ISSN 1656-8788

Inside Data Mining: An Overview

In the 1990s, advances in the process of data collection saw an explosion in the growth of data. This coupled with the stellar advances in computing technologies spruced up data mining.
May-June 2007

Awareness of Issues In Childrens Literature

Introduction Reading a storybook has been a classroom practice in most preschools purposely to contribute to childrens enjoyment of literary elements and to imbibe content information. Content is the underlying concern of this research in the belief that it plays a key role in developing understanding of the values within the story. As we all know books serve as one of the most accessible and cheapest resources of knowledge. It gives multiple benefits in developing the cognitive skills as well as the affective domain of the readers. Thus, teachers put great emphasis in developing appreciation in the students. In doing so, educators must choose a book that targets the desired content or values that they want to impart to their students. However, there are some books that present ideas that may be offensive, hateful or destructive to the readers. It may sound impossible yet this happens even in the storybooks meant for children. Censorship for printed materials like books was then formulated because of the need to protest books or materials that can be considered damaging to the children, like the exposure to excessive violence, sex or racism, sexism, family problems, being handicapped, death, abuse or other affronts to childrens naivet and innocence in the society they live in. Likewise, school community, teachers, parents, guardians and other concerned individual must be provided with information about the dangers and consequences of these powerful issues. This makes selecting storybooks a somewhat difficult task for them. Both storyteller and writer have a great responsibility in inculcating appropriate values for the reader. Censorship- to subject or criticize a printed matter in transmitting objectionable issues. Sexism- discrimination based on gender of an individual. Sexuality- involving sex or relating to sexes. Ms. Riza C. De Guzman Ms. Erlynn Grace O. Daniel Racism- a belief that some people or nations are by nature superior to others. Handicapped- an individual that has physical disability that limits doing an activity. Violence- an exertion of physical force to injure or abuse an individual. Death- loss of life. Aging- becoming mature or growing old. Changing Image of the Family- exchange of parental roles, absence of a parent or separation. Purpose of the Study This study aims to know if the caregivers of the young learners are aware on the issue in childrens literature. Materials Materials and content information are focuses that can affect the evaluation of a book. In determining if the adults can identify some of the issues, a questionnaire form with excerpts from childrens storybooks were carefully chosen and put into the study. The general question attached to the selections was What issue can you identify in this excerpt? The Issues in Childrens Literature that the researchers have included in the study are Violence, Sexism, Sexuality, Racism, Changing Image of the Family and issues in Death, Aging and Handicapped. The researchers have gathered two excerpts that tackled every issue and were arranged randomly in the questionnaire form. They were asked what they understood about the issues. There were 40 questionnaires that had been distributed. Only 31 questionnaire forms were returned.
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LCCM Research Digest

Awareness of Issues
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Below is the summary of the results of the tallied answers.

Number of items Total number of respondents Percentage Percentage Incorrect Answers

There are some suggestions and recommendations to help parents, teachers and other care givers to better understand the underlying issues in a childrens book. Provide a wide range of resources that project positive self-image for all young individuals. 2. Parents, caregivers and other members of the family must involve themselves in reading with a child. 3. Encourage children at an early age to share ideas and discuss with their family, teacher, or classmates about their learning from books. 4. To the parents, always find time to read to your child a storybook and entertain his/her questions in order to enlighten them further. 5. In school, make use of storytelling time as the moment where after giving the story, the children will be able to share their feelings and sentiments about the content and related issues.
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1.

Issues

Violence Sexuality Sexism Racism Changing the image of the family Death Aging Handicapped

2 2 2 2 2

Correct Answers 28 21 15 29 31

90.3 % 67.7% 48.4% 93.5% 100%

3 10 16 2 0

9.7 % 32.3% 51.6% 6.5% 0%

2 2 2

31 30 31

100% 96.8% 100%

0 1 0

0% 3.2% 0%

The result of the data above shows that the term Sexuality and Sexism as Issues in Childrens Literature were confusing for the respondents since the researchers purposely did not present any definition of terms for the respondents before this study was conducted. However, the Issues in Changing Image of the Family, Death and Handicapped got one hundred percent correct answers. This only proves that these three Issues in Childrens Literature were clearly understood by the respondents. Conclusion The following conclusions are derived from the results of the questionnaire. 1. 2. 3. Some of the respondents were confused about the difference between Sexuality and Sexism. Although most of the respondents are familiar with the excerpts, still they did not note the underlying objectionable issues it contains. There are some correspondents whose perception of childrens literature is solely intended for preschoolers who are from ages three to six years old. Even in a school set-up, there are some teachers who are not aware that there are underlying issues hidden in various childrens book. There are only few parents who read books to their children. After reading storybooks, parents or teachers did not explain or entertain questions that would further deepen the understanding of values from the books read. Recommendation

