Can Higher Education Change?

Prof George R Boggs of Inside Higher Ed (2013) argues that higher education needs to refocus its efforts toward its central purpose of student learning instead of acquiescing to the obtuse political demands of external interest groups who often pursue their agenda through accreditors and regulators:

Colleges and universities are too important for educators to deny the challenges and demands of today and too important for policy makers to pass laws because of pressure from special interests or based on their recollection of what college used to be. Decisions cannot be based on past practices when the world is changing so rapidly. The mission of higher education is student learning, and all of our policies, procedures and practices must be aligned with that mission if our institutions are to remain relevant.

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Just as Eastman Kodak was unable to keep pace with the times, I fear that many institutions of higher education in the US are following a similar path. Today's learners deserve better.

Source: Boggs, G (2013, September 12), Through the Learning Lens, Inside Higher Ed.

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Jumping Through Hoops Not Learning

According to John Warner (2013) of Inside Higher Ed:

I believe a generation of No Child Left Behind-style testing has trained our students to worry almost exclusively about the “whats” rather than the “whys.” They arrive in my class oriented towards learning the rules that must be followed to jump through each successive hoop. The difficulty of flipping the switch from rules to choices seems to increase with each successive cohort.

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John Warner (1970- )

I share John Warner's concerns as an educator. The question remains how to engage with this perspective of learning...

Source: Warner, J (2013, May 13), Thinking Context: School Is Not the Hunger Games, Inside Higher Ed.

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Try R Training

For those seeking to get started with the R programming language, O'Reilly Media is sponsoring a free online training course entitled, Try R. Follow the link below to learn more:

The Try R training program is delivered in an easy to follow "learning by doing" format divided into eight chapters as follows:

• Chapter 1: R Syntax
• Chapter 2: Vectors
• Chapter 3: Matrices
• Chapter 4: Summary Statistics
• Chapter 5: Factors
• Chapter 6: Data Frames
• Chapter 7: Working With Real-World Data
• Chapter 8: Installing Additional Packages

I completed the training and was delighted with the "learning by doing" approach of the program. Those new to R will find this offering to be an easy way to get introduced to how R works, as well as the power of the R programming language to perform vector and matrix analytics, which are fundamental to learning and applying advanced statistical methods. Again, Try R is a free training program sponsored by the experts at O'Reilly Media.

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RStudio: Your Gateway to R

I am frequently asked by statistics learners for open source software recommendations. My advice is always to check out RStudio, a free and open source integrated development environment for R. You can run RStudio on your desktop (Windows, Mac, or Linux) or even over the web using RStudio Server.

Major features of RStudio include:

• Syntax highlighting, code completion, and smart indentation
• Execute R code directly from the source editor
• Easily manage multiple working directories using projects
• Quickly navigate code using type ahead search and go to definition
• Workspace browser and data viewer
• Plot history, zooming, and flexible image and PDF export
• Integrated R help and documentation
• Sweave authoring including one-click PDF preview
• Searchable command history
• Works with any version of R (2.11.1 or greater)
• Runs on Windows, Mac, Linux, and even over the web using RStudio Server
• Integrated with Git and Subversion for version control
• Free and open source (AGPLv3 license)

RStudio is your gateway to learning and using R. Follow the link below to download and install your copy of RStudio now!

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Ericsson: The Future of Learning

Follow the link below to learn more about networked society and the future of learning according to Ericsson.

Networked Society

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Discovering Statistics Using R

Open source enthusiasts seeking to become statisticians will want to check out, Discovering Statistics Using R (2012) by Prof Andy Field, Prof Jeremy Miles, and Zoë Field. According to the publisher:

Hot on the heels of the award-winning and best selling Discovering Statistics Using SPSS (3rd ed), Andy Field has teamed up with Jeremy Miles (co-author of Discovering Statistics Using SAS) and Zoë Field to write Discovering Statistics Using R. Keeping the uniquely humouous and self-deprecating style that has made students across the world fall in love with Andy Field's books, Discovering Statistics Using R takes students on a journey of statistical discovery using R, a free, flexible, and dynamically changing software tool for data analysis that is becoming increasingly popular across the social and behavioral sciences throughout the world.

