adding to the rubric to judge its success, and some of the parts about where it goes from here.
I have added this all finally, as well as a view of the website into my portfolio site here:
http://sites.google.com/a/wolfmail.stritch.edu/jason-symes-ced555-sp2010/
At this point, I'm very proud of my project, and I'm excited to share it with others, but my greatest hope is that it will really accomplish the goal that I've set out for it. I really want to work with other U.S. History teachers to share resources, lessons, strategies, students, and success with.
I think this is the core lesson that I've picked up from this program. I always knew that technology was powerful, but I was overestimating its impact. I now understand when people say that technology is the tool, but the importance comes from what you do with the tool. I'm hopeful that this site will be a tool that I can use in a true web 2.0 way. That is connecting/learning/interacting with others who I can truly collaborate with in a mutually beneficial manner. That is really powerful.
I've really enjoyed this program and feel that I have become a better teacher, learner, leader as a result. Thanks to everyone who has helped along the way.
I have added this all finally, as well as a view of the website into my portfolio site here:
http://sites.google.com/a/wolfmail.stritch.edu/jason-symes-ced555-sp2010/
At this point, I'm very proud of my project, and I'm excited to share it with others, but my greatest hope is that it will really accomplish the goal that I've set out for it. I really want to work with other U.S. History teachers to share resources, lessons, strategies, students, and success with.
I think this is the core lesson that I've picked up from this program. I always knew that technology was powerful, but I was overestimating its impact. I now understand when people say that technology is the tool, but the importance comes from what you do with the tool. I'm hopeful that this site will be a tool that I can use in a true web 2.0 way. That is connecting/learning/interacting with others who I can truly collaborate with in a mutually beneficial manner. That is really powerful.
I've really enjoyed this program and feel that I have become a better teacher, learner, leader as a result. Thanks to everyone who has helped along the way.
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