Demographic and Enrollment Change in the Barrow Area

Bonus: Explainer

I have no idea how many people have actually been reading this blog. Literally tens possibly! But as I've made a habit of dropping esoteric references into the titles (can you tell I'm an Alan Moore fan?) I figured it might be kind to at least explain some of them before I sign off. Some are just a lark, some have some connection to what I was posting about. But enough pretext. Here we go.

Thing 6: Or How I stopped Worrying and Learned to Love the Diigo - A reference to Stanley Kubrick's classic movie Dr Strangelove: Or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb

Thing 7: Death Rides a Pale Otter - Obviously a reference to Death Rides a Pale Horse...but with an Otter!

Thing 9: The Tragedy of the Commons - Reference to a famous and influential article in the magazine Science by Garrett Hardin.

Thing 10: A Nation Turns its Lonely Eyes to Flikr: Snippet of the Simon & Garfunkel song "Ms. Robinson" with Flikr replacing Joe Dimaggio.

Thing 11: Come and See The Violence Inherent in the System: A line from the famous Peasant:Government scene in Monty Python's The Holy Grail.

Thing 12: The Nameless Dread - The title of a short story by legendary horror/SciFi novelist H.P. Lovecraft.

Thing 13: I try to Leave but They Pull me Right Back In: Slightly reworded line from the Godfather part III.

Thing 14: Opiates for the Masses...Like that's a bad thing - Reference to Karl Marx's statement that Religion was the "Opiate of the Masses."

Thing 15: Abandon Hope all Ye Who Enter Here - The Plaque above the entrance to Hell in Dante's Inferno.

Thing 16: Fear and Loathing in Professional Networking - Reference to many of Hunter S. Thompson's books.

Thing 17: The World as Will and Representation...and Twitter - Title (minus the twitter part) of famous philosophical treatise of Arthur Schoepenhaer.

Thing 18: Quite Exciting, this Computer Magic - Line from This is Spinal Tap.

Thing 19: Take Your Protein Pills and Put Your Helmet On - Line from David Bowie's "Space Oddity".

Thing 20: Hominem te Momento - Latin for "remember you are a man", a line that slaves in ancient Rome were instructed to chant to generals to remind them of the fleeting nature of life.

Thing 21: In Vino Veritas - Latin for "in wine truth."

Thing 23: The End of Laughter and Soft Lies: Line from The End by the Doors.

Thing 23: The End of Laughter and Soft Lies

So I guess now comes the time to wrap up the class, as all 23 things are finished. I may need to clean up some of the documentation and upload some things to the Sandbox, but we have reached the end. As with all summative statements it is necessary to sum up in just a few words a complex phenomenon. The futility of this is not lost on me. I really had no expectations for the class. I recognized a few of the 23 things before we did them and had a general idea. The work load was similar to what I had expected (read: it was hard at times, but in the end it was definitely worth it.

I have learned about many web 2.0 applications that I never knew existed. Some I'll simply nod at and move on, never to use again. Others will become part of my personal and professional life for the foreseeable future. So what are the overarching themes of all of these tools? The simple answer is that their isn't one. These are tools after all and no one has ever asked about the deeper meaning of a hammer (ok...ok...Heidegger did...so shoot me). But as all theories are essentially simplifications I'd like to propose one here. Web 2.0 is at heart about community and collaboration. The best tools don't simply let you do things you couldn't before, they encourage you to share them and to build on them. I think this is subtly important. One of the themes of postmodernism is alienation. That we, as a society, are more alone and cut off than ever before. Their is undoubtedly some truth to this, although not Canon truth.

But its hard not to look at Twitter, Facebook, Myspace, and a thousand other applications and not see new communities forging. Their ability to bring people together is obvious. Now I have never been accused of being Panglossian. Nothing is absolutely good. And I don't need to leave a laundry list to show that there are downsides to all of these tools. But as these things will be part of the communities of the future it is imperative for educators to understand and, yes, even participate in them to remain relevant. I'm glad I went through this class. I learned a lot. I gained some tools I will continue to use. But that is what I will take away the most.