Those seeking to practice statistics while learning to use R (Project R) will find Discovering Statistics Using R to be a useful and instructive guide for learning statistics while also conquering the R programming environment. Follow the link below to learn more about this terrific resource.

Source: Field, A, Miles, J, and Field Z (2012), Discovering Statistics Using R, Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

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The Future of Work is Serious Play

Writes Prof Jason Scott Earl in The Beginner (2012, Aug 30):

The great divide between the gaming community and management educators is quickly coming to a close. The past relationship between gamers and business management educators, whereby one dismissed the others based on what has now increasingly proven to be unsupported information, is changing. As research points out, there is a significant opportunity in adopting an engaging business simulation strategy and its potential impact on the world of management education. The truly disruptive innovation nature of online business simulations has the potential to dramatically impact emerging markets – such as online education – with new and more powerful ways of teaching and learning.

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Prof Jason Scott Earl

Virtual learning environments are the future of learning. Firms such as Rosetta Stone are already pioneering new methods for distributing knowledge via simulation technology. Everything we know about education will change as virtual learning systems eventually supplant the classroom approach to instruction. Those changes will affect not only "bricks and mortar" classrooms, but the current notion of online course room structures as well. Computer learning systems are set to revolutionize education as we know it.

Source: Earl, J S (2012, Aug 30), The Future of Work is Serious Play, The Beginner.

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Learning Statistics Online Recognized

According to David Wessel of the Wall Street Journal, new research has emerged that shows statistics students learn as much in online courses as they can in "bricks and mortar" classes.

In a carefully crafted, foundation-funded experiment that has received less attention than it deserves, Ithaka S+R, a higher-education think tank, enticed 605 undergraduates at six public-university campuses in New York and Maryland to agree to be assigned randomly to one of two courses. Half took a conventional introductory statistics course that met three hours a week. The other half took a computer-assisted course that met once a week and relied on an interactive, online statistics course developed by Carnegie Mellon University's Online Learning Initiative.... To compare outcomes, researchers had students take a standardized statistics test and a final exam that had some of the same questions.... The statistically sound result: Students in the online course did just as well as those who took the conventional course. No better, no worse.

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Online education is increasingly being recognized as a viable cost-effective alternative to more expensive "bricks and mortar" schools in America. At some point, society will have to consider how the advantages of online education might be applied in secondary schools...

Follow the link below to read the original research report produced by Ithaka S+R.

Download Report

Source: Wessel, D (2012, July 19), Tapping Technology to Keep Lid on Tuition, Wall Street Journal.

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The Benefits of R

Prof John Verzani (2001) summarizes some of the major benefits of using R (Project R) for learning and teaching statistics as follows:

1. R is free.
2. R is open-source and runs on Linux, Windows, and Apple.
3. R has an excellent built-in help system.
4. R has excellent graphing capabilities.
5. R is a computer programming language.

I will be talking more about each of the above benefits in future posts. For now, let's focus on the first benefit, which is that R is free software. Follow the link below to download and install a free copy of R.

Source: Verzani, J (2001), SimpleR: Using R for Introductory Statistics.

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Microcomputers in 1978

How society marvelled over the advent of microcomputers and the emergence of personal computing during the late 1970's.



My late father, Ralph E McKibbin (who was age 59 in 1978), was an early proponent of microcomputers as a hobbyist. The entire family enjoyed learning about microcomputers hands-on via my father's TRS-80 (Radio Shack) computer, complete with a 5.25-inch floppy disk drive and a basic telephone modem. My father later installed a networked computer system into a local manufacturing firm (Somat Corporation) where he served as Controller and Treasurer for many years. My father's profession was accounting, and he was fascinated by the potential of microcomputers to automate accounting tasks in enterprise.

TRS-80 Color Computer (Radio Shack)

Since the late 1970's, I have systematically built a career around microcomputers and software. The above video and image provide a nostalgic glimpse into the times upon which that career is grounded...

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The R Imperative

Prof Courtney Brown makes a succinct case for learning the R programming language.



I concur with Prof Brown. The R programming language is real. Much more to follow...

