Learning with Big Data: the Future of Education

Mayer -Schonberger, Viktor and Kenneth Cukier. Learning with Big Data: the Future of Education. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2014. . 

• Olgerta Tona, Ida Asadi Someh, Kaveh Mohajeri, Graeme Shanks, Michael Davern, Sven Carlsson and Miranda Kajtazi. "Towards Ethical Big Data Artifacts: A Conceptual Design." 2018. Accessed 2 February, 2018, http://engagement.hicss.org:81/papers/0573/paper0573.pdf

This work is important in its focus on how big data is profoundly shaping education today. Mayer-Schonberger and Cukier highlight the benefits, but also points out the risks and dangers. First, the benefits: “It is a lens into three core qualities that will improve learning: feedback, individualization and probabilistic predictions.”  To appreciate the import of this comment, it is key to understand the difference between what we did with data in the ‘small data’ era and what we can do now. In the era of ‘small data, doing data analysis was costly and time-consuming. Limited amounts of data were collected because it was difficult. The objective was to answer (find the results) to a question already asked. Researchers were looking for causality. In the world of big data, (now that the costs of data storage and data access have plummeted), we are able to uncover correlational insights. The feedback in this case is about the process. Using masses of data enables probabilistic predictions and discovery of insights that were impossible to uncover before. 

When scale changes from small to ‘gigantic’, the scale completely tips in favor of correlational insights over causal link. In relation to my research, this suggests the importance of having access to a one – information view of all permitted data access, and having access to big data tools that enable knowledge iterative discovery In terms of education, the Holocaust is a ‘big data’ topic. Being able to examine Holocaust-related information at scale, ope4ns up the possibility of teasing out new insights into the data that just cannot show up in small data amounts. An example of this kind of outcome is the initial data analysis from UT Dallas on “Digital Studies of Deportations.” Using GIS data analysis tools to comb large data sets of deportation numbers correlated with Geographic place data and movement of top Nazi officials in specific European countries during the last years of WWII, has already translated into new insights.

As far as education is concerned, Mayer-Schonberger and Cukier make very clear how big data is helping to drive the change from ‘formal – assembly line education’ to individualized, dynamic learning, that takes advantage of learning changes in real time, based on changing feedback from new kinds of data collection that can be fed back to both teachers and students. For the first time, an enabling technology – big data- can make adaptive learning possible. Schonberger see this technique as “leading to a new era of highly personalized instruction.” 

As the authors put it:

not only will this {sic: big data} information be used to redesign what already exists, but it can be analyzed in real time, to automatically present materials that are the best fit for the student’s specific need at a particular moment.  

These outcomes inform my research into the impact of artifacts on Holocaust remembrance because big data tools enable new visualizations and interpretation of information. Another big data source is computational reading. Applying computational reading to Holocaust literary artifacts opens up the potential for comparing across literary genres in new ways.

In summarizing the dangers of big data, Mayer-Schonberger and Cukier discuss three things: academic tracking of students, leading to a narrowing of their opportunities in life. Then privacy – “and not just the ‘conventional concern over privacy and data protection, but a more unique worry - “the threat of an unshakable past.  Mayer-Schonberger and Cukier go on to note: “Big data doesn’t simply magnify these problems, it changes their very nature. Here, as elsewhere, the change in scale leads to a change in state.”  Changes in ‘state’ indicate profound changes in the status quo of student educational outcomes and even career access for students in their adult years.

The authors do not say that the search for causality is wrong, or should be given up. They suggest that rather than hunting at great expense for an often elusive why, we may be better off with a more pragmatic approach, of aiming to first comprehend the what that non causal analysis can reveal.” 

The challenge is that there is a power imbalance between individuals, organizations and society in the big data sphere. There are no solutions out there yet that adequately and ethically accommodate the conflicting interests of individuals and organizations. In fact, the technical solutions so far are woefully behind the ‘technical wizardry’ of big data value extraction.

Virtual Field Trips. Using Technology to Create an Integrated Science Learning Environment

Nix, Rebekah K. Virtual Field Trips. Using Technology to Create an Integrated Science Learning Environment. Thesis presented as part of the requirements for the award of the degree of Doctor of Philosophy of the Curtin University of Technology, 2002.

This doctoral work leverages technology as a means – not as an end. The purpose of this study was to evaluate a new teaching model for long-term professional development designed to foster a constructivist approach.

