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Jonathan Becker

Automate This, Not That - 0 views

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    "As long as students are willing to pay tuition in exchange for an automated education, there will be administrators willing to provide it."
Tom Woodward

An Infantryman Learns To Code - Inside DigitalOcean - Medium - 2 views

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    I wonder how often this opportunity is there but the person isn't . . . seems like the very definition of computational thinking. "In the end, the tool was very crude but accomplished something very useful: It had a flow that ensured all the reports required by people on the ground, and above, were sent in a timely and orderly manner. Each step of that flow was almost entirely automated. Each button filled a template and put the text in the clipboard for copy-pasting in the chat. Events were timed automatically. Distances and time of travel were computed automatically. A dropdown menu facilitated entering common values. Big warning signs were visible when a time critical step was ongoing, or some important data was missing."
Tom Woodward

The botmaker who sees through the Internet - Ideas - The Boston Globe - 0 views

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    "Kazemi is part of a small but vibrant group of programmers who, in addition to making clever Web toys, have dedicated themselves to shining a spotlight on the algorithms and data streams that are nowadays humming all around us, and using them to mount a sharp social critique of how people use the Internet-and how the Internet uses them back. By imitating humans in ways both poignant and disorienting, Kazemi's bots focus our attention on the power and the limits of automated technology, as well as reminding us of our own tendency to speak and act in ways that are essentially robotic. While they're more conceptual art than activism, the bots Kazemi is creating are acts of provocation-ones that ask whether, as computers get better at thinking like us and shaping our behavior, they can also be rewired to spring us free. "
Enoch Hale

Why 'Nudges' to Help Students Succeed Are Catching On - The Chronicle of Higher Education - 2 views

  • It can also be used to redesign systems so that they’re easier to navigate in the first place.
  • A nudge, like the text-message reminders that helped students make the transition to college, offers a workaround to help people get through a complex system,
  • A nudge, they explained, encourages — but does not mandate — a certain behavior: think putting healthier options at eye level in the cafeteria.
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  • Researchers have used a series of text messages like this one to "nudge" students to complete important tasks like filing the Free Application for Federal Student Aid. The researchers, Ben Castleman and
  • He says there are two aspects of behavioral work: trying to solve a behavioral problem, and doing so with a behavioral solution.
  • Social psychologists are interested in how people make sense of an experience, which can in turn direct their behavior.
  • "We begin a step back in the causal process," Mr. Walton says. As a result, social psychology’s interventions often strive to change how students see the social world around them, or actually change that world — for instance, by having teachers frame their feedback differently.
  • The approach is elegant, creative, and aligned with common sense.
  • It’s possible some people would argue that we act like completely rational beings, but probably not anyone who spends a lot of time around college students.
  • Given their low cost, behavioral solutions often appealing to funders and policy makers.
  • But the flip side of the coin is that such low-cost solutions cannot replace other, pricier efforts to improve college access and success.
  • Higher education presents a "perfect storm for the frailties of human reasoning," Mr. Kelly says. "The system often seems set up to frustrate people."
  • Critics of efforts to simplify or inform students’ choices often say that college isn’t meant to be easy. If someone cannot successfully apply for financial aid, maybe that person doesn’t belong in college. Researchers typically respond by saying they are working to help students through the pesky tasks on the periphery of going to college. Filing the Fafsa — which, incidentally, the most advantaged students don’t have to deal with — isn’t meant to be an admissions test.
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    I wish I could automate some things like this in rampages . . . like if you do a bare URL that doesn't link . . . I'd like to auto comment with some directions on how to make a link. Seems doable in terms of programming.
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