Big data strikes again with Coursesmart, #highered take notice
According to the NYT, professors can now track how students are reading digital materials:
Major publishers in higher education have already been collecting data from millions of students who use their digital materials. But CourseSmart goes further by individually packaging for each professor information on all the students in a class — a bold effort that is already beginning to affect how teachers present material and how students respond to it, even as critics question how well it measures learning. The plan is to introduce the program broadly this fall.The kicker?
CourseSmart is owned by Pearson, McGraw-Hill and other major publishers, which see an opportunity to cement their dominance in digital textbooks by offering administrators and faculty a constant stream of data about how students are doing.Nice. But as a college professor, I would have no real need whatsoever for this kind of information. Plus, this kind
Show Up For Tests and Win Some FUN!
This has got to be one of the lowest forms of bribery I’ve heard about in a long time. Today, a middle school principal in a New York State school district offered the following bribe to the student body:
If we get 98% participation rate on the state tests, we will reward you with a FUN party!
“Every day we’re bubblin’!”This, of course, is in direct response to the rapidly growing and motivated opt-out movement spreading across New York State like wildfire. I’ve heard inspiring stories of middle school kids myself, as they choose to refuse the tests. Now, this principal is deliberately putting them on the spot by making them the “bad guys” if the participation rate falls below 98%. Those kids will be responsible for the loss of this “fun party.”
So, this principal–this so-called “educator”–has just set up the scenario for embarrassment, ostracism, and shame, all so he could offer something that his students probably never get in a testing culture: FUN.
If we get 98% participation rate on the state tests, we will reward you with a FUN party!
“Every day we’re bubblin’!”So, this principal–this so-called “educator”–has just set up the scenario for embarrassment, ostracism, and shame, all so he could offer something that his students probably never get in a testing culture: FUN.