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Data Mining: An Overview

In the 1990s, advances in the process of data collection saw an explosion in the growth of data. This coupled with the stellar advances in computing technologies such as client-server networks, distributed databases as well as intelligent software really spruced up "Data Mining". With this trends, given large databases of sufficient size and quality, data mining technology can generate new business opportunities for an organization. In general, data mining is a process of analyzing data from different perspectives and summarizing it into useful information - that can be used to increase revenue, cut costs, or both. Data mining software is one of a number of analytical tools for analyzing data. It allows users to analyze data from many different dimensions or angles, categorize it, and summarize the relationships identified. Technically, data mining is the process of finding correlations or patterns among dozens of fields in large relational databases. Data mining derives its name from the similarities between searching for valuable business information in a large database for example, finding linked products in gigabytes of stored data and mining a mountain for a vein of valuable ore. Both processes require either sifting through an immense amount of material, or intelligently probing it to find exactly where the value resides. Powerful systems for collecting data and managing it in large relational databases are in place in all large and midrange companies. As a process, DM extracts interesting (nontrivial, implicit, previously unknown and potentially useful) information or patterns from databases. This process of extracting knowledge hidden from large volumes of raw data is important in organization or scientific activities to achieve competitive advantage over other companies. Continuous Innovation. Although data mining is a relatively new term, the technology is not. Companies have used powerful computers to sift through volumes of supermarket scanner data, analyze market research reports for years and segregate valuable information for their customers. This technique is the result of a long process of research and product development. The evolution began when business data were first stored on computers, continued with improvements in data access, and more recently, generated technologies that allow users to navigate through their data in real time. Data mining takes this evolutionary process beyond retrospective data access and navigation to prospective and proactive information delivery. The continuous innovations in computer processing power, disk storage, and statistical software are dramatically increasing the accuracy of analysis while driving own the cost. DM, also known as knowledge discovery in databases (KDD) is processed not only by searching valuable information

Ms. Amelita Santos School of Information Technology and Computer Studies

In large volumes of data, but includes exploration and analysis, by automatic or semi-automatic means, of large quantities of data in order to discover meaningful patterns and rules. It seeks data and information based on the profile of the user and the instructions he gives in the system. Because data is one of the most valuable assets of a corporation, must be known and reveal those valuable knowledge hidden in raw data. Through data mining, diamonds of knowledge are extracted from historical data and predict outcomes of future situations. This helps optimize business decisions, increase the value of each customer and communication, and improve satisfaction of customer with improved services. Why use Data Mining? Data that require analysis differ for companies in different industries. Examples include: Sales and contacts histories Call support data Demographic data on your customers and prospects Patient diagnoses and prescribed drugs data Click stream and transactional data from websites Survey information from schools and students In all these cases data mining can help reveal knowledge hidden in data and turn this knowledge into a crucial competitive advantage. Today increasingly more companies acknowledge the value of this new opportunity and turn to Megaputer for leading edge data mining tools and solutions that help optimizing operations and increase bottom line operations. This is supported by three technologies that are now sufficiently mature: Massive data collection and storage Powerful multiprocessor computers Data mining algorithms

LCCM Research Digest

Awareness of Issues
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Data Mining Here are some lists of books for children that have underlying issues.
Titles Hansel and Gretel The Story of the Three Billy Goats Gruff The Catcher in the Rye by JD Salinger In the Night Kitchen by Maurice Sendak Horgle and the Kings Soup by Gilda Cordero-Fernando The Love of Lam-ang by Virgilio Almario Sandosenang Sapatos by Luis Gatmaitan Why Did Grandma Die? By Trudy Madler Families are Different by Nina Pellegrini Amber Brown is Feeling Blue by Paula Danzinger The Family Under the Bridge by Natalie Savage Carlson Ang Kuya ni Karina ni Feny de los Angeles-Bautista Bruha-ha-ha- Bruhi-hi-hi Silkie Girl Breakfast with Father by Roy Issues Violence Violence Vulgar Language Sexuality Sexism Sexism Handicapped Death Changing Image of the Family Changing Image of the Family Racism Handicapped Characters Aging Sexuality Changing Image of the Family
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1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. 15.

References

Almario, Virgilio (2005). The Love of Lam-ang. Philippines:Adarna House Carlson, Natalie Savage (1958). The Family Under the Bridge. New York: Scholastics Inc. Danzinger, Paula (1998). Amber Brown is Feeling Blue. New York: Scholastics Inc. Diaz de Rivera, Lina (1997). Literature-Based Reading Programs. Philippines: UP Open University Gatmaitan, Luis (2002). Sandosenang Sapatos. Metro Manila: Hiyas Childrens Collection. Madler, Trudy (1992). Why Did Grandma Die? Texas: SteckVaughn. Pellegrini, Nina (1991). Families Are Different.New York: Scholastics Inc.

In the evolution from business data to business information, each new step has built upon the previous ones. For example, dynamic data access is critical for drill-through in data navigation applications, and the ability to store large databases is critical to data mining. This enables companies to determine relationships among internal" factors such as price, product positioning, or staff skills, and "external" factors such as economic indicators, competition, and customer demographics. And, it enables them to determine the impact on sales, customer satisfaction, and corporate profits. Finally, it enables organizatios to "drill down" into summary information to view detail transactional data. By mining demographic data from surveys, comment or warranty cards, the retailer could develop products and promotions to appeal to specific customer segments. References Alter, Steven (2004). Information Systems, A Management Perspective. Third Edition. Pearson, Addison Wesley. Berthold, Michael and Hand, David J. (2007). Intelligent Data Analysis.2nd rev. Springer. Berry, Michael J.A., Linoff, Gordon S.(2004). Mining the Web: Transforming Customer Data. Wiley. Lacrose, Daniel T.(2004).Discovering Knowledge in Data: An Introduction to Data Mining. Wiley-Interscience. Laudon, Jane P. and Kenneth C. (2004). Management Information Systems, Managing the Digital Firm. Eighth Edition. Pearson Prentice Hall. Mcleod, Raymond and Schell, George P. (2004). Management Information Systems. Ninth Edition.Pearson Prentice Hall. Press,David J. Hand i, Heikki Mannila, and Padhraic Smyth (2001). Principles of Data Mining: Adaptive Computation and Machine Learning.The MIT

Ms. Erlynn Grace O. Daniel Basic Education Department

Ms. Riza C. De Guzman Basic Education Department

The Research Digest is now accepting contributions for the July-August 2007 issue. Feel free to visit us for inquiries.

LCCM Research Digest