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Definitely worth looking at for an overview and detailed look at applying big data in education. Overview slide deck: http://www.slideshare.net/marbienk/educational-data-mininglearning-analytics-issue-brief-overview-12328469 Detailed report: http://evidenceframework.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/EDM-LA-Brief-Draft_4_10_12c.pdf

Kaggle is a platform for data prediction competitions that allows organizations to post their data and have it scrutinized by the public. In exchange for a prize, winning competitors provide the algorithms that beat all other methods of solving a data crunching problem. Kaggle is in Class is a statistical & data mining learning tool for students.

"So-called "big data" make it possible to mine learning information for insights regarding student performance and learning approaches. Rather than rely on periodic test performance, instructors can analyze what students know and what techniques are most effective for each pupil. By focusing on data analytics, teachers can study learning in far more nuanced ways."

perspective on how the rush to collect and use data should focus on how it could help school administrator, not teachers. 

Blog about Big Data, White House Education Datapalooza happening today...

Arizona State University is using data mining to collect information on their students and help guide them to the "most appropriate major". also, in class, using data collection methods, teachers collect information to be used in assessment Ex: "Ms. Galayda can monitor their progress. In her cubicle on a recent Monday, she sees the intimacies of students' study routines - or lack of them - from the last activity they worked on to how many tries they made at each end-of-lesson quiz. For one crammer, the system registers 57 attempts on multiple quizzes in seven days. Pulling back to the big picture, a chart shows 15 students falling behind (in red) and 17 on schedule (in green)."

wow this is kind of bothersome on some levels and kinda amazing on other levels. While I can see the benefit of understanding where and how a student is more likely to succeed, I think there are some potential dangers with such a system. There is the what I would imagine the psychological effect of such a program and I am thinking particularly about STEM fields where women are already way under-represented and often self conscious about their performance, do you really also need a system telling you you shouldn't be majoring in that as well cause you're not performing at that point....or what about a student who really wants to be an engineer but maybe hasn't been fully prepared with the appropriate math courses in high school, would he or she be filtered into another major? I understand using such a system as a means to target help for example if a student could get an assessment of where they currently are, where they want to go and how to get there....

The Federal Trade Commission is working on updates to COPPA (Children's Online Privacy Protection Act) with implications for how children's data can be collected online. Is this an opportunity for a new generation of ed tech to use student data in more comprehensive and smarter ways, or a threat to children's privacy?

Seems like a cool and useful product for teachers: aggregating the data gathered by the many apps and ed tech tools teachers use in the classroom in a single platform, with data visualization support

full disclosure: classmate Alex Schoenfeld first shared this with the us in the TIE facebook group :). But it brings an interesting trend in the adoption and pricing of mobile apps: Article outlining what lots of us know when it comes to moblie apps and pricing - free, $1, and $2 are the price-points that sell, and allow us to try out an app with minimal regret. But with the rise of more and more high-quailty, high-profile, and high-budget educatioanl apps, will the pricing structure change? Will parents and educators be willing to spend the prices of traditional computer software ($50 or more?) for really great mobile apps? The article brings up an interesting model that seems to already be coming to life looking at how apps are being sold and updated lately: "Donahoo and Russell propose there's a better way: subscriptions and content expansion packs.  Launchpad Toys follows the latter tact. The initial price the Toontastic app for $3 (though it's currently free). Users can use that fully functioning app, or choose to add additional characters and themes with $.99 expansion packs. This way, they contend, costs are controlled; it's cheap for parents and children to evaluate an app, and the model encourages regular updates."

Many of you have read my "rants" about buying iPads before the teacher's even know what to do with them. This article speaks to the need for Professional Development before full scale implementation.

Fascinating article about backlash to a non-profit working with school districts to integrate student data sources. Raises lots of pertinent issues beyond student data: intersection of business, foundations, and school districts; parent reactions to educational technology; districts going down the rabbit hole of tech contracts without a clear sense of what they'll get....

Cell phones are banned in NYC public schools, but it is the norm for students who attend schools without metal detectors to bring their phones anyway. If caught teachers are confiscating phones for up to a week, or longer, at their discretion. At schools with metal detectors small businesses have popped up around schools, storing students' phones for the school day for a small fee, similar to a coat check system. Instead of harnessing the power of mobile phones that almost every student already has, they are punishing them and/or causing them to pay money to keep them stored for the school day so that they can have them before and after school. I think this is a missed opportunity for the NYC school system not only because they are missing out on mobile learning opportunities with technology the district doesn't have to buy, but they could also be teaching the students responsible and appropriate use of mobile phones in public spaces.

A primer on data dash boards for schools.

"The intuitive software platform for EV3 is based on National Instruments LabVIEW™ graphical programming software, and includes new data-logging capabilities that allow students to collect, graph, and calculate their data."

FCC is asking for teachers and school officials to help them analyze and give feedback on eRate data which has been collected. It seems like a great opportunity for teachers to be involved in larger decision-making processes and to be a part of research.

It's pretty common these days to hear the term "data-driven decision-making" in education and assume it is synonymous with standardized test scores. But we all know that students are more than a set of test scores. And just like there are multiple ways to assess how a student performs, there are many dimensions to education data.

How are learning analytics being used In education? Data-mining and measurement for educational purposes.

Also on learning analytics and data http://www.emergingedtech.com/2012/04/exploring-the-khan-academys-use-of-learning-data-and-learning-analytics/ Through the lens of Khan Academy.

Access to Wikipedia free for all 70 million Orange mobile customers in Africa & Middle East, incurs no mobile data usage, no data plan even required. Access to information seen as a "public good"

Nice contrast - one company believes in design and the other in data.

I'm intrigued by the writer's argument that a focus on data (Google) helps make the existing technologies more effective and powerful, while the focus on design (Apple) helps create new technologies and bring about revolutions in technology usage. It seems to me that we must have both existing to reap maximum benefit, but it's not clear whether the two ideologies together will be as effective as they are apart.

A breakdown of how much data an average American consumes a day.