Searching for "data"
How to Turn Bad Data Into Good Data
https://events.edsurge.com/webinars/how-to-turn-bad-data-into-good-data
Date: Wednesday, January 22, 2020 Time: 1:00 pm CT
a panel of data and education experts about how to make the most of your education data. In this webinar you’ll learn about:
- How rapid data turnover can hurt you (and your bottom line)
- How to access “good‘‘ data and what it looks like
- Opportunities open to you when your data is clean
- Avoiding the pitfalls of using outdated or irrelevant data and making decisions that are not data informed
- Navigating the unique challenges of working in education, such as privacy regulations that might hinder communication
+++++++++++++
more on big data in this IMS blog
https://blog.stcloudstate.edu/ims?s=big+data
Data-Driven Design Is Killing Our Instincts
Valuing data over design instinct puts metrics over users
Benek Lisefski August 13, 2019
https://modus.medium.com/data-driven-design-is-killing-our-instincts-d448d141653d
Overreliance on data to drive design decisions can be just as harmful as ignoring it. Data only tells one kind of story. But your project goals are often more complex than that. Goals can’t always be objectively measured.
Data-driven design is about using information gleaned from both quantitative and qualitative sources to inform how you make decisions for a set of users. Some common tools used to collect data include user surveys, A/B testing, site usage and analytics, consumer research, support logs, and discovery calls.
Designers justified their value through their innate talent for creative ideas and artistic execution. Those whose instincts reliably produced success became rock stars.
In today’s data-driven world, that instinct is less necessary and holds less power. But make no mistake, there’s still a place for it.
Data is good at measuring things that are easy to measure. Some goals are less tangible, but that doesn’t make them less important.
Data has become an authoritarian who has fired the other advisors who may have tempered his ill will. A designer’s instinct would ask, “Do people actually enjoy using this?” or “How do these tactics reflect on our reputation and brand?”
Digital interface design is going through a bland period of sameness.
Data is only as good as the questions you ask
When to use data vs. when to use instinct
Deciding between two or three options? This is where data shines. Nothing is more decisive than an A/B test to compare potential solutions and see which one actually performs better. Make sure you’re measuring long-term value metrics and not just views and clicks.
Sweating product quality and aesthetics? Turn to your instinct. The overall feeling of quality is a collection of hundreds of micro-decisions, maintained consistency, and execution with accuracy. Each one of those decisions isn’t worth validating on its own. Your users aren’t design experts, so their feedback will be too subjective and variable. Trust your design senses when finessing the details.
Unsure about user behavior? Use data rather than asking for opinions. When asked what they’ll do, customers will do what they think you want them to. Instead, trust what they actually do when they think nobody’s looking.
Building brand and reputation? Data can’t easily measure this. But we all know trustworthiness is as important as clicks (and sometimes they’re opposing goals). When building long-term reputation, trust your instinct to guide you to what’s appealing, even if it sometimes contradicts short-term data trends. You have to play the long game here.
+++++++++
more on big data in this IMS blog
https://blog.stcloudstate.edu/ims?s=big+data
https://www.kqed.org/mindshift/45396/whats-at-risk-when-schools-focus-too-much-on-student-data
The U.S. Department of Education emphasizes “ensuring the use of multiple measures of school success based on academic outcomes, student progress, and school quality.”
starting to hear more about what might be lost when schools focus too much on data. Here are five arguments against the excesses of data-driven instruction.
1) Motivation (decrease)
as stereotype threat. threatening students’ sense of belonging, which is key to academic motivation.
2) Helicoptering
A style of overly involved “intrusive parenting” has been associated in studies with increased levels of anxiety and depression when students reach college.
3) Commercial Monitoring and Marketing
The National Education Policy Center releases annual reports on commercialization and marketing in public schools. In its most recent report in May, researchers there raised concerns about targeted marketing to students using computers for schoolwork and homework.
Companies like Google pledge not to track the content of schoolwork for the purposes of advertising. But in reality these boundaries can be a lot more porous.
4) Missing What Data Can’t Capture
5) Exposing Students’ “Permanent Records”
In the past few years several states have passed laws banning employers from looking at the credit reports of job applicants.
Similarly, for young people who get in trouble with the law, there is a procedure for sealing juvenile records
Educational transcripts, unlike credit reports or juvenile court records, are currently considered fair game for gatekeepers like colleges and employers. These records, though, are getting much more detailed.
How To Keep Google From Collecting Your Data
Megan E. Holstein Dec 21, 2018 https://medium.com/swlh/how-to-keep-google-from-collecting-your-data-5fd97a6bf929
here are two places where you can turn off how Google tracks you: Activity Controls and Ad Settings.
Along with turning off Ad Personalization, you should turn off Shared Endorsements.
- Don’t use Sign In With Google
- Don’t use your Gmail, even for junk email
++++++++++++++
more on privacy in this IMS blog
https://blog.stcloudstate.edu/ims?s=privacy
Think You’re Discreet
APRIL 21, 2019 Zeynep Tufekci
Think You’re Discreet Online? Think Again
Because of technological advances and the sheer amount of data now available about billions of other people, discretion no longer suffices to protect your privacy. Computer algorithms and network analyses can now infer, with a sufficiently high degree of accuracy, a wide range of things about you that you may have never disclosed, including your moods, your political beliefs, your sexual orientation and your health.
There is no longer such a thing as individually “opting out” of our privacy-compromised world.
In 2017, the newspaper The Australian published an article, based on a leaked document from Facebook, revealing that the company had told advertisers that it could predict when younger users, including teenagers, were feeling “insecure,” “worthless” or otherwise in need of a “confidence boost.” Facebook was apparently able to draw these inferences by monitoring photos, posts and other social media data.
