Week 2: SurveyMonkey

SurveyMonkey is an online service that people or organizations can utilize to create surveys necessary to too collect data in a short period of time.  Although this is not a free service, the type of data and amount of information you want to collect determines one’s price usually on the basis of an annual pricing structure.  As mentioned by Clay Shirky, in the Disruptive Power of Collaboration interview, times have changed and more emphasis is on changing the way we collaborate, SurveyMonkey is an ideal example of this.  SurveyMonkey is a perfect tool in education because it is relatively easy to use, data can be collected in a short period of time, by a large number of people, and responses can be automatically converted into either lists of qualitative responses or into numbers if they are quantitative responses.  Then a substantial amount of data can be assessed based on the number of responses, again, in a short period of time.  This is an ideal mode of communication and data collection tool to assess a program, for example, the use of a program we are piloting at our school called iLit, for our Intensive Literature class for those students that are reading at least 2 grade levels below standard.  Therefore, by distributing a survey we can gain perspectives on the advantages and challenges of the program and the technologies provided, both by Pearson and the school district distribution of technology, meaning ipads that they did not anticipate for this at the inception of the program.  In addition then, the downside of using SurveyMonkey, is first creating a survey that uses the exact vernacular and/or questions, open ended, close ended, or both, that are directed towards the goal originally sought.  In other words, if the wording is not correct, the original goal of the survey and responses may be skewed.  In addition, one can create a survey that is too lengthy, according to Suresh (2012) participants attention begins to sway at about the 8 minute mark (http://www.surveymonkey.com/blog/en/blog/2012/06/29/the-online-research-data-quality-problem-is-respondent-survey/).  So brevity is crucial and attention spans can be lost after a short period of time.  Other downfalls according to Wise (2012) include; if anonymity is not guaranteed, respondents may feel pressure to respond in a certain way, therefore respondents may not respond in a way that they will be perceived negatively (http://www.snapsurveys.com/blog/advantages-disadvantages-surveys/). 

   Some of the other tools that I was first interested in that may be useful in education was the Adobe Connect and Udemy   First, adobe connect I did use years ago as an online virtual classroom that was extremely easy to use as compared to Elluminate Class Connect.  What I liked about adobe, as compared to elluminate, was the feature of screening students before they entered your classroom.  Students can type inappropriate names and the instructor can deny them admittance into to the course.  In addition, it was easy to share your desktop and surf the internet to show your students useful resources online.  Elluminate, became too cumbersome and too many details were added that created further confusion, when the company thought they were really simplifying things.  The other tool that I listed was Udemy for the simple reason that it is a good tool for people to instruct courses, primarily showing others how to use technologies, for a small fee.  For example, using excel spreadsheets more efficiently, or prezi.    In our district, as well as many other google docs is becoming more prevalent and last night I just went through some technology training and learned more about Canvas.  Canvas, I have used before as a Learning Management System (LMS) with curricula, readings, assignments, quizzes/tests, videos and so on.  Furthermore the gradebook, as an instructor, was simple to use and had many different user-friendly features that made it one of the more popular LMS systems out there.  In our district it is widely used to share lessons, common core standards, teaching strategies, and grade level expectations.

   As far as making connections to the text, I admit when I was first going to take this class last summer the required texts were, The World is Flat, and Here Comes Everybody, by Clay Shirky (I will search for Weinberger’s book tomorrow).  So I thought the videos provided an opportunity to understand the importance of collaboration and how they serve our communities especially in the acquisition of information in a short period of time. Shirky (2008) emphasizes that forming groups into today’s social media has become a great deal easier and the future that has presented itself through the internet is mass amateurization of publishing and a switch from “Why publish this?” to “Why not?”  Hence, even in education we are easily brought together through technological tools, such as SurveyMonkey, and are able to gather a large amount of information quickly.  For example, I was able to send the survey links to 710 secondary educators and received 282 responses, directed at the advantages and challenges of online learning and the strategies and tools necessary for successful online programs.  According to SurveyMonkey a response rate of 20-30% is highly successful, I was able to get almost a 40% response rate (https://www.surveymonkey.com/mp/sample-size/).  The tools then have brought our learning communities closer together and as Shirky mentioned earlier, the ways we collaborate have become different and more convenient in many apsects.

    

References

Shirky, C. 2008. Here comes everybody. New York, NY: Penguin Books.
Shirky, C.  2014.  The disruptive power of collaboration: an interview with clay shirky.

