Teacher Discussion

To contribute to the discussion below send e-mail to: jn-talk@learner.org

RE: Frustration!

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Thank you for expressing your frustrations. The issues you raise about data
& quality control need to be addressed, and I'd like to let you know what
we are doing about them.

First some background: This is the first year we have automated the
reporting system, and it has proven very difficult for many teachers to
use. In past years, data was handled manually and subscribers did not see
the data before it had been reviewed. There is an important distinction you
may not be aware of:

* The database contains data exactly as users have entered it. It is raw
data.
(See: http://www.learner.org/cgi-bin/jnorth/jn-query/)

* The Journey North News reports contain summaries of data in the
database. To the best of our ability, that data is screened before it is
included in the news reports:

* Comments are read.
* Observers are contacted to verify questionable data.
* Multiple sightings and inaccuracies are discarded
* Latitude and longitude are added manually before GIS maps are published
* Finally, students are always advised to scrutinize the data, to
consider how it was collected and by whom. (This is why the e-mail address
of the observer is attached to the data contributed. )

As I'm sure you can appreciate, in order to track migrations and other
spring events, we must strike a balance between competing needs: The need
for sufficient quantities of data and the need for high quality data. We
must rely on a large body of observers or the program would not work.
However, as you accurately point out, the need for teacher training in
protocol is evident--and will be the key to the longterm success of this
project

With regard to latitude and longitude:
Our WWW-based Field Data Forms contain a hotlink directly to the USGS
database, so latitude and longitude can easily be obtained. Nevertheless,
very few people add this information to their data. We do not want to
reject data without latitude and longitude for the following reason: Of
the 1,500 schools registered for Journey North, 1,300 receive the program
via E-mail. Therefore, we suspect most of our participants are low-end
technology users, do not have good access to the WWW and therefore

We are presently exploring ways to automate lat/long look-up directly from
our registration database. This would allow lat/long to be added to data
without user input.

In the meantime, we would like to hear from participating teachers:

* Should we included lat/long values for all data in the Journey North
News summaries?

* Would the delay in posting data summaries in the Journey North News
reports be worth the wait? (i.e. while latitude and longitude are added
manually.)

Dennis, thank you for raising these issues. You have good insights to
contribute, and we will miss your participation. We hope you'll check back
at a future time when these improvements have been made.

We hope other teachers will comment on these issues, and on other aspects
of the program. Your feedback is welcome and needed!

To contribute please send comments to: jn-talk@learner.org

Elizabeth Donnelly
Journey North

Journey North
18150 Breezy Point Road
Wayzata, Minnesota 55391

Phone: (612)476-6470
FAX: (612)339-7056
WWW: http://www.learner.org
E-mail: jnorth@learner.org

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