Thing 22: Self-Evident Truths that Aren't Always Evident

One of the oldest debates in intellectual circles in America is between the primacy of the Declaration of Independence and the U.S. Constitution. Some scholars argue that the United States is primarily founded on the principals of the Declaration (equality, enlightenment, idealistic freedom) while others view the Consitution as the more relevant document with its less lofty ideals (separation of powers, limits on governance, practical freedoms). Each side has its defenders (e.g. Harry Jaffa for the Declaration, Harvey Mansfield for the Constitution), and while abstract, the debate between idealism and pragmatism that embodies the split is alive and well in our political discourse today, running through and between both political parties.

Web 2.0 tools can make useful contributions to this debate and I could see something like this being used in a U.S. History class. The first is www.wordle.net. Here I loaded the texts of both documents to generate a word cloud. The results are below. Constitution is on top.


As you can see both documents contain the word "States" a lot. One small but telling difference that reflects the debate. The Declaration is very prominent with the word "People" while the Constitution less so. The consitution meanwhile, demonstrates its groundedness with the word "May" being used so frequently.

To continue the debate I tried out the very cool Amap page. Below is my creation with my personal thoughts on the issue. If you'd like feel free to jump in with the "reply" feature. I would point out that Amap is a little limited in terms of text, so if this were being used for a complex argument like this it might make sense to go with lots of basic arguments, rather than one long one.

Thing 5d: I do not think that word means what you think it means

I have a soft spot for contrariness. The Catholic Church has always had a "Devil's Advocate" whose job it is to, as it were, "represent the devil" and try to dig up anything untoward or unsavory about a potential candidate for Pope or for Canonization. The point of playing Devil's Advocate really isn't to weaken, but to strengthen. To find better Popes and Saints. To me looking for the downside of everything, if done in proper scale and for the right reason, isn't to tear down, but to ultimately get at the truth by eliminating dead ends. Often contrariness can be taken too far (see for example the thoroughly annoying and intellectually lightweight Malcolm Gladwell) but utilized constructively it serves an important role, particularly as it requires a rigid and, in many ways, irritating personality (guilty as charged).

So I always have a soft spot for the naysayer who gets vindicated. So I was pleased to see this article come across my reader from the Neuroscience blog Mind Hacks. The article (found here) is a commentary of another article in Newsweek entitled "The Rise and Fall of Anti-Depressants." Both articles discuss recent evidence that while Anti-Depressants do work and are life-savers for many people, in general the effects for many more than expected are really nothing more than placebo effect. Money Quote:

The Newsweek article tracks this story but also picks up on many important subtitles in the story, notably that the research doesn't suggest that antidepressants are useless - quite the opposite - just that their effect is only in part due to their direct chemical effect; and that many patients in trials work out that they're not taking placebo because of the side-effects and this realisation can trigger a stronger placebo effect.

But for my personal favorite:

The piece particularly follows the work of psychologist Irving Kirsch who was the first to conduct a meta-analysis of the effects of anti-depressants back in 1998.

Titled "Listening to Prozac but hearing placebo" it suggested that the drugs were hardly more effective than placebo and, for many, marked Kirsch out as a biased and dangerous 'anti-psychiatrist'.

However, later studies in a similar vein by both Kirsch and others have supported his original findings and many countries have now changed their treatment recommendations as a result.

Sweet, sweet vindication. Shine on brother contrarian. Shine on.

Thing 21: In Vino Veritas

Let me start by getting the nightmare fuel British quiz part out of the way. I scored a 33 and to be honest I'm baffled by the whole experience and unsure of how I even got that score. I found the whole thing to be a blizzard of stimulation, teenage angst, strange quiz taking interfaces (why do I make selections like I'm playing space invaders?), & slate grey avatars that my Psychiatrist has advised me not to think about more than necessary. Seriously, the issues of digital responsibility, ethics, and etiquette are important enough without terrifying everyone and making me not trust anyone under 30. On a related note I will never visit the UK again.

