Revenge of the Technology Test

This last weekend I woke up and made my way down to San Jose yet again to retake the San Jose State Elementary Education Technology Test.  If you haven't read my previous post about the technology test, I would suggest that you get caught up here.

When I arrived at the testing site, they admitted me right away and I got to work without any instruction.  It's as if they could read my mind in knowing that I didn't want anything to do with this test, so get me out of here ASAP.  Literally, I said less than 5 words to the woman administering the test, who turned out to be the same woman from last time.  I was actually pretty surprised that she didn't remember me after the fuss that I made during my previous test, but on second thought I figured it's probably a good thing.

Turns out there were two specific parts of the test that I failed - the "gradebook" portion that I wrote about, and an online quiz, with the most epically difficult questions I have ever had to answer on an online technology test in my entire life.  More on that later.  So I decided to tackle the gradebook part of the test first.  I take my seat at the computer, boot up Excel, and crack out the new gradebook.  It was the EXACT same assignment as the previous test, with the minor difference that the students names had been changed.  This time, however, I made a small, semi-insignificant-to-two-decimal-point-change to my assignment.  I contemplated adding a column where I carried out the calculations to 20 decimal points, titling the column "Actual Score" and then putting the column next to it with 2 decimal points and titling it "Actual Score".  I thought, you know, maybe they'd find it helpful if I plotted the student's scores on a dot plot, and calculate a linear regression line that would demonstrate the correlation in the student's scores versus their grades before and after truncating the extra digits in their calculated scores.  Then I thought, I could push this even further and calculate the variance of their scores before and after decimal adjustment, and then use this to create a normalized distribution of grades which could then in turn be used to extrapolate future students' scores in the class, and predict what type of course averages could be expected when converting the student's actual scores to two decimal points.

However, by this time I think I had spent a cumulative time of 46 seconds creating the workbook and considering the various possibilities, and I figured I had wasted sufficient time on this problem already by even having to show up to take the test again anyhow, so I might as well just do the absolute minimum skill level demonstration that assessment requires and move on.

Then I had to move on to the online quiz portion of this TECHNOLOGY test.  I failed this section previously the first time because I thought way too hard about a number of the questions, plus I mostly failed it because a number of the questions on the original test are incorrect or unclear.  So I had to take it again.  I committed a number of the questions to memory and have listed them below.  Try your best to see if you can answer them - no cheating!

1.  Which of the following can be used to enter information into a computer?
   A.  A cup of coffee
   B.  A gas pump
   C.  3 fluffy bunnies
   D.  A keyboard

2.  Which of the following displays the information from the computer?
   A.  A puddle of mud
   B.  The bathroom mirror
   C.  Your library card
   D.  An LCD monitor

3.  Which of the following websites can be used to search the internet?
   A.  Google
   B.  The refrigerator door
   C.  A car tire
   D.  Jet fuel

4.  If you had questions about your school's computer lab, who would you contact?
   A.  An Anasazi tribal leader
   B.  The governor
   C.  Your school/district IT department
   D.  An outer Mongolian nomad

Answers:  D, D, A, C

How'd you do?  Rough stuff huh?  Coming from an IT professional - that test was BRUTAL.  It TRULY tested my technology competence, and helped me learn how to make technology relevant in my classroom.

In all honesty, this entire program is a joke.  I'd place the blame with San Jose State for coming up with such a pathetic test, but it's the state of California that requires us to take the test, and they're the ones who have authorized the test.  So I suppose I can thank the state of California for setting such a high bar.

Thanks California - glad I can be part of helping you get your state together.

The Home Stretch

We're into the home stretch of the school year.  We only have four weeks left, but honestly, in my mind it's as if we only have a few days.  I think part of this is due to the fact that I have come to the brutal realization that these last weeks of classes are going to be pure insanity at my school.  I don't know this for certain, but I have an inkling.

