APA Writing

     The NAEP (National Assessment of Education Progress) test is the largest nationally representative and continuing assessment of what students in America know and can do.  It it given in grades 4, 8, and 12 every 2 years.  The NCES (National Center for Education Statistics) is the primary federal agency for collecting and analyzing data related to education.  The NCES is good for educational professionals because Congress uses it to plan federal education programs and apportion funds among the states.  Educational organizations use this data to plan and research.  The data provides indicators of educational status and trends. 
     For this activity, I visited the NCES website and looked at 8th grade math scores sorted by gender for 2011.  I took this data and exported it to an Excel spreadsheet.  I compared WV with the rest of the country.  I then did the descriptive statistics for gender and scores as well as the ttest.  I began writing my paper which included results, a chart, and a table in APA format.  Here is my paper.
     This paper was easier than the first and I hope I have a better understanding of APA format and writing research results.  It is important to understand APA format because students and teachers need to write and read papers in this format.
     The standards addressed are #3 Model Digital-Age Work and Learning and #5 Engage in Professional Growth and Leadership.  This activity required knowing how to use Excel and perform data analysis.  Also, the paper required exploration of data and the ability to write a research paper using APA format.

Sign up for You Tube account

Signing up for a You Tube account was very simple for me because I already had a Google account.  I went here and clicked sign in at the right hand corner.  Then all I had to do is enter my existing Google account information.  Having an account is nice because you can upload videos and save videos under My You Tube.
The NETS T standards addressed are #2 Design and Develop Digital-Age Learning Experiences and Asessments and #3 Model Digital-Age Work and Learning. Teachers design or adapt relevant learning experiences that incorporate digital tools and resources to promote student learning.  They also demonstrate fluency in technology systems and the transfer of current knowledge to new technolgies and situations.

Appropriate a You Tube Video

Above is the You Tube video.  I opened a new blog post and hit the insert video icon.  From there I searched for my video, selected it, and ta-dah, it's in my post.  I can search for videos or open a video I saved in my You Tube videos.  Once I have the videos posted in my blog I can retrieve them without worrying they have been removed by the owner.
You can also open Real Player and download the You Tube video.  Once it's saved to your computer, open your You Tube account (which you must register for) and hit the upload button.  Search your computer for your file and upload your selection.
The NETS T standards addressed are #2 Design and Develop Digital-Age Learning Experiences and Asessments and #3 Model Digital-Age Work and Learning. Teachers design or adapt relevant learning experiences that incorporate digital tools and resources to promote student learning.  They also demonstrate fluency in technology systems and the transfer of current knowledge to new technolgies and situations.

APA Writing

Here is my APA writing assignment.

This activity new to me because I have never writtten this sort of research paper.  I did not find the writing itself very difficult, assuming I did it correctly.  The example provided by the professor was extremely helpful as was the OWL website for APA formatting. This writing assignment consisted of studying the Excel data and presenting the findings, along with my two research questions, into APA format.  I think I would need more practice if I was to publish research, but I do have a better understanding now. 

The standard addressed is #5 Engage in Professional Growth and Leadership.  Teachers evaluate and reflect on current research and contribute to the effectiveness, vitality, and self-renewal of the teaching profession and of their school and community.

Hypothesis Testing

This activity took way longer than expected because I forgot to sort my variable before I performed my t test.  I couldn't figure out why my answers didn't match up until a few hours later when it finally hit me.  Fun stuff. 
I already had the data analysis toolkit installed in Excel from the previous activity.  I sorted my variable and then under data analysis I selected the t test option for two-sample equal variables.  I highlighted my other variable and my test was done.  The results that were under 0.05 meant that there was evidence to reject the null hypothesis. 

Here are my tables:

	AGE	Gender	Teaching
Score	0.42	0.28	0.06*
D.Posts	0.00*	0.44	0.06*
MelScore	0.08	0.37	0.01*

P=.05

	Chrome	Firefox	IE	Safari
Score		0.13	0.02*	0.01*
D.Posts		0.15	0.19	0.24
MelScore		0.45	0.62	0.15

The standards addressed would be #3 Model Digital-Age Work and Learning and #5 Engage in Professional Growth and Leadership.  Teachers demonstrate fluency in technology systems and the transfer of current knowledge to new technologies and situations. Teachers evaluate and reflect on current research to make effective use of digital tools and resources.

Data Preparation

For this assignment we had to develop two research questions from the Excel data.  We had to identify the dependent and independent variables and state our hypothesis and null hypothesis.  I had to refresh my memory and look up the meanings of different variables.  I wasn't sure what a null hypothesis was exactly. 
Here are my research questions:

1.  Does gender affect a person's millennial score?
Independent variable-gender
Dependent variable-millennial score
Hypothesis-If gender is related to one's millennial score, then women will have a lower score than men.
Null hypothesis-Gender is not related to one's millennial score.

2.  Does age affect which browser a person uses?
Independent variable-age
Dependent variable-browser type
Hypothesis-If age is related to one's browser type, then older students will use Internet Explorer.
Null hypothesis-Age is not related to which browser one uses.

The standards addressed in this activity are # 3 Model Digital-Age Work and Learning and #5 Engage in Professional Growth and Leadership.  Using Excel demonstrates fluency in technology systems and the transfer of current knowledge to new technologies and situations.  Teachers also model effective use of current and emerging digital tools to locate, analyze, evaluate, and use information resources to support research and learning.

Excel Basics

The first thing I did for this activity was to open Excel and install the analysis tool pack.  I opened the shared Google Doc and saved it in Excel. I changed the variables to numeric codes by using the find/replace options.  I sorted by ascending/descending order and then by levels.  The average for the blog posts was calculated. Apparently I am below average, which is disappointing because I have done the required amount of posts.
This activity was easy enough.  I don't have much experience with Excel but all I had to do was play around with the program to find what I needed.
The standard addressed would be #5 Engage in Professional Growth and Leadership. Using Excel to manipulate data would allow teachers to make effective use of digital tools and resources.