That unpleasantness aside this is a critical topic, but one that I tend to think runs deeper than we may like to think. Throughout each video and presentation I watched the theme came up of the need to educate children of digital responsibility and etiquette. This is of course a worthy task and one that will often work (many individuals writing in all Caps literally do not seem to realize how it affects others). Educating kids on the long term ramifications and risks of what they post online is critical for the next generation. But throughout it all nagging thoughts kept occurring for me. The running theme was that the anonymity of the Internet tended to facilitate bad behaviors in users, and thus by educating them about why their behavior is bad we can curb it. I wonder if this isn't exactly backwards.

Probably the greatest Philosophical treatment of human nature is Plato's Republic. In the Republic in Book 2 Socrates (speaking for Plato) introduces the story of the Ring of Gyges. An allegorical tale about a man named Gyges who discovers a mythical ring that renders him invisible. Now that no one can see him Gyges is free of all of the constraints of society. So what does Gyges do free of all civilized constraints? He kills his enemies, murders the King, and usurps the throne (among other unpleasantness). Plato's point here is that human nature is often more bleak and selfish than we like to believe (remember David Hume's statement that Man's life free of civilization is "Poor, Nasty, Brutish, Solitary, and Short"). It is, in fact, the constraints of social order that reign in our violent and aggressive tendencies. It is for this reason that whenever law and order break down violence inherently follows (thing of the wild west, the dark ages, and the aftermath of any natural disaster).

This is a bleak view and probably an incomplete one. Human nature contains both good and evil. We are capable of kindness, mercy, and creativity in addition to darker things. But we shouldn't be so Panglossian as to overlook the need for constraints. I titled this post "In Vino Veritas" or "in Wine Truth", a similar idea. My point is that what if rather than lack of information or education the anonymity of the Internet is simply a lens for reflecting who we really are when no one is looking. If this is true then all the education in the world wont' change our basic nature. Things like cyberbullying, flaming, hurtful texts, identity theft, and identity stalking is simply what we want to do and what polite society (and the rule of law) prevents us from. I realize not everyone shares this fatalistic view. But it is one that I can't quite shake.

None of that should ever prevent us from at least trying to educate our next generation about how to create a safer and more respectful Internet. I support any and all attempts to do that. But I wonder, deep down, if we shouldn't be aiming a bit higher and broader than just the web 2.o. Perhaps rather than simply creating more responsible Internet users we should focus on making our next generation better people. That is infinitely harder, but, in the end, it may be the only thing that works.

Those depressing thoughts out of the way (and truly it may just be me), here is a group of Middle School students discussing proper Netiquette. May they prove me blissfully wrong. And BTW why are the Brits so far out in front of us on this issue?

Thing 20: Hominem te Memento

I have to say, as much fun as I've had learning about new media at times the whole thing can be overwhelming. As cool as PLC online are a voice in the back of my head kept nagging saying "you know this will be a hassle as well as a gift." So it was a bit refreshing to deal with new technology and sites that are far more tangible and immediate. For this one I chose LiveBinders and the minute I started checking it out I thought of about a million uses for it.

So I worked up two within a manner of minutes. In a way this application is a bit like having multiple tabs open in your browser simultaneously, something I have to do constantly when compiling data. My first binder simply takes each school in Barrow's OSA report card and puts them in tabular form. This is immensely helpful for a person like me who may be compiling reports and needs to go back and forth between each school rapidly. I think this will save me a ton of time. The second one may have more application beyond myself. I chose several of the best interactive websites and flow charts focused on choosing the correct statistical test when conducting research. This one is helpful for me, but much like the online calculator binder I could see others finding it useful as well. Which is why the sharing function LiveBinders uses is such a great idea. I imagine I will find many more uses for this application going forward.

Thing 19: Take Your Protein Pills and Put Your Helmet On

At times I have been accused of being long winded. Shocking I know. In many ways I take the opposite tact of The Elements of Style. Namely, never say in 10 words what you could say in 100. Thus my test podcast (focusing on the riveting issue of State comparisons on Education tests) clocks in at a whopping ten minutes. Sorry about that. If any of you make it all the way through I'll buy you a Coke.

