Laura Halsey Media and Technology EDUC 1070 Software Research Assignment Software research assignment: Minitab 16 After

doing some extensive research, the software I discovered was Minitab 16. Minitab is a statistical program that has been recently upgraded, making Minitab 16 the latest version. This program gives you step-by-step guidance in completely various statistical experiments. In addition, it helps to analyze data input and generate graphs. The original Minitab was based off of the Omnitab System of the National Bureau of Standards and with each new updated version. With the update, the data becomes more realistic for the students, allowing them to focus more on the concepts behind the calculations for statistics rather than just the calculations (Jr., 1975). Minitab 16 has many more updates in comparison to the original one and it runs faster than ever. Even though Minitab is a program that over 4,000 colleges are using to teach statistics, there are some pros and cons to the recent Minitab 16 update (Mercer, 2010). Minitab has many great features that allow using it to be easy and stress free. First off, the program is available in seven different languages: English, French, Spanish, German, Japanese, Korean, and Simplified Chinese. In addition, Minitab offers customer assistance and a phone number you can call if you are having any issues with the program (Inc., 2013). Similarly, the program has the option of purchasing it for one person to use or for multiple people to use. There are also aspects within the program that make it easy for users to use. If the user of the program doesnt know where to begin their analysis, theres an Assistant Menu which lets the user follow an interactive decision tree to determine the right approach and allows you to present your findings using detailed, comprehensive reports (Mercer, 2010). After entering the data and performing the experiments, the graphs that the program can generate are professional looking, easy to modify, and easy to read. Also, you can export these graphs into other programs

Laura Halsey Media and Technology EDUC 1070 Software Research Assignment if you need them for presentations. Overall, this program does a great job taking a tough concept like statistics and making it easy to execute, analyze, and present. While Minitab has many great features that makes using it easy and productive, there are a few cons to the program. First off, the newest version only works on certain Windows programs. Some users who dont have the right type of computer program wouldnt be able to download and utilize the program. In addition, there are other certain requirements your computer must have in order to install the program like a certain screen resolution or storage size. These requirements could hinder some people from downloading the program. Furthermore, the price of the program itself is high. If purchasing the full version, single-user license, itll cost $1,395 while buying upgrading an already purchased version of Minitab with cost someone another $595 (Inc., 2013). Also, if you want to buy a multi-user license, the price is very expensive depending on the number of people sharing the program. If five people are sharing, its about $4,000 while having ten or more people share the program costs over $6,000. As far as the program features and operations, Minitab is a great tool for teachers to utilize; however, getting the program on the computer could be considered the largest difficulty. While keeping both the pros and cons of this program in mind, I could still find a good way of incorporating this technology into my lessons. While teaching about the two sample t-test for means, I could use the program to help guide my lecture or I could use it for reviewing the various steps for the different types of inference tests. After teaching the steps of the test, I could have the kids run practice experiments using the program. If they cant remember the steps or dont know how to approach the problem, the Assistant Menu could help them get through the problem and then the students know exactly which step to study more. In addition, the computer drawn graphs would be more accurate and the kids could better see the relationship between the
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Laura Halsey Media and Technology EDUC 1070 Software Research Assignment test statistic and the probability value. Another way I could utilize the program is to have the kids create a presentation from it. I would assign them groups and they could find any claim to test that they want. They would be responsible for thinking of a test to run to test their hypothesis and then they would analyze their findings. All of the data could be recorded using Minipad 16 and the tables and graphs they generate could be exported to a PowerPoint presentation. I completely believe that Minipad 16 could be a very useful tool in the classroom and can be used to facilitate instruction.

Laura Halsey Media and Technology EDUC 1070 Software Research Assignment Bibliography

Inc., M. (2013). Minitab 16: The leading statistical software for quality improvement worldwide. Retrieved October 18th, 2013, from http://www.minitab.com/en-US/products/minitab/ Jr., R. T. (1975, June). ERIC. Retrieved October 18th, 2013, from Teaching statistics with mintab II: http://eric.ed.gov/?id=ED112829 Mercer, M. (2010, August 9th ). PEX: Process Excellence Network. Retrieved October 18th, 2013, from Minitab 16 review: A compelling software upgrade for the six sigma community: http://www.processexcellencenetwork.com/six-sigmaquality/articles/minitab-16-review-a-compelling-software-upgrade-fo/