Education of Philosophy Video

The link below takes you to a YouTube video of a visually enhanced narrative describing some of the most important aspects of my educational philosophy.

click here to view my education of philosophy video

Energy Consumption Project - Results

My main goal for this project was to figure out how much extra fuel I was burning in the evenings when I turned my heat up to 70 degrees from 60.  I wanted to do this project because my landlord charges me a base rate for rent, and I was curious if my habit of keeping my house tropical was making him dip into is emergency savings.

After collecting the data in excel, I crunched the numbers and displayed the results in a powerpoint document which I then presented in a YouTube video.

Bottom line, I've concluded that my landlord is paying roughly $244.13 per month, instead of $228.75 per month if I were to keep it at a constant 60.  This is a 6.3% cost increase per month.

Evaluation of my Youtube presentation:

Pros:

• seemed to know what I was talking about
• fairly good body control
• good eye contact with the camera
• explanations where mostly clear
• rebounded well after being distracted
• was able to complete lengthy presentation within 10 minute time limit

Cons:

• said umm too many times.
• lost my train of thought when someone came to the door
• recording was too quiet

Links:  Excel spreadsheet of data, PowerPoint file, Matlab code for creating all graphs, and YouTube presentation.

Tools for the Mind

review of the article by Mary Barns:

The question in this article asks "Why are schools using computers primarily to teach low-level skills when technology has the potential to deepen students learning?"

Originally, computers where thought to serve as "mind tools" to take students to a higher level of educational.  Lately, some schools are taking a second look at the potential for computers being a valable instructional tool.  The author argues that teachers aren't being trained properly for enhancing student learning technologically, and that districts aren't making the neccesary accomidations for full capitalization of classroom technology.

read the full article