Anyway, as to how I see this working in my field, I actually think it could. I can think of many applications. I often struggle to provide resources for parents to help them interpret their children's test results. A brief podcast might just be the simplest, most direct way to do that. Same goes for instructions to teachers and administrators. Having a verbal podcast available might save me a lot of phone calls. On the whole I have to say I was shocked at how easy the whole thing was. I would have imagined it as being much more complicated. Its a testament to Web 2.o technology how easy the whole thing was.


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Thing 18: Quite Exciting, This Computer Magic

I'll save the retread discussion of how difficult it is to find quality information on my particular subject area (the intersection of statistics, assessment, & policy). I'll not go into detail about how I went through the iTunes Store, the Educational Podcast Network, & Learn out Loud only to find, well not much of specific interest (a lot of great stuff, just none of it in my field). In some sense that is to be expected. Statistics and Assessment is a visual medium. Talking about poisson distributions and Rasch scaling just isn't all that really compelling in pure audio. I did find the "Edge on Tests" podcasts that focus on test prep. I previewed one. Not much interest to me, but I would recommend it for any student preparing for the SAT or ACT.

Rather than cursing the darkness, let me step outside of a narrow focus and simply focus on some podcasts I do love. First is the Fordham Foundation's Flypaper Podcast, an interesting and irreverent podcast on national Educational policy. Another great one is the Philosophy Bites podcast. Hosted by British philosopher Nigel Warburton this podcast features short (15 minute) discussions with contemporary philosophers on issues ranging from free will, morality, infinity, nature v. nurture, ethics, consciousness and everything in between. Literate without being overwhelming, an excellent introduction to the layman just dipping toes into the broader world of philosophy. I have often thought the PB Podcast would be an excellent tool in AP classes when trying to stimulate discussion on difficult issues. Finally, for those without a statistical background but interest in learning more the University of California at Berkeley offers a series of podcast lectures teaching introductory issues in statistics. You can find it here.

Thing 17: The World as Will and Representation...and Twitter

Following up on the PLC communities discussion (can you tell today is my 23 Things "catch up" day) let us transition to Nings, Twitter, & Micro-Blogging. In many ways these seem to me a logical extension of many of the larger media we have been discussing throughout the class. But when many of these "micro" technologies are combined into a thriving community such as the Classroom 2.0, the result can be rather awesome and overwhelming.

I'd like to focus on plurk and twitter in this post. Twitter was something that I have come around to tremendously. Initially I held out the same antipathy towards it that I do towards Facebook/MySpace. What sold me was my other hobby, College Football. Several bloggers and commentators that I love to read host twitter accounts and post during games. Usually stray thoughts, comments on strategies, jokes and one-liners, etc. When I started following these during the games I was shocked at how much they ENHANCED rather than distracted my enjoyment of football (this is likely a result of how much dead time is in a football game as can be seen here). I know less about Plurk, but my perusals of it leave me with much the same feeling. A surprisingly cool tool.

Having said that, how does this transition into the Educational realm? I spent most of my last post discussing my particular needs in finding a PLC community. Rather than rehash all that I'll try to speculate how such media might enhance (or detract) from my (at this point hypothetical) PLC community. Given how useful I have found much of this class I want to keep an open mind. But in this case the nature of what I work with (large datasets, in depth infographics, dashboards etc.) do not appear at first blush to lend themselves well to microblogging in the same way that Wikis, Blogs, GoogleDocs and other 2.0 applications do. But even if they ulitmately don't, Twitter and I will always have college football.

Thing 16: Fear and Loathing in Professional Networking

The music business is a cruel and shallow money trench, a long plastic hallway where thieves and pimps run free, and good men die like dogs. There's also a negative side. - Hunter S. Thompson

The wisdom of Dr. Gonzo here can probably be applied to my own views on social media. A mixture of fear, trepidation, intrigue, and a bit of diffidence. To put it mildly I'm conflicted. I do think putting social media within the context of a Professional Learning Network is a good way to focus on the constructive aspects of the medium, and I found Caroline's videos and links very interesting. On to the questions:

• What were your feelings on social networking before you took this course? Were you active in any form of social networking before you took this course? If so, was it personal or professional?

