NAEP Results

This activity asked us to conduct descriptive data analysis and t tests within an excel spreadsheet. We were to obtain data on the state of West Virginia and compare to the rest of the states. This was all documented through (NAEP) National Assessment of Educational Progress and (NCES) The National Center for Education Statistics. Here is where you can go to locate any of the subject areas and grade that you would like to view and examine. Once I selected the criteria of 8th grade, Mathematics, and gender the excel spreadsheet appeared. From there I uploaded it to excel so I could work with the data. I had some difficulty with sorting my information but I ended up deleting all the N/A's and the National Public data. Once those were gone I was able to get to work. I realized that I had to highlight all the information to obtain where exactly WV feel in rank.  I was also able to scroll down the student's overall score to determine the average of 283.

The next steps were to conduct the t test of male vs. female scores to see if there was a significant difference in test scores. Here is my findings and data work to show that boys were not smarter than girls. There was not a significant difference. I do feel more confident in my reporting and paper. I am still not 100% sure if I correctly designed the chart and table in proper APA format. I do think that it is better than the first time around.

This activity corresponds with standard #5: Participate in Professional Growth and Leadership. This is where educators can dive into data and statistics to help students improve their learning through technology. By examining this information; teachers, administration, parents and students can collaborate together to determine strengths and weaknesses in the classroom. Once these weaknesses have been specified then focus and improvement can be made on them. This needs to be done on a regular basis to ensure growth and success academically.

Save a YouTube Video to My Computer

I looked at this activity in two different ways. The first way I thought to address this was to create a Google Doc that contained the YouTube video that I wanted to select. I am a huge basketball fan, played in high school, and could have continued in college but chose not to. I remember when I was on the middle school basketball team and having a WVWC player help me with my shot. I learned a tremendous amount from her. One of the teaching tips that really stuck with me was the BEEF shooting method. Here is my Google doc where you can learn the BEEF method.

I then started to read more into our directions and thought that maybe I should have figured out a way to actually save it to my computer. So to begin this process I logged into my YouTube account and located the BEEF-4 video. I located it but could not see the Real Player tab on the top right hand corner of the video to upload it. I finally realized that I was in Chrome and switched to Internet Explorer. I re-logged in to my YouTube account and re-located my video. I was able to see my little blue tab to upload my video to real player. Once I had that uploaded I then converted it to a WMV file and there was an option of where to save it. I selected to save it as a video to my computer.

Now came the really tricky part figuring out how to post it. It only made sense to me to upload it back to YouTube. Here is the new link for the video that I uploaded back to YouTube. I also changed the title to "BEEF it's not what's for dinner but how to Shoot a Basketball!

This activity would best link with Standard # 1: Facilitate and Inspire Student Learning and Creativity. In my collaborative Reading class we are researching Charles Dickens. This would be a great tool for students to explore and find information that would help define who he is and what he accomplished. The could then save it , store it, bring it to class and present it. The student would have high interest due to being on YouTube and searching for videos. Not only would the be using technology appropriately but they would be learning about the author in the process. This would be a great way for them to interpret their meaning of who Charles Dickens is and what they were able to conclude about him.

Sign Up for YouTube

First step in signing up for You Tube is that you need to go here! In the top right hand corner is where you will see the words "sign up". Click on that and it will bring you to a page for you to create your username, password, and additional information. Then at the bottom is where you click "sign up." You will then receive an email saying Welcome to your You Tube account.

Here is a wonderful video showing you how to sign up for a You Tube Account. Sometimes for the visual learners (such as myself) this is more beneficial. 

This would best match with Standard # 3: Model Digital-Age Work and Learning.  By being able to demonstrate how to access and create a YouTube account is a good way to show how current and up to date an Educator is. Not only by just telling or informing the students this is a great way to actually show them how to do it. YouTube is a sticky subject at my current school but if used appropriately it can be a great teaching tool. YouTube could be a great way to communicate with parents needing help with their child's homework, give students extra examples to aid them in their work, and a great addition to any lesson. 

APA Action Research Report

Here is the Action Research Report that I created with the incorporation of an Excel spreadsheet. I originally did this document in Word and then uploaded it to Google Docs. This version incorrectly shows my running header and does not show any tables that I created. The tables are important in that they show the T Tests and Descriptive Stats that I did. I was able to save my tables as pictures and then inserted them into my Google doc.

This assignment was stressful. I felt confident in the Abstract, Methodology, and showing my work in excel. The parts that I seemed to focus on the most was the interpretation of the data and correctly putting that data in APA format. I am not 100% confident that I did my tables correctly. I have never had to do tables in APA format before. I do understanding my findings and those results. I do understand that if there were any P results < 0.05 then they would be considered significant but none of my results reflected this. My hypothesis were incorrect and there is no significant correlation.

This excel project this best matches up with standard #5. This is true professional growth at its finest. This activity incorporates technology tools, student data, self-reflection, and self-growth. This activity also helps to promote student learning and possible change in teaching strategies to better meet the students individual needs. This activity can be continuous and ever changing. This is where professional growth takes place. This tool is great to share with other teachers and administration to help achieve success not just in the classroom but school wide as well.

T Test and Data

Here is my example of conducting a T Test on the data given with Gender and Discussion Posts.

Here is my example of conducting a T Test with the given data on Gender and Millennial Age Score.


Below is the completed charts from the activity that Dr. Pierce asked us to do.

With the bottom two charts, Dr. Pierce asked us what about the impact bewteen Chrome and IE on Scores? This indicates that these two had the least impact on scores!

