CEDO 540 Stats - week 5

This week we covered some interesting statistics sites like the CDC, NCES, and WINSS.  I haven't been to most of those sites so it was interesting to explore them a little more in depth.  I also thought it was interesting because I was exploring the sites from a statistical analysis viewpoint.  One of the statistical sites that I chose on my own was the Mapping Service provided by the City of Greenfield.  I love GIS/Mapping and there are similar services provided for almost any decent sized city or county.  It is so interesting to look at the different layers of information that encompass a parcel of land.

Another tool we looked at was Google Trends.  It was interesting to see how certain hot topics or search terms fluctuated in popularity in relation to events that might have happened.  It was also interesting to see how certain search terms compared to each other in popularity over certain periods of time.  I am hoping that the social studies teacher will find some way to incorporate Google Trends into their current events assignments.  I could also see other teachers using this with students to show them how interest in certain topics is influenced by major events in politics, sports, Hollywood or even the world.

CEDO 540 Stats - week 4

This week we worked some more with standard scores (or z-scores) in the guided practice.  I have to be honest that it seemed a lot harder this week.  Our instructor gave us some sample problems that helped but analyzing the data using this method is pretty tough.  I'm guessing it gets easier with practice but I'm pretty turned off by it right now.  At this point, if I ever ran across a situation where I needed/wanted to analyze some data sets and show the implications of the z-score I'd be very likely to find someone who could do it more painlessly.  Or even better, I'd find a piece of software or an application that could do it for me.  Don't get me wrong, the data is extremely valuable...the path to getting that final data is the painful part.

Our survey group assignment is finally finished except for the final analysis part.  We decided to use Google Forms to administer the survey because of the ease in creating a survey and the ease in sharing the resulting spreadsheet among the group members but I almost wish we had tried something else.  Gathering the raw data through the Google Form is not an issue at all.  It is manipulating the data that causes some minor headaches.  I am pretty good with MS Excel so writing some of the formulas came pretty easy but Google spreadsheets are not nearly as smart as Excel when it comes to auto-fill and dragging your formulas around.  I knew what I was getting into with Google Forms - I just wish we had tried something else that did the reporting for you.

Finally the Bill Tancer video.  It is not surprising to me what kind of data is being mined by ISPs and the such but it is the mystery of where that data is going and how it might be used that is scary.  Internet privacy, or lack thereof is one of those things that you try not to think about.  I remember putting together an advertisement on Facebook when I was working for a Social Sports League and the detailed specifics when it came to choosing what demographic we wanted it to hit was amazing.  We could specify an age range, geographic area, salary range, people interested in sports, and the list goes on.  Its not going to get any less invasive either.  Not sure what can be done besides "unplugging yourself from the grid" and that is not going to happen anytime soon for me lol.