EDET 636 Impact of Technology

How can data mining assist you in triangulating your research findings? Definition: (noun) T he practice of examining large databases in order to generate new information. (online dictionary) Data mining in education is often referred to as EDM, Educational Data Mining.   "Data mining is about extrapolating patterns and new knowledge from the data you’ve already collected" (Alton)  A lot of companies use data mining to analyse marketing, retail, finances, and manufacturing.  Also the government uses data mining to detect money laundering or fraud. Increase use of technology has led to large amounts of data being stored.  EDM is making it easier to analyze the data to help  identify at risk students, increase graduation rates, assess institutional performance, optimized subject curriculum renewal and better understand students and the settings in which the learn.  The hope is to improve teaching and learning within the educational...

What are the most important things to remember when observing your students? (Infographic) I had fun creating this infographic, I was able to choose my template much faster than the prior week.  I chose to make my infographic as the 8 tips on observations.  I feel that these tips are helpful and good reminders when doing an observation. My eight tips: build relationships, be efficient, use time wisely, collect evidence, comparison, outside influences, frustration and boredom all came from the readings I listed below.  I feel these tips can be used for observations as well as good teaching practices.  All of these tips are important, but for me I feel that time usage is one of the most important tips because if you are rushed you will not make good observations.  If you only do one observation, you are not truly understanding the child and the environment, multiple observations must be done to get a good overall picture.  And finally, being able t...

I really enjoyed this weeks infographic assignment.  At first I thought it would be really easy to create an infographic about interviewing but as I dove in deeper to the pictochart website I quickly learned that it would take longer than I thought.  The infographic provided a nice way to quickly view information about interviewing. This week I was able to comment on others blog post.  My main question to them was where and when are they going to conduct their interviews.  This was a topic that nobody addressed in their blog post.  I'm thinking that I will conduct the interviews outside of my classroom (at the end of a hallway) while the rest of the students stay inside and work.  Since I have high school students, this option should be work okay for me.  I plan on conducting an interview at the beginning and at the end of my research project. What I learned this week.  From Tony's blog I learned that it is important to open with 'ice breaker'...

What are the most important things to remember in conducting interviews? (Infographic) For my infographic, I researched tips for conducting interview questions.  Most of the sites that I read had the same tips:  be prepared and be organized.  One of the other tips that stuck with me talked about having the interview questions written down so that the person asking the questions knows exactly what they want to ask.  This helps keep the research consistent and the same questions will be asked to all of the subjects included in the research.  This is also helpful to move the interview along so that time is not wasted.  I included all of this information as lists so that it will be easy to reference as I look back at it later.   Sources: How to Conduct a Journalistic Interview. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.scholastic.com/teachers/articles/teaching-content/how-conduct-journalistic-interview/ McNamara, Carter. “General Guidelines ...

This week was hard for me to post on everyone's blog because I am travelling with a group of students from Sitka high school to Fairbanks for the week for a sister school exchange.  I did reply to everyone who posted on my blog and answered any questions that they asked me. I really enjoyed reading everyone's blog and I'm interested in seeing what people are able to find out about their research question.  I am most interested in Tony's topic because he is also a high school teacher like me and I feel that are topics are similar, I'm looking specifically at homework while Tony is looking at assessments but I think we have some commonality in what we are hoping to gain.

This week, I commented on the blogs of others.  I got some ideas for my research project by reading through my classmates blogs.  I like the idea of having students explain their learning through technology as mentioned in Carrie and Melissa's blog.  I do not have access to the technology that they do, however most of my students have iPhone's and can use them as voice recorders while they explain how they solved a problem. I am curious about my research proposal, I've been working on this for a couple of days and this is the first one that I've ever written. I did not have any comments on my blog this week, so I could not respond to any comments. 

Introduction: The topic that I am researching is homework in the math classroom.  I am specifically wondering about the type of homework assignment and if having a variety in the type of homework assigned will help with the completion rate among students.  I believe that homework is necessary because students need to practice solving and working with math problems by themselves.  In class, students are encouraged to work together to develop techniques and to explain math topics.  Homework is a great tool for learning because it forces students to work on their own.  If the first time a student tries to do a problem on their own is at the time of the test, I believe they will not be as prepared as if they had done homework on their own during the unit.  Traditionally I have only given pencil and paper homework, through this research project I am specifically focusing on alternate types of homework and looking at the completion rates during this process....