Maps

The United States, while being a young country, has a rich history. Some of our history includes great accomplishments and others are moments to be learned from and not repeated. Studying and understanding history can show the development of a society or culture. One of the benefits of living in the DC area is the opportunity to visit sites that pay homage to our history and people that have made significant contributions to our cultural and societal growth. Another benefit is many of the sites are free, so a school field trip could be of minimal cost. Examples of sites a class could go visit:

The Franklin Delano Roosevelt Memorial opened in May 1997. Lawrence Halprin designed the memorial to showcase Roosevelt's 4 terms by showcasing each one as a separate outdoor area. Considering Roosevelt's disability, the designers of the memorial wanted to make it more accessible for visitors of varying physical disabilities. Eleanor Roosevelt is depicted in the entrance of the memorial, and is the only First Lady included in a presidential memorial.

 One of the newest sites in DC is the Martin Luther King Jr. memorial. It opened August 2011 and features a granite by sculptor Lei Yixin. Two interesting facts regarding the location of the memorial:
1) It's directly across from the Lincoln Memorial where King delivered his famous "I Have a Dream" speech
2) The official address is 1964 Independence Ave commemorating the Civil Rights Act of 1964

The King sculpture is inspired by a line from his speech "out of a mountain of despair, a stone of hope."

Students would benefit from such a field trip in multiple ways. The opportunity to learn important pieces of our history as well as art and architecture, as seen in the examples above. Based on this map, there are numerous spots to review in a short distance:

The map of DC landmarks shows several museums and landmarks within a 3 square mile area. This would be an ideal Spring or Fall field trip.

Numbers 1.4 Hypothesis Testing

The sad reality in education is there is a performance gap between ethnicities. The reasons behind this are debatable, as are the solutions, but what cannot be debated are the facts. Comparing three ethnic groups in reading display some of the disparity that is occurring in US public schools. The mean score for white, eight grade students in reading is 18 points higher than black students and 26 points higher than hispanic students. To be certain that the data is statistically significant, we compare the descriptive stats between the three groups and ascertain if the hypothesis is true or false. For the three groups, there are the following hypotheses:

White/Black Test

Ho There is no statistically significant difference between white and black student test scores

H1 There is a difference between white and black student reading scores

White/Hispanic Test

Ho There is no statistically significant difference between white and hispanic student test scores

H1 There is a difference between white and hispanic student reading scores

Black/Hispanic Test

Ho There is no statistically significant difference between hispanic and black student test scores

H1 There is a difference between hispanic and black student reading scores

Comparing the scores for the White/Black test, the mean score white students is 274 compared to 256 for black students. Using a T-Test to compare the scores and determine the statistical significance, the p-value shows we should reject the null hypothesis. The difference between scores is significant.

Carrying on to the second testing group, the average score for hispanic students is 249. The disparity of these two groups is even larger than the first. The p-value score tells us to reject the null hypothesis and believe that the difference in reading scores is significant.

For the comparison of the black and hispanic students, the difference in average test scores is seven points, 256 to 249. Even though the disparity is less than the first two test cases, the difference is still significant.

Batchgeo

We often hear the phrase "it's a small world," especially when realizing someone we just met as an adult was in the periphery of our life growing up. The US population is 322M people. The roster of the EDU 585 class is 22 people. 15 of us were born within a 50 mile radius of each other. However, I haven't met anyone from our class in person, that I can tell. It's also interesting that historically, the Washington DC area was always a transient area. This first map of the classes birth locations indicates that while some have moved into the area, a majority of the class was born and raised here:

Full Sized Map of EDU 585 Birth Locations

The strong majority of the class is from the east coast, with one lonesome dove hailing from Utah. The big cluster is from the Washington DC metropolitan area:

Washington DC Metropolitan Cluster

One aspect that would also be interesting to note for this class and project would have been birth years. I was born in 1976, and that the time, the US population was 218M people. It could have

been interesting to compare birth

locations by year and see how the demographic potentially changed. Part of my fascination with the amount of people in this class that were born in the DC area is I am used to people moving away from the area after a certain number of years. Growing up here, many of my friends were military, so they left after 2-3 years. It seemed like it wasn't until the late 1990's, when the tech industry became popular, that people were more settled here. Even with that in mind, I would expect the map to show more people born in other areas that eventually moved here. I hypothesize that this map would look different for a class of students that were studying IT or another computer related topic.

