0525 Week One Article Reaction

Reading this article made me consider how long it's been since I've taken any kind of statistics or educational research class. Instead I had to approach the information from a conceptual standpoint.

As is pointed out in the article, the meta analysis of using technology in education only demonstrated an effect size of .410. It further indicated that it had a negative effect of -.091 on student behavior. This made curious about a few things.

I noticed that the study was published in 2003 and considered studies that were published between 1997-2003. Much has happened since 2003. I wonder what the results of a meta analysis would be if it considered more recent work? I realize that it takes time to gather results, but I still wonder. Many of the tools we've been discussing in our program have only begun to be used wide spread within the last few years. Once more teachers and schools adopt these technologies, how will the effects change?

CED0525 Week One

I've been out of education for a while, so I'm really looking forward to working with the strategies that we'll be exploring in class. Things are so different compared to how I taught years ago.

I taught at a private K-8 school out of state. There was no professional development. I had a mentor for my first year, but there wasn't mush to the mentoring program. I didn't have any regular meetings and the one piece of advice that I got from my principal was to take more grades. I finally feel like I'm getting the professional development that I craved.

I can tell that implementing these strategies takes a good deal of preparation. Combining them in a method that supports students and provides flexibility is a skill unto itself.

I've been going through all of the on-line resources that have been mentioned in our text so far and bookmarking them in my delicious account. There are some great resources here. One of my personal favorites is Stellarium, an on-line planetarium. Users can see what the sky will look like using a given time and location. I tried this one at home. Both me and my six year old daughter loved it.

Can't wait for more great resources!

CEDo520 Week 3

As much as I like Google Docs, I've found a couple of new tools that I really like. I used Buzzword for the first time. I found it very similar to the word processor in Google Docs, but the inability for those without Gmail accounts has always bugged me. With Buzzword I can designate anyone to edit the document.

I also found 280 Slides to be similar to the presentation tool in Google Docs.

I also put together my first survey on Survey Monkey. Part of my job function is to train staff on processes using our student information system, Skyward. I need to spend some time this summer reflecting on my training methods. I'm going to use my survey to discern how to make my training sessions faster. I'd be curious to hear from teachers who have used Survey Monkey in the classroom.