Suresh, N. 2012, June 29. The Online Research Data Quality Problem: Is it the Respondent or the Survey? Retrieved from http://www.surveymonkey.com/blog/en/blog/2012/06/29/the-online-research-data-quality-problem-is-respondent-survey/

Survey sample size.  (https://www.surveymonkey.com/mp/sample-size/

Wise, S. E. 2012, November 12.  Advantages and disadvantages of surveys.

                http://www.snapsurveys.com/blog/advantages-disadvantages-surveys/

Week 1 Technology and Leadership

For your initial post (which counts as your written assignment for this week), reflect on Friedman’s opening chapters from the synopsis as compared to Florida’s article.  Which resonated with you?  Factor in Bostrom's talk...does his warnings about control align with either Friedman or Florida...or is this evidence of the continued evolution of the web?  Given this evolution since Friedman's book and Florida's article, are these sources still relevant...or relevant within your work environment?

Each of the three required readings and/or sources, including Nick Bostrom’s Ted Talk, were unique in their own respects, yet, interwoven in an underlying theme.  What first struck a chord was the realization that Friedman discovered when spending time with Nandan Nilekani, the Chief Executive Office (CEO), of Infosys in India, the reality that America is being challenged technologically and economically and that “The playing field is being flattened” (Friedman, 2005).  Furthermore, the CEO insinuated, this to be a good thing, “or a new milestone in human progress and a great opportunity for India and the world” (p. 7).  Therefore, it can be construed that as Americans we are victims of our own doing, where those outside our borders are finding ways to level the playing field.  

This phenomenon though is more complicated than just economic systems merging, according to Friedman (2005) it began with the collapse of the Berlin Wall, but even more importantly came the emergence of technologies that connected the world where communications now take place in an instantly via mobile phones, email, instant messaging.  Yet, with the world being more “Flat,” Florida (2005) in the article, The World is Spiky, insists that even though progress is being made in other parts of the world, a completely flat field is not likely yet.  The United States still is the world’s leader economically with many cities like New York and Chicago having economies as big as some countries.  In addition, even with the influx of innovation throughout the world, according to Florida (2005) “Creative people have to travel to Silicon Valley and be absorbed into its innovative ecosystem before their ideas become economically viable” (p. 49).  On the other hand though, American and European, and Japanese companies are increasingly taking heat for outsourcing, or shifting business and or factories beyond their borders.  In terms of business this is justified when Reuters can pay $15,000 in total compensation to an analyst in Bangalore as opposed to $80,000 in New York and London (Freidman, 2005).  Or, a simple example of outsourcing, according to Friedman (2005) is a doctor’s digitized voice late one day can be transcribed the next day by outsourcing it to a housewife in India, because of the twelve hour time difference, the notes can be ready the following morning.

So, the last piece of the puzzle is Nick Bostrom’s presentation on Ted Talk.  The talk departed from the overall themes presented by Friedman and Florida, in my opinion.  With the emergence of what Bostrom called, Superintelligence, I think this has transformed our society and agree with Freidman that it has “flattened” our world.  Furthermore, Bostrom explained this superintelligence in a positive tone, and if the motivation system matched that of man’s, the world would possibly be a better place.  However, in Bostrom’s presentation the image that stuck out to me was the explosion of the atomic bomb, this superintelligence he spoke of depends on the intentions of “what” man?  The primary example of this was the comparison between Osama Bin Laden and David Neeleman the founder of JetBlue, both men had a dream of involving airplanes and a savvy to do something about it” (p. 609).  According to Friedman, one used the opportunity to “use his optimistic visions and technologies of the flat world to lift up people” (p. 613).  While the other, “used his disciples and twisted imagination, to bring two enormous symbols of American power down to their level” (p. 613).  In other words, I am not sure I am so confident with this idea of so called “superintelligence” in the hands of “man.”  I agree with Friedman’s idea of a flat world and really took to heart his suggestions of what our young people need to do to prepare to compete against those engineers who are coming out of especially China and India, the question becomes “how can our kids compete?”  This rings true for me, both as a teacher and a parent.

References

Florida, R. (2005, October). The world is spiky. Atlantic Monthly, 48-51.

Friedman, T. L. (2005). The world is flat. New York, NY: Farrar, Straus, and Giroux.

What happens when our computers get smarter than we are? [Television series episode]. (2015, March). In N. Bostrom (Producer), Ted Talk. Vancouver BC, Canada: National Public Radio.