Posts Tagged: data

Digital Learning — 2 Comments
23
Dec 09

DFSI

DFSI? Simply,

Dashboards for School Improvement is a new service which provides tailored assessment intelligence capabilities to schools, through the construction and implementation of bespoke dashboard solutions. These interactive dashboards can be linked to live assessment data, providing up to the minute information about student performance. Dashboards can help schools to focus on key metrics, such as examination performance or CVA, and will enable them to present this information to teachers, parents and students in a variety of attractive and interactive ways.

So now you know. It is the final week and we are not winding down (in fact it took me a whole week before I had time to post this review). DSFI have been developing a product to display customised whole school KPI (Key Performance Indicators) in dashboard form. Dashboard and KPI are common parleance for industry and may well become so for schools, but as yet fairly new to schools.

We discussed the product at length at the SSAT09 conference; customisation, the tie into active directory, parental reporting, ‘what-if’ analyses, security, filtering of displays, remote access and staff training – and possibly a few more. With confidence in both the product and the team behind it, I was keen to showcase this product with our Leadership team, governors and Sims personnel. Arranging an onsite presentation was simple enough but you can review the product for yourself at the demonstration website (Login: dfsi and Password: dfsi).

At this meeting our Sims manager was suitably impressed and our governor endorsed this type of KPI tracking as common place within industry. Overall, a positive response to what I see as a potent tool for data driven education. I am very pleased to say that the product was well received, and given the time, I will write a rational for investing in this product that has both a startup and annual fee. We hope to work closely in the development and application of dashboards within school with DSFI and aim to offer a showcase event in 2010. I hope to post again later in the year following the introduction of the dashboard product.

Perhaps I have not given dashboards sufficient praise, so again, try it out fully for yourself on the demonstration website (Login: dfsi and Password: dfsi). Remember, the dashboard is fully customisable and built for schools and your schools agenda.

Popularity: 3% [?]

ICT — No Comments
12
Nov 09

Data

Not all data is school leaves you deflated. Stats guru Hans Rosling is inspiring and he is one of many that drew my attention to that fact that Google, is making 17 of the World Bank’s World Development Indicators available to search queries.

From there I found the World Bank DataVisualizer, for those of you familiar with Hans’ presentations, it has the same look and feel – as the tool mashes the data. An amazing tool for Geographers and teachers sharing social statistics.

Data_Visualiser

But there is still more, another link, this time for economists, isimulate.worldbank. Now this is outside my comfort zone but I would be happy to hear your views.

 

Popularity: 1% [?]

Digital Learning — No Comments
20
Oct 09

Fischer Family Trust

Sitting in on CLT, its clear I need to spend some time (not sure when) reading and processing our FFT data can be used in schools. I know it will feature in my assessment of the L4L project and whether students are reaching their full potential?

Any recommended reading would be greatly appreciated.

Popularity: 2% [?]

Curriculum / ICT — No Comments
2
Jan 09

#7 5 Minute Meals for ICT

Topic or Tool: Online Polling. This overview looks at when and how polls can be used. Polls are embedded in our College webpage but there are also web options. We use polls to monitor opinions from students and parents but also to encourage students to engage with the website. For example our students recently correctly predicted the outcome of the X Factor final.

What does it cost? For the most part FREE.

How it could be used for teaching? There are a range of options here.

Most Web polling software are free and they require no technical knowledge. Lets take a look at a few, but there are plenty more than that. Note the key differences are HOW users vote and How you interact with the site.

1. The very first polling software I used was SurveyMonkey. I used it to gather student feedback about the course. I then used this information to develop and steer the course. In the post 16 sector, gauging and responding to the students was very important. Still a very powerful tool, basic subscribers (FREE) are limited to a total of 10 questions and 100 responses per survey. So good for a cohort or group but if you want to go beyond 100 respondents, and up to 1000 or gain access many more features, there is a cost. 8/10

2. Micropoll- This web poll service doesn’t require registration and you can create a quick poll by simply typing all the possible choices in a text box separated by new lines. Great for quick hit question. Micropoll provides a variety of colored themes and you can embed polls in websites either as JavaScript or a Flash movie. You get to see poll responses on a world map and the paid version also supports SMS polls.

3. Google Docs – Simply fantastic. Create a new form in Google Docs with a range of questions styles. Its already been used to gather cross college data in our establishment. With the help of some online colleagues, we have added the function of instant grading. Here is a highly developed spelling test formwith extras, marked instantaneously – now I have your attention don’t I. Or how about lesson review forms for students to feedback to teachers. Here is a form for Unit 4 from the OCR Nationals, two groups in two separate rooms competed against one another. Tom Barrett does a great job with Google Docs. With the pros, come the cons. Poll embedding options in Google Docs aren’t very convenient and users can’t see the results after voting but you can convert answers to gadgets….. but that’s another meal.

4. PollDaddyis the most popular online polling software focused as an online solution. A free account from PollDaddy allows you to create surveys and polls for your website, blog and social network profiles.

5. StrawPoll – This is an interesting service that lets you run live polls on Twitter. Good for your PLN not necessarily for school.

poll-everywhere6. Poll Everywhere – This could be a student poll, but also good for conference or staff CPD participation. I hope to work with Poll Everywhere in the New Year. Although fine as a web poll, Poll. Poll Everywhere also offers SMS Polls where people can vote though text messaging on mobile phones just like polls conducted on TV or radio. The basic plan is free though it only allows 30 votes per poll.

There are more, Notifu, Vizu Polls and Toluna. The question is, what works for you.

imageWhich polling software is right for me?

All the services discussed above offer some unique options. For instance, Notifu allows polling via email while Micropoll lets you create polls even without asking for your email address. So, if you are doing a poll with students and want to use the result instantly or present the results go with Poll Everywhere, their ppt integretion is very neat.

If you are a doing a presentation in a conference room and need opinions of participants over a certain topic, try Poll Everywhere again, hoping everyone has either a phone or laptop they can join in with.

If you need polls for embedding in web pages, Poll Daddy, the free version of PollDaddy offers unlimited polls and unlimited number of votes, however you will need the Pro version for if you want to prevent fraudulent multiple votes from the same IP address.

For use with students and staff responses, I dont think you can beat the ease of Google Docs. Certainly if you want the students to fill in data, then Google docs rocks. Bring the data to life with Google Gadgets or Many Eyes.

Polling in action….

 

Popularity: 3% [?]

Curriculum / Digital Learning / ICT — 1 Comment
11
Jul 08

Data Gathering

Next year we have to work with large data sets. As a department we need to gather these large data sets but I am confident that these could be found within school subjects. Even better it could be about the students themselves. Surely Science, PE or Humanities, even Maths, gather data about the students? After watching our new ICT teacher bring several tape measures to his interview lesson to measure the students physical height, weight, foot and hand length, head circumference, the engaging power of ‘real’ data is not an opportunity we can afford to miss.

So how to collect LARGE school data sets and what data to collect. I know my good friend Tom Barrett would advise a Google Spreadsheet used as a form. Indeed I have already set up a Google form for Art for feedback and for collecting information on DVDs. Then there is SurveyMonkey, kwiksurveys looks promising. Ideas anyone on how to, and what to gather?

Popularity: 1% [?]

Newer Entries →