[Open-education] [MyData & Open Data] The Quantified Student

Thu Sep 18 18:35:16 UTC 2014

The key issue here for me is not one of data confidentiality (although 
that is surely important). No, what really concerns me is the fact that 
the data-mongers seem to believe that the more data we have about 
learners the better we will understand their learning. But this is 
simply not true. Human learning is a complex phenomenon (using the word 
'complex' in its correct scientific sense), and there has been 
increasing awareness among life scientists for at least 70 years that 
one can neither understand nor predict the behaviour of complex 
phenomena by taking measurements. Being obsessed with measurement and 
data is a manifestation of what has been called the 'reductionist myth'.

In the infographic at 
http://www.marketplace.org/content/lc-privacy-infographic we read the 
following:

/"The idea behind data-driven education is that greater measurement will 
lead to better grades, test scores and graduation rates./"

But education should surely be about far more than better grades and 
test scores. There is no point at all in a 'grade' unless what is being 
graded is worthwhile, and the obsessive focus on grades, scores, 
measurement and data stops teachers, parents and students from asking 
what constitutes 'worthwhile' in education. What activities are worth 
doing and why? These are questions that desperately need addressing when 
there is evidence of the harm done to mental capacity and mental health 
by chronic stress during adolescence 
(http://medicine.buffalo.edu/news_and_events/news.host.html/content/shared/smbs/news/2012/03/yan-adolescents-chronic-stress-126.detail.html).

I believe that we see around us the evidence that a reductionist 
data-driven approach to educational performance  leads to a reductionist 
hollowed-out (and stressful) educational experience. Do other agree that 
as educators we ought to spend more time focusing on our students as 
people and less time focusing on our spreadsheets.

Best wishes

Terry Loane

On 18/09/2014 18:01, Sander van der Waal wrote:
> (Looping the Open Education group in again)
>
> On 18 September 2014 18:56, Mark Lizar <mark.lizar at gmail.com 
> <mailto:mark.lizar at gmail.com>> wrote:
>
>     Thanks Sander,
>
>     This is really useful. There is new California Law in the works (I
>     think) for the end of the month to address this issue.  Parents
>     really upset about domestic issues, behaviour problems, learning
>     difficulties etc being sold and shared beyond the performative
>     educational context.   Its a big topic at MIT (where I am today)
>     and here is an article about it.
>
>     http://tech.mit.edu/V134/N38/edprivacy.html
>
>
> Thanks Mark that's a really interesting article - good to see this 
> issue being addressed.
>
> Sander
>
>
>     - Mark
>     On 18 Sep 2014, at 11:08, Sander van der Waal
>     <sander.vanderwaal at okfn.org <mailto:sander.vanderwaal at okfn.org>>
>     wrote:
>
>>     Sorry for cross-posting but I think this may be interesting to
>>     some of you on this list too:
>>     ---------- Forwarded message ----------
>>     From: *Marieke Guy* <marieke.guy at okfn.org
>>     <mailto:marieke.guy at okfn.org>>
>>     Date: 18 September 2014 17:03
>>     Subject: [Open-education] The Quantified Student
>>     To: open-education at lists.okfn.org
>>     <mailto:open-education at lists.okfn.org>
>>
>>
>>     Some of you might be interested in this...
>>
>>     Marketplace is running a series on student data "how it's
>>     gathered, how it's used, and, most important, how it is protected".
>>
>>       * http://www.marketplace.org/topics/world/navigating-data-driven-education
>>       * http://www.marketplace.org/topics/education/learningcurve/day-life-data-mined-kid
>>       * http://www.marketplace.org/topics/education/learningcurve/how-student-data-improves-lunch-line
>>       * http://www.marketplace.org/content/lc-privacy-infographic -
>>         infographic on quantified student
>>       * http://www.marketplace.org/topics/education/learningcurve/youre-invited-come-chat-about-studentdata
>>
>>     Amazing claim from Learning company Knewton: "We have five orders
>>     of magnitude more data about you than Google has,"  "We literally
>>     have more data about our students than any company has about
>>     anybody else about anything, and it's not even close."
>>
>>     And quite a lot of this data is being sold: "A study released
>>     last year (in the US) by Fordham Law professor Joel Reidenberg
>>     found that very few school districts explicitly restrict the sale
>>     or marketing of student information in contracts with service
>>     providers."
>>
>>     They are also hosting a twitter chat tonight - We're hosting a
>>     Twitter chat - tonight from 5-6 p.m. PST. The hashtag is
>>     #studentdata.
>>
>>     Marieke
>>
>>     -- 
>>
>>     Marieke Guy
>>     LinkedUp <http://linkedup-project.eu/> Project Community
>>     Coordinator | skype: mariekeguy | tel: 44 (0) 1285 885681 |
>>     @mariekeguy <http://twitter.com/mariekeguy>
>>     Open Knowledge <http://okfn.org/>
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>>
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>>
>>
>>     -- 
>>     *
>>     Sander van der Waal
>>     Projects Director | @sandervdwaal <https://twitter.com/sandervdwaal>
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>
>
> -- 
> *
>
> Sander van der Waal
>
> Projects Director | @sandervdwaal <https://twitter.com/sandervdwaal>
>
> Open Knowledge <http://okfn.org/>
>
> Empowering through Open Knowledge
>
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