For instance, on Friday of this last week, I found out that the coming week (this week) is going to be Spirit Week.  Now, why we would have Spirit Week the fourth week before school lets out is completely beyond me.  The idea of Spirit Week, and investing our kids in getting school spirit seems like something that we should have done, oh say, back near the start of the school year.  Second, as part of Spirit Week, we're having a modified schedule all week with short classes every day so that we can be let out early to PARTY.  What the heck?!?

This is what I'm talking about.  And this is just one week - I have a feeling things like this are going to pop up every day until that last day of school.  It's like we have state testing out of the way, and so now our school can REALLY let loose.  Like we've been holding it in or something...

I realize it's been about two weeks since my last entry.  Part of that is I was without a computer for some of that time, part of it was because I was really busy with state testing, and part of it was because I am just plain tired.  Any one of those things I could probably write a good amount about, but I'm only going to choose one.

After much research and looking into the current computer market, I finally decided on a computer that I wanted to buy.  I got a Mac.

I'll give you a moment to collect your thoughts before I continue.

Those of you who know me have probably heard me express a word or two about Macs - especially those who worked with me in the IT days.  Now, at BYU, Macs were a cuss word for me.  I hated the fact that our college had to specially implement the infrastructure to support the professors who wanted to use Macs, computers that were only introduced to our department due to a fanboy supervisor.  It was frustrating.  My opinions from those days haven't changed one bit, I still think it's a waste.  But the important difference to note is that my feelings weren't towards the machines, but the institution.

My rationale for getting the Mac can be summed up in 7 distinct points.

1.  9 hours of battery life.  Do I really need to say more?  A 15 inch powerhouse that gets 9 hours of battery life is a huge motivator.  Also, this part of the Apple website was fascinating, and there's a video around there somewhere that helped influence my decision.

2.  The technical specifications of the machine are fantastic, especially since they just released the line with the Core i5/i7 processors.  320 GB hard drive, 4 GB RAM, nVidia discreet video card, slot loading DVD, etc. etc. etc.  I could have gotten a machine with similar specs for less, but that brings me to my next point.

3.  District compensation.  The district is going to assist in funding my new computer, and since it'll be getting partially subsidized, it expanded the range of my budget a bit more than I would have had otherwise.

4.  I may be teaching school right now, but I am (and will likely always be) an engineer at heart.  And to be completely honest - the Macbook Pro is an engineering work of art.  The precision manufacturing that took place to create this thing is honestly awe-inspiring, which made the computer difficult for me to ignore.

5.  Educators discount.  I was able to get an education discount from Apple in purchasing this computer.  I checked the BYU website, and I think I could have gotten it for less as a student, but the way I see it - any discount is better than retail.

6.  Technical support.  I've never been very comfortable assisting people who use Macs, and so I figure the best way for me to learn how to help others is to get as much first hand experience as I can - and this will do it.  Already since I've had it, I've learned more than I did in the entire time of working at the IT support center at BYU.  

7.  Bootcamp.  The very first thing that I did when I got home with my MacBook was boot it up, and figure out how to install Bootcamp on it.  Literally.  I started the computer up, did a spotlight search for Bootcamp, and installed Windows.  And it runs flawlessly on it, which is amazing.  I figure I get the best of both worlds here - the amazing engineering of the Apple hardware running my dear-to-the-heart Windows OS.

Overall, I've been pleased with this computer.  But that isn't to say that there aren't things that I dislike, or that don't drive me nuts - because there are.  For instance, the lack of a "Page Up/Down" and "Home/End" keys has been driving me crazy.  Also, there is a "Delete" button on the keyboard, but it doesn't work like the Delete that I'm used to, it's more like a Backspace.  Although it's growing on me, the trackpad is somewhat of an annoyance as well - not having distinct buttons to click is an adjustment, and trying to get to the right click is a matter of luck every time I click it.  They say "Once you go Mac, you don't go back."  I don't know who "they" are, but as for me, the jury is still out.