AERA-NSF Workshop: Data Sharing and Research Transparency (Part I)

It was an honor to be invited to attend the AERA-NSF Workshop on Data Sharing and Research Transparency at the Article Publishing Stage in Washington, D.C. during July 25‐27, 2017. I am attending as an early career scholar from the International Society of the Learning Sciences — my academic home. It’s only a half-day into the workshop but I’m already amazed by so many great thoughts from a full room of journal editors, program officers from funding agencies, and early career peers.

Changing Value and Valuation in Education

In his arguments against the Common Core, Prof. Yong Zhao, a known educational thinker, referred to his home village: When I was growing up, the most valued talent was the ability to handle water buffalos used to plow the rice field, other than physical strengths to carry things such as newly harvested rice or sweet potatoes. I don’t know for sure how good a water buffalo handler she [Lady Gaga] could be, but I am quite sure she will not be able to run on bumpy muddy paths with 200 pounds of sweet potatoes dangling on each end of a bamboo pole.

Graphing the Reddit Place Sensation with Neo4j

I’ver never liked the April Fool’s Day, until this year when Reddit decided to launch a social experiment called Reddit Place. The idea is simple. The whole world – or all Reddit users – were given a 999 x 999 blank canvas to draw on. Some simple rules apply: Each user could choose one pixel from 16 colors to place anywhere on the canvas. They could place as many pixels of as many colors as they wanted, but they had to wait a few minutes between placing each one.

A biased introduction to Learning Analytics: Kicking-off #UMNLACoP

Today, we kicked off our Learning Analytics Community of Practice at UMN (#UMNLACoP)! Launching this CoP has been a joint effort among the Center for Educational Innovation, the College of Liberal Arts, the Libraries, and the College of Education and Human Development. During today’s kick-off event, I spent 15 minutes presenting a quick introduction to the field of Learning Analytics. Below is an audio recording of my presentation. The next event will be hosted on April 10, 2:30-4:00pm, in Anderson 110.