Pecha Kucha

One of the benefits of the internet and technology is the ability to communicate in multiple ways. Presentations no longer have to be in person to be effective; in fact, they don't even need to be live. Presentations can be created and stored for later or continuous review. A good presentation will inform in a clear and concise manner. A presentation that is too wordy will have difficulty keeping readers engaged, especially because they'll likely be over wrought with facts. Presenters should keep in mind that people don't trust what they don't understand.

Here is an example of a poorly designed slide on a presentation. The amount of text on the slide makes it difficult to read. The presenter should have summarized his or her points into bullets. Such a wordy slide doesn't leave the presenter much to say that isn't already in the slide. Also, the background of the slide clashes with the text of the slide.

In this example, the use of color, graphics, and succinct text makes this a good slide. The presenter can explain the slide without having to repeat what is already said on the slide. It's important for presenters to keep an audience engaged with their presentation by being able to explain what is on the slide without reading the slide to them. 

Another form of presentation that takes into consideration modern technology and how it can positively influence good presentations is the concept of Pecha Kucha. The idea is 20x20; 20 slides presented in 20 seconds per slide. This keeps the presenter focused and the audience engaged. The following link is a presentation that utilizes this concept: Pecha Kucha Presentation

Screencast O Matic

When creating instructional videos, there are several factors that have to be thought about to maximize engagement. Analytics by Melanie Hibbert from EDUCause and Adam Conner-Simons with MIT provide some good insight for getting started. Educators have to consider platform, topic, level of detail, and presentation style as main factors for driving video engagement.
When considering platform, educators creating a video want to ensure they take into consideration the likelihood the video will play on as many browser and computer types as possible. For example, using Adobe flash will limit users because of the inability to play on iPad or iPhone.
Students are also more likely to engage when the instructional video is related to specific assignments. The video should capture expected output and provide examples. Visual representation of expectations gives students a stronger understanding of what they should be doing. Students are also more engaged when the instruction is detail oriented.
When presenting, the instructor should be seated, giving the presentation a sense of informality (Conner-Simons, 2014). Students also report to responding better when the instructor includes humor and a casual tone. If they opportunity presents itself, the instructor should include anecdotes which helps students relate better (Hibbert, 2014).
Students are more likely to complete videos that are brief and concise. Four minutes seems to be the most accepted time length for an instructional video, and anything longer than six minutes is almost guaranteed to lose their audience. Students are nine times more likely to watch instructional videos on the computer, likely because they are doing their work while reviewing the video. This increases the opportunity for the video to include animation or graphics that help students stay engaged. As our culture becomes more and more immersed in the digital age, learning needs and expectations are going to rely more heavily on online education practices.

References:

Hibbert, Melanie. What Makes Online Instructional Video Compelling? EDUCAUSEreview;
              http://er.educause.edu/articles/2014/4/what-makes-an-online-instructional-video-compelling,  
              2014

Conner-Simons, Adam. What 6.9 million clicks tells us about how to fix online education. MIT News;
             http://news.mit.edu/2014/what-69-million-clicks-tell-us-about-how-fix-online-education,
             2014. 

Presume

Education is intended to grow, enrich, and enable. To educate someone means they will need to be challenged in order to learn something new, whether it's a new skill, idea, or theory. However, the methodology for educating should also consider different learning styles. With modern technology, separating oneself from the pack requires creativity and digital savvy. That doesn't come easy for everyone. Some people are naturally more creative and artistic; others think more linearly and pragmatic. When a tool or app is designed to help the pragmatic be more creative, it should be designed to teach in a pragmatic way. Trying to build a creative resume for online presentation through Prezi was a difficult task, and that proved to be unsuccessful for me.
One of the first difficulties I ran into was the requirement of a Facebook login. I am not someone that uses Facebook and do not want to, so that was a decision process. I initially tried to find an alternate tool or app that did the same thing. However, there weren't any free versions and I wasn't going to pay just to build something for one assignment. Secondarily, I don't have the creative ability to build an online resume in the manner that the Prezi tool presents itself.
Once I decided to use the tool by recreating my Facebook account, I started having difficulties navigating the product. I have 16 years experience working in online environments and managing digital products. I did not think the Prezi tool navigates easily, and it's not very intuitive. As a result, my attempt at a creative digital resume looks like:

Initially, I was able to add in points along the timeline to show significant moments in my career. However, at some point, when I was trying to add in a new point along the timeline it stopped working as it was and I was unable to recapture what I was originally doing. This is not a tool I would recommend using, specifically to someone that isn't naturally creative.

This experience also reminds me that teachers need to try out any tools before implementing them in the classroom. They should be familiar with how the tool works and any potential hindrances or challenges students could face when using it.