I was thinking back to a conference that took place some time ago on the theme of data capture, in particular to the presentations on wearable physical activity devices or trackers [1]. These were still fairly new at the time and I quickly picked up that the people in the audience, most of whom were… Continue reading Why do some people wear a Fitbit?
Category: Big Data
Big Data and Education
Reading through contributions to debates on big data and education (see [1] – [9] below) reminds us that there are two perspectives on education: education as science and education as wisdom of practice. Education as science is about generalisation (if x what is likely to happen?), measurable outcomes (chiefly grades, if appropriate retention too) and… Continue reading Big Data and Education
Pessimistic narratives about technology (continued)
‘They’ are collecting data on us every day, who we phone, where we move, what we buy, who we see, what we do and say. Some at least of this is benign; if ‘they’ know more about where we go then we might be able to have a more rational transport system; if they know… Continue reading Pessimistic narratives about technology (continued)
Big Data
There is a lot of interest, and indeed funding, around Big Data. Big Data is a catchy – and suitably vague – phrase which is used to draw attention to the increasingly large amounts of data available to policy makers, natural scientists, and social researchers. Definitions of Big Data are still up for grabs but… Continue reading Big Data
Michael Hammond 