Probably negative. I am (as I think I've said before on this blog) not particularly a fan of facebook and myspace. My private, introverted personality doesn't jive particularly jive with the need to express every small event and status of my day with my friends. Professionally, I had some limited experience with wikis, but nothing extensive. So on balance, probably negative and maybe even leaning towards the "end of civilization" theme Caroline mentioned.

• If you've never gotten involved in social networking for professional purposes, had you ever considered using web-based tools as means of networking with other educators before?

Not explicitly. I had recognized the need for collaboration however. Much like Caroline I have a somewhat unique job and a 1:12500 student to me ratio. I struggle to find peers to collaborate with. I had subscribed to a few e-mail listservs (one of the precursors of social media) that were somewhat within the scope of my field, but even their the ability to collaborate is a bit limited (no ability to truly SHARE anything that couldn't be attached to an e-mail). Many people who truly do as I do work in University environs, where peer collaboration is usually limited to the normal means (Journals, Conventions, etc.). Finding others who work in an applied setting like myself was a challenge.

• Regarding PLNs (Personal/Professional Learning Networks), what are your initial thoughts about them?

That I would very much like to find what Caroline has found for myself. I've tried a bit, but I can't say my search has been extensive. I like the advice Caroline was given by the peer at the convention to "read". To explore blogs and other resources. I haven't done enough of that. To truly find a community of collaborators requires the investment of time and resources. I need to be willing to put the legwork in rather than just hoping things fall into my lap.

• Looking at your own professional practices, do you think building your own PLN could benefit you? Why or why not?

Most definitely. To put it bluntly, if you are trying to, say, predict CRCT scores for students using linear regression equations and you are concerned with variability as a result of inconsistent scaling among inputs, you can't really walk down the hall to find someone to bounce ideas and concerns off of. This is a very specific, esoteric problem (and by the way, it is a really one I'm grappling with, not made up) that only somewhat with a similar background can assist with. If you can't find someone like that down the hall you've got to find them somewhere. And while Facebook and MySpace may be the end of our civilization, at the very least you might as well piggyback those tools to network in the meantime.

Thing 15: Abandon Hope All Ye Who Enter Here

Google Docs is a tool that is right up my alley. Those who know me well know that their is a certain bounce in my step and a certain lightness of voice when the term "spreadsheet" is used by me that is not common in normal, healthy individuals (not that I've ever claimed to be that). I simply love the little devils. So the duck in water aspect for me can't be overstated. But I was much more taken by the "forms" function. I am not an early adopter by nature, but I've found Doodle, Survey Monkey, and other information gathering programs/sites to be invaluable. In this way the google forms component (and its extreme ease of use) much like these other programs allows information to be gathered quickly and efficiently. Very, very nice.

Thing 14 - Opiates for the Masses...Like That's a Bad Thing

Thing 14 is something that I looked forward to immensely. Mostly because YouTube is something I've wasted a staggering amount of my life on. This task simply gave me license to waste my life in a more structured setting. The instructions were two videos related to subject and interest, one "how to" video, and one just for fun. It is a testament to YouTube that I found all four within about 20 minutes (followed by 2 hours of surfing afterwords). So without further ado.

1. Oxford Statistitian Peter Donnelly discussing multiple examples of how even very educated people misunderstand statistics and probability.



2. The Fordham Foundation (an Education Think Tank) with their (somewhat tounge in cheek) take on the latest NAEP writing scores.



3. How to create a Macro within Excel.



4. Just for Kicks. Those young persons today not having the luck of growing up in the 80's have no perspective on how awesome it was to spend all saturday morning watching cartoons when you are 9 or 10 (and the latest Yu Gi Oh incarnation does not count kids). This montage brings all that back a bit. Warning equal parts cheese and nostalgia (some of them are, in retrospect, really awful).



4B. My own personal obsession, Parkour.



Teacher Tube was a bit new to me but I found it extremely interesting. Among my favorites are several videos of Middle School students explaining statistical concepts. There is hope for the next generation yet! One example below.