Project R

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The Minerva Project: An "Elite" Online Education

Online education has been slowly building its reputation in the US over the past decade. Not surprisingly, a new online university program lead by the Minerva Project is now seeking to compete with top-tier institutions for the best students. Here is how the Minerva Project describes its initiative:

The Minerva Project is the first elite American University to be launched in a century. Minerva's philosophy transforms every aspect of the university-student relationship in anticipation of students' changing needs in an evolving world. Across a full life cycle of admission to instruction to post graduation support, The Minerva Project is rethinking the role of an elite institution of higher learning.

Follow the link below to learn more:

Minerva Project

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Marcellus Shale Region in the US

The Marcellus shale region in the US covers parts of Virginia, West Virginia, Maryland, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and New York as illustrated below.

Marcellus Shale Region [click to expand]

Those interested in learning more about Marcellus shale natural gas projects will want to visit the Marcellus Shale Coalition linked below.

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Subject Matter Experts Prefer Excel

Charley Kyd of ExcelUser writes that subject matter experts (SME's) prefer Excel (Microsoft) over third-party alternatives for the following reasons:

1. Excel allows SME's to begin with their own assumptions, and then build on them. Excel doesn’t force SME's to adapt to a system created by anonymous programmers on a tight schedule.
2. Excel offers the ability to create more sophisticated models than most third-party packages offer.
3. SME's typically help their careers more by learning Excel well than by occasionally using one of dozens of competing budgeting and analytical packages.
4. Small companies and divisions only can afford Excel. And that represents the majority of locations where budgeting happens.
5. Several excellent tools exist for enhancing Excel for budgeting and forecasting, rather than replacing it.
6. In this challenging economy, forecasts and budgets often should include data from beyond a company’s four walls. But most third-party tools rely on data controlled by the IT Department, which typically prohibits most third-party data.
7. Excel is more flexible than dedicated budgeting and forecasting software.

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For the record, this SME has no intention of abandoning Excel anytime soon, if ever...

Source: Kyd, C (2012, February 18), Will Your Company Replace Excel with a Dedicated Budgeting Program? ExcelUser.

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A Better Way of Learning

According to Prof David Friedman:

One problem with the usual approach to education at all levels is that it mostly consists of having someone learn something not because he at the moment has any need to know it but because someone else told him to learn it, possibly on the grounds that the knowledge or skill will be useful at some time in the future. It is much easier to get someone to actually learn something if it is of immediate use to him. The best way of learning a computer language, in my view, is not to start by working your way through the manual but to start with a program you want to write. You then have an immediate incentive to learn what you need to write it, and immediate feedback as to whether you have succeeded.

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Prof David Director Friedman (1945- )

My personal learning experiences align with Prof Friedman's views. Moreover, the latest generation of hand-held computing devices is now affecting how learners prefer to acquire knowledge. The emergence and popularity of "on demand" learning systems is a case in point. I sense that education as we know it is about to change in revolutionary rather than evolutionary ways. For the record, I also sense that the end of "industrial age" education regimes is near. We live in exciting times.

Source: Friedman, D (2012, March 1), A Better Way of Learning, Ideas.

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Universities to Become Coffee Shops

According to Stephen T Gordon of the Boston Globe, our nation's universities will soon become coffeeshops.

College is becoming untenably expensive in the United States. Having a college degree means that you are much more likely to find good employment — but tuition and other costs have far outpaced inflation for decades. As the debt required to get an education rises, students and their families face a question: What’s the advantage of a good job if the salary difference is lost to student debt?

Online universities are starting to change this equation. MIT, a pioneer in making course materials available online for free, announced in December that it will begin to offer a credential for completion of online courses through a new program called MITx. The program is intended to offer MIT’s teaching materials to a wide range of students. Though it will carry some costs for students, the university’s press office has stated, “The aim is to make credentialing highly affordable.”

Now, imagine a personnel manager at a mid-sized corporation who’s looking for an employee with some particular knowledge. There are two candidates: one with an appropriate college degree from the local state school, a second with relevant MITx certificates. Let’s say all other things between the candidates are equal. Which should the manager choose?

