Business Law Field Trip to DC

Surprise, Surprise!
As part of our Foundations of Law Unit, today we are taking a field trip to Washington DC.  Everyone must carry their smart phone with them at all times and be partnered with at least one buddy. I have shared an interactive Google Map with each one of you.  We will be dropped off at Union Station  (Star on your map) .  We will all meet back there at 4:30 PM SHARP. Set an alarm on your cell phone at 3:45.  This is the time to be heading back to Union Station. You will be given passes for the DC Circulator  You and your partner will be on your own but must stay on the RED LINE.  We will meet at the Air and Space Museum at 12:30 for lunch. This is designated with a coffee cup on your map.  You must check in with me at least once an hour with a selfie of you and your partner INSIDE a museum.  You do not have to visit every museum BUT you must visit the Supreme Court and the National Archives to see the Declaration of Independence.  Along with the selfies, you must create TWO blog comments on our class website. (Dr. Pierce, we really do have one, check it out) The first is due before lunch, the second is due before we arrive at school.
Enjoy your trip.  Young business lawyers are expected to represent themselves, our school and your family with class and dignity.  Let's not test the DC court system.  LOL


Creating a Google Map is most closely is aligned with ISTE-3 design and develop digital learning age experiences and assessments

Screencast-O-Matic update

So, I really liked the Screencast-O-Matic program and I am thinking that I would LOVE for my students to create their own Excel "lessons" for each other in my Microsoft Office class (we call it CIS for those of you keeping score).  The program is free but it has to be installed on the network as I do not have admin rights to the computers in my class.  For any of you that work for a government agency, you KNOW how hard that can be.  I spoke to our TRT assistant (Technology Resource Teacher) and she said well, you have to put in a trouble ticket and we will see what we can do.  As a dutiful soldier, I placed my trouble ticket in and VOILA, it seems that we have Snagit which is the $50 upgrade of Jing (which I reviewed on Jan 27) already in the "system".  All you have to do is get the IT guy to map it to my computers. My thought was "why didn't anyone ever tell us about this".  Well, I actually didn't think that, but if you know me, you can imagine.  I actually spent more time thinking and researching options and work arounds than it took to have the software installed on EVERY computer in my classroom

Hypothesis Testing

Today we learned how to formulate and test a hypothesis by using the tools in our Excel tools data pack.  People often look at data to create decisions.  As I have mentioned in previous posts, you have to be careful entering data into your model.  Today, we are looking to see that we are making correct correlations in data that we are analyzing.   In our sample, we looked at data that suggested  females read at a greater level than males in the 8th grade.  By using a T-Test, we are able to discern whether this data is statistically significant or likely a measurement error. The T-test basically measures the edges of a bell curve.  The larger or "thicker" the edges of the bell curve, the more likely a chance of measurement error or in other words, reproducing the same results using the same test.  We decided to test a 95% confidence level which is acceptable for education research.  This means that we are at least 95% certain that are assumptions are not due to measurement error.  For our exercise we compared the scores of our Black, White and Hispanic 8th grade readers.  We found that all our data was NOT due to measurement error

T Test Results

This project is most closely related to ISTE-2  design and develop digital learning experiences and assessments.  We learned how to assess data which could lead us to best classroom practices.

BatchGeo

Today we learned how to use BatchGeo.  I have used BatchGeo before to map out routes for our football coaches when I was a recruiting staffer at Boston College.  The coaches really liked it.  I could see using this in a history class.  Let's create Lewis and Clark's journey across the West.  How about the voyages of Magellan around the world?  That would be cool.   Like any other software program, it is only good as the data provided.  When I first ran my map, I noticed that my information was missing from the map.  Why was that?  Well, it appeared that I entered my zip code incorrectly. When I entered it in "correctly" 02368 the 0 was still missing.  WHY?  Well,  Google Sheets read that only as a number so it lopped off my leading 0.  Excel will do the same thing unless you format it as a zip code.  I checked to see if Sheets would allow us to do that, but I couldn't find it, so I changed the zip code to text format.  I also noticed that someone from Washington was missing.  I know that that zip code does not begin with a zero.  They probably forgot a 9.  as the old saying goes, you are only as good as your weakest link.  For the one or two of you that actually read my blog (Jenn), here are the directions from Dr. Pierce my professor

My advice is to "Be Careful" and back test anytime you are "computing" something.  My question is, why do I always seem to be "over charged" rather than "under charged" when ever a billing mistake is made HMMM

The project is most closely matches ISTE- 1 Facilitate  and inspire student learning and creativity.  It would be cool for students to create their own maps

Pecha Kucha

Today I learned how to make a Pecha Kucha.  Pecha Kucha (literally "chit chat" in Japanese) is the art of creating a concise PowerPoint presentation.  Each Pecha Kucha is 20 slides long and 20 seconds in length. Pecha Kucha forces presenters to "get to the point" on each slide as they only have 20 seconds to present it.  It also forces the presenter to be more creative.  The idea is to get rid of bullet points and boring slides. They are our enemy

Here is an interesting video on how Pecha Kucha changed a man's life.