So back to my original research questions, hypothesis, and null hypothesis:

Research Questions:
    1. Why do the Males have more discussion postings than females?
    2. Why do the Females have less discussion postings than males?

Hypothesis:   

 1. Males have more discussion postings due to their lower Millennial Age Score.
 2. Females have less discussion postings due to their higher Millennial Age Score.

Null Hypothesis:  There is no difference between male and female and discussion postings.

Independent Variables: Gender (sex)

Dependent Variables: Discussion Postings and Millennial Age Score.

Millennial Information:

Within the Femalse 14/22 are to be considered Millennial due to being 73 or higher = 63.63%.

Within the Male 3/7 are considered Millennial due to being 73 or higher = 42.85%.

Discussion Postings:

The first thing that I did was run the Desriptive Data on just Discussion Postings alone. That helped me to determine that the Median was 15. So from that I formulated that those who had 14 or less discussion postings should have Millennial scores higher than 73. In saying that those who had 15 or more discussion postings should have a Millennial score less than 73. I broke the data first into males and females due to my Hypothesis. This theory held true to 1/3 males in the 1-14 discussion postings range and 2/4 in tge 15- and up discussion postings range. This creates a combined figure of 3/7=42.85% accuracy. I then examined the females; for 8/11 females this theory was accurate in the 1-14 discussion postings category. 5/11 were true in the 15 and higher discussion posting category. These combine for 13/22 accuracy in my hypothesis which falls at a 59%.

I feel that my hypothesis seems to be more accurate with the Females than the Males due to my calculations. So do Females have less discussion postings because of their Millennial Age Score? Sure 59% of them do. Do Males have more discussion postings due to their lower Millennial Age Score? For 42.85% this is true.

In regards to my Null Hypothesis I feel as if it seems to still be valid. This can stand its ground due to the fact that there is a difference between males and female for discussion postings.

This entire activity is a total reflection of standard # 5. T Tests are a useful way to demonstrate data in a manor that reflects students progress and self reflection on the teacher. This is useful in how we may change our instruction, see our areas of weakness, and make connections of why students are where they are. (In positive and negative ways) This allows a teacher to see the students strengths and weaknesses. This allows insight for the teacher to determine what to do about the weaknessess and turn them into strengths. By using a T Test we are not just looking at one variable we are able to use multiple variables in which allows us to dig deeper and become more precise in the accurate use of data.

This activity was the most difficult and most time consuming of them all! There were nights of tears and tons of frustration!!

Self-Assessment @ Midterm

I found the self-assessment to be a neat way to see exactly where I was at in this class. I am concerned with this due to completing it once and for some reason my instructor did not get it. I think I may have put my married name instead of my maiden name. I was able to count, plug, and place the information quite easily. I also like the option of having an area where you can type in a short/long answer to a question.

This would be a great tool for my student to do if conducting a class project and being able to assess their progress on it. I am currently in a collaborative Reading class  where they have to do three large book projects for the entire year. This activity is something that is on going and occasionally have time to do this in class. This tool would be an ideal way for them to track their progress and see if they are where they should be.

This activity best matches with Standard #2: Design and Develop Digital-Aged Learning Experiences and Assessment. This tool is exactly that.  This is a learning tool that can help students self assess their progress. This helped myself and I am positive it would help my students to see what they have learned and to witness their individual growth of knowledge. This tool is personal and you can make it as much or less personal as needed. This can be molded to meet everyone's individual needs and possible disabilities. It was also helpful in the kick back data of placing all the class' information together in one spread sheet to assess where you were as to the rest of the class.

Here is where you can go to see the midterm self-assessment that I actually completed twice!

Data Analysis/ Research Question and Hypothesis

Using the data that was provided to us I formulated my Research Questions, Hypothesis, and Null Hypothesis.

Research Questions:
    1. Why do the Males have more discussion postings than females?
    2. Why do the Females have less discussion postings than males?

Hypothesis:
    1. Males have more discussion postings due to their lower Millennial Age Score.
    2. Females have less discussion postings due to their higher Millennial Age Score.

Null Hypothesis:
  The number of Blog Postings is not dependent upon being male or female.

With the data given our age and gender would be considered as the Independent Variables. The Discussion Posts, Millennial Age, Blog Posts, Personality, Fake Quiz, Browser, and Teaching/Non Teaching would be the Dependent Variables.

I began by sorting the information into two groups; male and female. Then I went through and found the averages of each sub heading per gender. I document the averages and compared the information to formulate my information.

Females: 22 total
D posts: 344=15.64
Mill Age:  72.73
Age: 31.82
B Posts: 15
Personality: 3/22 = 13.6% on all  of the following/ ISFP, ISFJ, INFP, INFJ, ESFJ
T/ NOT T: 72.73% are teaching
Quiz: 74.59%
Browser: Internet Explorer

Males: 7 total
D. Posts: 116=16.57
Mill Age: 69.57
Age: 33.29
B Posts: 16.86
Personality: ESFJ = 2/7= 28.5%
T/NT= 4/7 teaching =57.15%
Quiz: 79%
Browser: S 2/7=28.5%
              IE 2/7=28.5%
              FF 2/7 = 28.5%

Standard #5 would best match up with this activity. This again would involve self reflection and growth with data provided by assessments with the students. In conducting this activity the outcome would be the improvement of student learning. This would make the teacher become more involved in the decision making, development, and modeling of technology skills. This can be conducted throughout the school year to appropriately assess professional practice and use of Excel to support student learning.