In examining the underlying theories and methods, Nix has applied constructivist theory through the use of an experimental training technique that was shown to affect change. The use of constructivist practice, based on upholding an experiential training model, suggests that agency should return to the user and come away from the instructor.

Nix’s ISLE model demonstrates transfer of knowledge across disparate learning environments. Non-science students were allowed transdisciplinary collaboration and problem solving is a key point. This thesis is also a significant reference because it focuses on teacher professional development and the same sample population, which comprises my initial study target: practicing classroom teachers in the state of Texas. Nix’s work is specifically designed to make changes in that specific population.

All of this research is packaged up into a nice model that I believe can effectively explain what I hope to do from the learning I have absorbed in reading for my field bibliographies. I think that this ISLE model will help to create a new distributed learning space within a single, common playing field. The model is process-oriented therefore; it is applicable to other domains.

I believe this ISLE model is well suited to the discovery of relationships between Holocaust related artifacts, and to taking Holocaust remembrance into a new area of digital knowledge discovery.

The ISLE Model (Integrated Science learning Environment) : Quote

The ISLE model fosters a multi-faceted learning environment that makes content and pedagogy relevant. It binds the basic strands of science, research, and science education together through a deliberately designed program of study. Real-world experience, presented in an openly versatile, inquiry-based product, waves a single tapestry that prepares our teachers to lead our student s powerfully and wisely.  Theory does not effect change. People do.”  (p.13)

Nix defines a virtual field trip, as:

an interrelated collection of images, supporting text, and/or other media, delivered electronically via the WWW in a format that can be professionally presented to relate the essence of a visit to a time or place. The virtual experience becomes a unique part of the participant’s life experiences. 

The significance of the study: Quote:

Examines novel combination of influences from the fields of science education (constructivism and concept mapping), psychosocial cognition (experiential training and knowledge transfer). And information technology (data management and web-based presentation). Deliberate in design, this model encourages individual communication, collaboration, and creativity to develop a sense of ownership in and a personal relevance of a complex group product. Such skills are critical to the success of both teachers and students in today’s rapidly advancing information-driven society.”

The Future of Learning Institutions in a Digital Age

Davidson, Cathy N., David Theo Goldberg, and Zoë Marie Jones. The Future of Learning Institutions in a Digital Age. (The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation Reports on Digital Media and Learning). Last annotated on Friday July 21, 2017 Accessed November 20 2017, https://dmlcentral.net/wp-content/uploads/files/Future_of_Learning.pdf

Davidson sees a major part of the future of learning as being about developing methods to differentiate good knowledge sources from the questionable ones. About how to address ethical dilemmas and issues of judgement in resolving tensions between different points of view. She sees a world where interdisciplinary and collaborative knowledge-creating and learning environments are necessary to address multidimensional and complex research problems.

Recognizing the inter-connectedness of our worldwide community – Davidson and her colleagues want to drive home the myriad of opportunities that now exist to exchange ideas and learn from each another. The authors examine: Collaborative learning, Interdisciplinary learning multi-institutional learning and what might learning institutions look like.

They contend that the future of learning institutions “demands a deep epistemological appreciation of the profundity of what the Internet offers humanity as a model of a learning institution.” (p2)

This report points to only some of the conclusions about and principles for the future of learning institutions in a digital age…It offers pedagogical comparisons for teaching in new environments, detailing both the supports and inherent obstacles in collaborative teaching in virtual environments at this transitional moment. (p.2-3)

Collaborative practices demand participatory learning methods and processes to match the changes going on in contemporary culture. “Participatory learning in virtual communities through the use of new technologies, Changes the way people of all ages learn, play, socialize, exercise judgment, and engage in Civic life.” (p. 12)

Given the range and volume of information available and the ubiquity of access to information sources and resources, learning strategy shifts from a focus on information as such to judgment concerning reliable information, from memorizing information to how to find reliable sources. In short, from learning that… to learning how, from content to process. 3. From Presumed Authority to Collective Credibility Learning is shifting from issues of authoritativeness to issues of credibility. P. 12

Note: Shift away from memorization

Page 27. Shift of learning away from authoritativeness to issues of credibility --- and the development of methods to help recognize bias, and levels of credibility (MOHO)

Page 56. For an analysis of the pedagogical requirements for a digital age, see Steve Anderson and Anne Balsamo, “A Pedagogy for Original Synners” in, Digital Youth, Innovation, and the Unexpected. Edited by Tara McPherson. The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation Series on Digital Media and Learning. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press, 2008. 241–259. doi: 10.1162/dmal.9780262633598.241.