Friday, September 17, 2010

CEDO 540 - Decision Making using Data - Week One

After a four week break from the Master's Education in Instructional Technology (MEIT) program I am well-rested and living in my new digs near Edgewood College in Madison, Wisconsin.   Thankfully the bandwidth is wide and relatively free from interruptions in service.  As I knock on wood following that last statement, I reflect on the first week of our latest course CEDO 540 Decision Making Using Data Collection & Analysis.  

In a nutshell we are starting-off by looking at fundamentals of statistics.  Over the past years I have been more of a statistics consumer than a creator.  Sure, I majored in Economics and have done a lot of work with graphs - but it has been a long time since I contemplated the nitty gritty details of statistics.  "Populations", "samples", "parameters", and now I am knuckling down with variance, standard deviation and z-scores.

I must confess to a bit of apprehension but I am taking it slow and steady as I noodle my way towards a solid re-grasp of the fundamentals.  In a future assignment I will be taking data from a site and using it for analysis.  It may seem strange but I am actually looking forward to collecting data and conducting analysis.  Today we are surrounded by statistics regarding the economy, weather and politics and I think this course will help me become an even better consumer of the numbers.

4 comments:

  1. Brian, I can completely relate to the feeling of dusting off memories of what Statistics is all about. I think that each time I have had to revisit the subject, I have learned a bit more and actually understood and applied a bit more. K-12 students aren't the only ones who benefit from a spiraling curriculum. I liked Kris' suggestion to remember that Population goes with Parameter because they both start with P. Gathering our own statistics will be an adventure.

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  2. Brian,
    I am also looking forward to gathering our own data to formulate our own statistics. I think it's going to be really interesting. What do you think you will collect data on? I think I'm going to do a technology-related survey or data collection using my students. Any ideas?

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  3. Brian,

    I agree with you that I have only been a consumer of statistics and not much of a producer of them. I am looking forward to creating some statistics and analyzing them so I can use it to help students.

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  4. It's true - if you don't use the knowledge frequently, you lose it. Buffing up on these skills will help as I am part of a data committee this year tasked with interpreting out standardized test scores. Talk about perfect timing.

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