I found this project to be much more difficult than I anticipated.  #1 I tried to make my slides as visually interesting as possible.  Where I probably could have typed up something in 20 minutes, it took me a couple of hours to get all my media in order. #2 I found the 20 seconds per slide very restrictive, meaning that I could have easily done the show in the allotted 6:40 however, I would have liked to spend less time on some slides and more on the others.  All in all, the assignment did force us to think and become more creative.  I don't think that I would use this restrictive format for a class that I would teach. I will take the message of being more creative in my slides to heart.

Creating a Pecha Kucha is most closely is aligned with ISTE-3 design and develop digital learning age experiences and assessments

Screencast-O-Matic

Screencast-O-Matic is a cool program that takes you a step beyond Jing. Screencast-O-Matic allows you to create a  video of your computer screen and instantly (well, it takes a minute or two) allows you to post it to YouTube.  Screencast-O-Matic is much easier and more intuitive to use than Jing in my opinion.  Just using it for a short period of time, my first thought was "hey, I wonder if I can take a screen shot of my Jing".  I would love to be able to have the Jing pointer tools while I am creating video.

Here are some tips to most effectively use video in the classroom.  Videos should  be shorter in nature, generally 4 to no more than 6 minutes long.  If you are going to be "in the video" you should be sitting essentially having an informal conversation with the class injecting your personality into the video. Content of your video should be dynamic. There is no need to just read PowerPoint slides as the students could just read them on their own and would prefer to do so.  It has been found that students would prefer you to speak fast (about 250 wpm) but stop for with pauses so students can catch up and digest their material.  Keep in mind that students prefer to watch their videos on a computer and some will open up a second computer to take notes or follow along if a PowerPoint is available to look at

This lesson most closely is aligned with ISTE-3 design and develop digal learning age experiences and assessments  

Prezume by Prezi

According to the Prezi website,  Prezi is a presentation software program that uses motion, zoom, and spatial relationships to bring your ideas to life.  I have used Prezi templates before in the past but wanted to see  if I could incorporate this into our resume/cover letter unit we are required to teach.  A prezume is a template in Prezi that allows you to create a resume using Prezi, thus forming a "Prezume". You can choose from three different templates.  I have always found Prezi to be not very intuitive.  Doing this exercise proved not to be any different as I fumbled my way through it.  Although Prezi allows you to create sort of a "buzz" with your presentation, I have generally found that presenters using Prezi had more "sizzle than steak" in their presentation.   That being said, I could see myself using a Prezume template while teaching our resume/cover letter unit.  I think the students would probably enjoy making them after we first created  our resume in a Word document.   I am interested in learning about other presentation software programs that might be more intuitive to use than Prezi.  
This lesson most closely is aligned with ISTE-1  Facilitate and inspire student learning and creativity.  Prezi does allow students to be more creative in their presentations

Descriptive Statistics 1.3

Today we used Excel to examine a set of 8th grade reading statistics.  The reading scores were broken down by state, sex, and race.  We installed an Excel Data Analysis Toolpak to our spreadsheet in order to more efficiently calculate various statistics that included range, min, max, standard deviation and mean.  In our sample, the girls had a higher reading average score than the boys.  Since the standard error was so low, it is safe to assume that the females are reading better than the males. It is possible that there is potential gender influence in our reading performance.

Virginia ranked 24th, a little above the national average (266.5) with a score of 267.6.  There were 28 states (including DC) listed below us.  Curiously, The DoD schools ranked 2nd in the nation in their reading results.  One would have to assume that the students in those schools have representatives from each state.  Why would the DoD schools be so far above the average?  That would be a question the might prompt further research  Click on the chart to see the cumulative data

We need to see what the DoD is doing right!

This assignment most closely relates to ISTE standard 5-Engage in professional growth and leadership.  This lesson allowed us to evaluate statistics but even more importantly allowed the the opportunity to ask critical questions that might include further study

SAMR Model

The SAMR model is a way to look at how technology can affect the outcomes of learning.  The most interesting part of the video for me was when the presenter talked about creating learning spaces so the entire world is a place of learning for students
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Substitution- New technologies just simply replace the old technologies of what we were doing.  For instance, I am using Jing to capture images from my computer to insert into presentations.  It does not really impact the learning of my students.  It just makes my life easier as an educator

Augmentation- This step enhances how the students carry out tasks.  These make tasks the students must complete more efficient.  Augmentation also creates small learning improvements.  I use ClassFlow.com to check for understanding in my class.  All students respond to a question that is projected onto my Promethean board. The answers show up on the Promethean board for everyone to see.    Students can now see if they are on the right track. It also allows me to assess where each student is in their understanding of a concept

Modification-  This allows students to accomplish goals that they would not have been able to accomplish before.  Important aspects have been modified.  For instance, I could have the students create a Jing screencast demonstrating mastery of a subject.  They would in effect be teaching one another which leads to greater learning.

Redefinition- Technology replaces part or all of the old task with new tasks that are created with new technologies allowing students to accomplish goals they never could have before.  An example of this I use in my Desktop Publishing classroom is to have the students create a public service video using digital cameras, PhotoShop and MovieMaker.

The first two levels of our model, Substitution and Augmentation are used to enhance learning.  The second two levels, Modification and Redefinition are intended to transform student learning.

Just a comment, we have not spoken about teachers being leaders of technology in the school setting.  Where does this fit into or does it belong in our model?.  Teachers like learning from teachers. This can definitely have an impact on learning.  I have already showed a couple of my peers the power of Jing and they love it!