Note: This post is in response to Week 10 Module 8 Blog 1
In living our lives in an
online world, we leave behind a trail of data which cannot be ignored. Every
time we make a purchase with a credit card, sign up to a newsletter, claim that
free coffee, we hand over information about ourselves, our circumstances and
our buying habits. In accessing educational technology we do the same -
statistics are gathered on location, usage frequency and time, and the types of
applications we use. Searches are saved and used to suggest future searches and
target advertising. Web pages detect when your mouse pointer heads up to the
URL or "x" to close and throw a pop up at you to try and keep you on
the page a little longer.
As teachers we must be aware of
safety and privacy issues around technology use and we need to teach students the
value of the own data and privacy and the balance between convenience and the
value of data being connected which can lead to advancement which benefit us,
and the privacy which we lose as a result (Horvitz
& Mulligan, 2015). The sheer volume and variety of
information is mind-boggling (Wang,
2016) and exponential in nature. This leads me
to a teaching opportunity:
Big Data is Big Maths
The mathematics classroom provides endless opportunities to
explore the nature of the internet and “Big data” – it can be used in teaching
statistics, exponential numbers, linear and non-linear relationships and a
variety of other topics whilst at the same time weaving information about safety,
privacy and the potential use and misuse of information. It has the potential
to link complex mathematics directly with the world around students and showcase the real-life applications.
References
Horvitz, E., & Mulligan, D. (2015). Data, privacy, and the
greater good. Science, 349(6245),
253-255. doi:10.1126/science.aac4520
Wang, Y. (2016). Big opportunities and big concerns of big data in
education. TechTrends, 60(4),
381-384. doi:10.1007/s11528-016-0072-1
Michelle,
ReplyDeleteGreat blog and very timely given what the whistleblowers are telling us about Government scanning and storing of meta-data. We do leave a digital trail behind us, especially with our finances, phones and internet use. We have to be very careful that the private organisations that store that data today appear benign and reassuring, but that is no guarantee when the ownership of these organisations changes. Would we be so comfortable if a North Korean company owned Facebook for example? What happens then? Do we trust our Government to protect us? The first point of protection must always be ourselves.
Hi Dominic, I tend to agree with you there, although it is becoming increasingly difficult to function in today's society without leaving some sort of digital trail. I think it is critically important to teach students both the scale and impact of the data left behind. That hilarious photo when you're 16 might not be so hilarious when you're job hunting at 22. I sometimes feel quite grateful I grew up before social media!
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