Given the caliber of professor [sic] at MIT, the online student may have learned just as much. The candidate who went to college probably enjoyed his experience more, but the potential employer is unlikely to care about that. Finally, there’s the financial reality: To some extent, the student debt of the job candidate dictates his salary requirements. If the MITx candidate has the knowledge required and far less student debt, he probably can be hired more cheaply. Ultimately, the cheaper option will win.

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Saint's Cafe, State College, Pennsylvania

Follow the link below to learn more about MIT's new online learning initiative.

MITx

Also, be sure to visit Saint's Cafe the next time you are in State College, Pennsylvania (home of "Penn State"). You might just see me there blogging away...

Saint's Cafe

Source: Gordon, S T (2012, February 12), In the Future, Everything Will Be a Coffee Shop, Boston Globe.

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What is a Savant?

savant [ˈsævənt (French) savɑ̃]
n
a man of great learning; sage

[from French, from savoir to know, from Latin sapere to be wise; see sapient]

Project SPORE by Richard "Dr" Baily (1953-2006)

Sources:

Center for Visual Music

The Free Dictionary

Image Savant

Data-Driven Documents

Introducing D3.js, a free JavaScript library created by Michael Bostock for manipulating documents based upon data:

D3 allows you to bind arbitrary data to a Document Object Model (DOM), and then apply data-driven transformations to the document. As a trivial example, you can use D3 to generate a basic HTML table from an array of numbers. Or, use the same data to create an interactive SVG bar chart with smooth transitions and interaction.... D3 is not a traditional visualization framework. Rather than provide a monolithic system with all the features anyone may ever need, D3 solves only the crux of the problem: efficient manipulation of documents based on data. This gives D3 extraordinary flexibility, exposing the full capabilities of underlying technologies such as CSS3, HTML5 and SVG. It avoids learning a new intermediate proprietary representation. With minimal overhead, D3 is extremely fast, supporting large datasets and dynamic behaviors for interaction and animation. And, for those common needs, D3’s functional style allows code reuse through a diverse collection of optional modules.

Follow the link below to see examples and download a copy of the software, as well as to learn more about Michael Bostock's other projects.

Learn More

Force-Directed Graph (created with J3.js)

Source: D3.js

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Using Mind Maps as a Teaching and Learning Tool

"Mind mapping" can be an excellent tool for creating learner engagement, according to Prof Genevieve Pinto Zipp of Faculty Focus (2011):

Creating an environment that engages students in the learning journey is not always easy. Sometimes as faculty members we ask ourselves, “Are we taking this learning journey by ourselves?” Several years ago as I began my scholarly exploration of the utility of mind mapping as a teaching and learning tool to foster critical thinking, my colleague and I instituted a mind mapping learning activity which has helped to promote student engagement in the classroom.

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I have been using mind mapping software, both in and out of the classroom, since the 1980's. I currently use MindManager (Mindjet) as my brainstorming platform of choice. See below an example of a personal mind map I use on a daily basis to keep record and track of my goals, tasks, and responsibilties. I view MindManager as the "missing application" in the Microsoft Office suite.

Example "Mind Map" [click image to expand]

Source: Zipp, G P (2011, September 6), Using Mind Maps as a Teaching and Learning Tool to Promote Student Engagement, Faculty Focus.

Imagining Mathematics

Read below the pedagogical proposition by Dr Sol Garfunkel and Prof David Mumford (2011) regarding pragmatic approaches for teaching and learning mathematics:

Imagine replacing the sequence of algebra, geometry and calculus with a sequence of finance, data and basic engineering. In the finance course, students would learn the exponential function, use formulas in spreadsheets and study the budgets of people, companies and governments. In the data course, students would gather their own data sets and learn how, in fields as diverse as sports and medicine, larger samples give better estimates of averages. In the basic engineering course, students would learn the workings of engines, sound waves, TV signals and computers. Science and math were originally discovered together, and they are best learned together now.

Mathematics is at once, symbolic, real, and conceptual for some -- I tend to agree. Dr Garfunkel is the executive director of the Consortium for Mathematics and its Applications (COMAP). Follow the link below to learn more about COMAP's activities.

COMAP

Source: Garfunkel, S & Mumford, D (2011, August 21), How to Fix Our Math Education, New York Times Online.

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