In 2017, academic researchers, armed with data from more than 40,000 Instagram photos, used machine-learning tools to accurately identify signs of depression in a group of 166 Instagram users. Their computer models turned out to be better predictors of depression than humans who were asked to rate whether photos were happy or sad and so forth.
Computational inference can also be a tool of social control. The Chinese government, having gathered biometric data on its citizens, is trying to use big data and artificial intelligence to single out “threats” to Communist rule, including the country’s Uighurs, a mostly Muslim ethnic group.
+++++++++++++
Zeynep Tufekci and Seth Stephens-Davidowitz: Privacy is over
https://www.centreforideas.com/article/zeynep-tufekci-and-seth-stephens-davidowitz-privacy-over
+++++++++++
Zeynep Tufekci writes about security and data privacy for NY Times, disinformation’s threat to democracy for WIRED
++++++++++
more on privacy in this IMS blog
https://blog.stcloudstate.edu/ims?s=privacy
“Towards a European Data Sharing Space” BDVA Position Paper
BDV Big Data Value Association
April, 2019. Position paper: http://www.bdva.eu/node/1277
This position paper is meant to i) support the dialog among European and national policy makers, industry, research, public sector and civic society in the definition of a common roadmap for the development and adoption of a pan-European Data Sharing Space, and ii) guide public and private investments in this area in the next Multiannual Financial Framework.
http://www.bdva.eu/sites/default/files/BDVA%20DataSharingSpace%20PositionPaper_April2019_V1.pdf
Libraries Look to Big Data to Measure Their Worth—And Better Help Students
https://www.edsurge.com/news/2017-11-17-libraries-look-to-big-data-to-measure-their-worth-and-better-help-students
counting how many times students use electronic library resources or visit in person, and comparing that to how well the students do in their classes and how likely they are to stay in school and earn a degree. And many library leaders are finding a strong correlation, meaning that students who consume more library materials tend to be more successful academically.
carefully tracking how library use compares to other metrics, and it has made changes as a result—like moving the tutoring center and the writing lab into the library. Those moves were designed not only to lure more people into the stacks, but to make seeking help more socially-acceptable for students who might have been hesitant.
a partnership between the library, which knows what electronic materials students use, and the technology office, which manages other campus data such as usage of the course-management system. The university is doing a study to see whether library usage there also equates to student success.
The issue of privacy also emerged during a session on libraries and data at the annual Educause conference earlier this month.
Online Course | A Thousand Words and a Picture: Storytelling with Data
https://events.educause.edu/courses/2019/a-thousand-words-and-a-picture-storytelling-with-data
Part 1: March 13, 2019 | 1:00–2:30 p.m. ET
Part 2: March 20, 2019 | 1:00–2:30 p.m. ET
Part 3: March 27, 2019 | 1:00–2:30 p.m. ET
Overview
A picture is worth a thousand words, but developing a data picture worth a thousand words involves careful thought and planning. IT leaders are often in need of sharing their story and vision for the future with campus partners and campus leadership. Delivering this message in a compelling way takes a significant amount of thought and planning. This session will take participants through the process of constructing their story, how to (and how not to) incorporate data and anecdotes effectively, how to design clear data visualizations, and how to present their story with confidence.
Learning Objectives
During this course, participants will:
- Develop a story that elicits a specific outcome
- Identify and effectively use data elements to support a compelling story
- Learn how to tell your story in a clear and effective way
NOTE: Participants will be asked to complete assignments in between the course segments that support the learning objectives stated below and will receive feedback and constructive critique from course facilitators on how to improve and shape their work.
Facilitator
Leah Lang, Director of Analytics Services, EDUCAUSE
Leah Lang leads EDUCAUSE Analytics Services, a suite of data services, products, and tools that can be used to inform decision-making about IT in higher education. The foundational service in this suite is the EDUCAUSE Core Data Services (CDS), higher education’s comprehensive IT benchmarking data service.
+++++++++++++
more Educause webinars in this IMS blog
https://blog.stcloudstate.edu/ims?s=educause+webinar
Microsoft Takes a Bite Out of BrightBytes, Acquiring Its DataSense Platform and Team
Tony Wan Feb 5, 2019
https://www.edsurge.com/news/2019-02-04-microsoft-takes-a-bite-out-of-brightbytes-acquires-its-datasense-platform-and-team
From launching new tablets to virtual-reality curriculum, Microsoft has added plenty to its educational offerings
DataSense, a data management platform developed by Brightbytes.
DataSense is a set of professional services that work with K-12 districts to collect data from different data systems, translate them into unified formats and aggregate that information into a unified dashboard for reporting purposes.
DataSense traces its origins to Authentica Solutions, an education data management company founded in 2013.
A month later, BrightBytes acquired Authentica. The deal was hailed as a “major milestone in the industry” and appeared to be a complement to BrightBytes’ flagship offering, Clarity, a suite of data analytics tools that help educators understand the impact of technology spending and usage on student outcomes.
Of the “Big Five” technology giants, Microsoft has become the most acqui-hungry as of late in the learning and training space. In recent years it purchased several consumer brand names whose services reach into education, including LinkedIn (which owns Lynda.com, now a part of the LinkedIn Learning suite), Minecraft (which has been adapted for use in the classroom) and Github (which released an education bundle).
Last year, Microsoft also acquired a couple of smaller education tools, including Flipgrid, a video-discussion platform popular among teachers, and Chalkup, whose services have been rolled into Microsoft Teams, its competitor to Slack.