Big Data

We are no longer updating this page.
Education Opinion Privacy, Anonymity, and Big Data in the Social Sciences
A recent article suggests that open science may be irreconcilable with anonymous data, requiring a reconsideration of how we protect privacy in educational data.
Justin Reich, August 17, 2014
•
2 min read
Education Opinion Big Data MOOC Research Breakthrough: Learning Activities Lead to Achievement
By taking massive stores of data and removing most nuance and complexity, researchers examining Udacity, edX, Google Course Builder, and Khan Academy conclusively demonstrate the obvious: that effort in online courses predicts achievement.
Justin Reich, March 30, 2014
•
8 min read
College & Workforce Readiness Opinion Datapalooza: How the Federal Government is Easing the College Process
Datapalooza highlighted the strengthening bond between the federal government and new apps and websites (for profit and nonprofit alike) seeking to streamline and educate the college application process. By providing access to unique and powerful datasets through consumable APIs, the Deparment of Education is creating a framework for public-private-partnerships that can best inform the consumer known as the aspiring student.
Tom Segal, January 30, 2014
•
5 min read
Recruitment & Retention Companies Offer Big Data Tools to Predict Teacher Candidates' Impact
Two companies have launched new algorithm-based screening tools they believe can predict the impact teacher candidates will have on student performance.
Benjamin Herold, December 19, 2013
•
5 min read
Science Opinion Computer Programming: A New Frontier
Tech giants like Google and Microsoft have issued a call for global government surveillance reform, marking quite publicly that we live in a world where technological advancement has accelerated passed our cultural capacity to regulate it. Fears of spying and data ownership have negatively affected K-12, but the advancement has also created new industries for career paths, and with them the need for new educational focus areas.
Tom Segal, December 11, 2013
•
4 min read
Privacy & Security Opinion Gates and Murdoch "Personalize" Learning with Larger Classes and Big Data Systems
A personalized learning environment is driven by the relationships between learners and one another, and with their teacher. That is why class size is so important. That is why it is so important to honor the knowledge, skill and culture that our students bring to school - because a respectful relationship with each student is based on our acceptance of them, and our desire to help them achieve their goals, rather than force them to meet predetermined benchmarks.
Anthony Cody, April 1, 2013
•
4 min read
IT Infrastructure & Management Opinion Glenn Beck Takes on the Common Core: Is Big Data Big Brother?
I have to say that as someone who grew up learning about the snooping the FBI was doing on American citizens, I am disturbed by the pervasiveness of this data collection. If you think about all the ways data is being gathered from our children, from kindergarten onward, it is not comforting to imagine this information being made available to corporations. I do not even like the idea of all that data existing, because once it is there, it can be leaked or distributed. This is one thing I may have to agree on with Glenn Beck. I do not want the government, or Rupert Murdoch's Amplify, to have access to all this data. And the only way to prevent that may be not to collect the data in the first place.
Anthony Cody, March 29, 2013
•
2 min read
School & District Management Opinion Small Data and Big Data Should be Best Friends
A defense of methodological pluralism.
Justin Reich, March 28, 2013
•
5 min read
Education Opinion Big Data in Independent Schools: Assessing What We Value?
I find it encouraging that there are tools to actually assess what we value--critical thinking, problem-solving, writing, engagement and curiosity--and to give us support in valuing what we assess.
Peter Gow, March 18, 2013
•
3 min read
Education Opinion Street Bumps, Big Data, and Educational Inequality
Kate Crawford, a visiting professor at MIT's Center for Civic Media, gave a recent talk describing a scenario where using Big Data could magnify certain kinds of inequality:
Justin Reich, March 1, 2013
•
1 min read
Federal Opinion Liberating Big Data
Apparently standards for certifications in aircraft maintenance have not been updated recently: some of them still refer to wooden airframes. That was one of the things I learned at one of the Department of Education's DC to VC events (hosted by University Ventures).
Matt Greenfield, October 20, 2012
•
3 min read
Load More ▼