Data tracking for schools

Data tracking for schools

A group of seventh- and eighth-grade girls sat around a lunch table discussing a new game-like app they use in school. Danna Rodriguez somewhat sullenly said she didn’t want to care about Strides, which tracks points students can earn for attendance, grade-point average and engagement with the app itself, among other things. But she can’t…

Former Facebook Executive Says Social Media Is Ripping Apart Society

Former Facebook Executive Says Social Media Is Ripping Apart Society

Another former Facebook executive has spoken out about the harm the social network is doing to civil society around the world. Chamath Palihapitiya, who joined Facebook in 2007 and became its vice president for user growth, said he feels “tremendous guilt” about the company he helped make. “I think we have created tools that are…

“When a measure becomes a target, it ceases to be a good measure.”

“When a measure becomes a target, it ceases to be a good measure.”

The law is implicit in the economic idea of rational expectations. While it originated in the context of market responses, the law has profound implications for the selection of high-level targets in organizations.[4] Jón Danı́elsson quotes the law as “Any statistical relationship will break down when used for policy purposes”, and suggests a corollary to…

Using machine learning to write better

Using machine learning to write better

Using the Quill tool, students complete a variety of exercises, including joining sentences, writing complex sentences, and explaining their use and understanding of grammar. The tool relies on a huge depository of sentence fragments, which Quill finds, recognizes and compiles using TensorFlow, Google’s open source machine learning library. TensorFlow technology is the backbone of the tool…

Being analytical and motivated are required to think critically

Being analytical and motivated are required to think critically

In a world where accusations of “fake news” are thrown around essentially at random, critical thinking would seem to be a must. But this is also a world where the Moon landings are viewed as a conspiracy and people voice serious doubts about the Earth’s roundness. Critical thinking appears to be in short supply at…