Data Collection in the 21st Century - Crowd Sourcing

Max Little and science practice

So far I have talked about doing science instead of consuming facts. I advocate doing it in as many ways possible, and as often as possible. I do not however want to create a disconnect where, since this is my life, it is obvious how to connect yourself, your children, or your students, to doing scinece in many different ways. Today, a parctical, and I hope you will agree useful, example of how this is being done.

Max Little is a world-class Mathematician who has researched how to better detect Parkinson's disease. Instead of a costly test for the disease that requires access to a clinic, he has helped in the development of a system that uses a three minute phone call! In short (very short) the system detects the voice patterns of the caller and compares those patterns to healthy patients and to those who have Parkinson's disease. Since the disease affects muscles, and the vocal chords are indeed muscles, the vocal patterns of the caller are potential indicators of the disease. This method has been refined to be 99% accurate. If you want to know more about it, here is a link to his TED Talk which is appoximately 6 min in length.

The comparison that is done requires a database of both healthy and unhealthy vocal records. Simply put, this is data collection for the purposes of data analysis. Max has begun the "Parkinson's Voice Initiative", an effort to have people from all over the world call in and spend 3 min of their time, adding to the data that is needed to make these comparisons and contribute to this solution. This is science, mathematics and technology (STEM anyone??) at its finest. The result of the overall effort will be earlier detection because this is an inexpensive, easily accessible way to test for Parkinson's.

This is an effort, like many that are occuring today, that leverages the internet and social media to collect data and solve problems using the "crowd", that is, anyone who would like to contribute to the solution. These opportunities abound on the web - and I would love to hear of any and all that you may have taken advantage of! This is one, great way, of taking a nugget of the scientific process, and practicing science - with a side benefit of helping others. What could be better!?

The Most Important Loop in Learning

A simple graphic represting a "feedback loop"

in "What can I do for my students that would have the greatest impact on their learning?" This question is simple and results-oriented, and I think that we all want to know the answer, since we all are teachers in some capacity!

All that being said, these words from Helen Keller about the teaching that she experienced speaks volumes without empirical data: 

"It was my teacher’s genius, her quick sympathy, her loving tact which made the first years of my education so beautiful. It was because she seized the right moment to impart knowledge that made it so pleasant and acceptable to me." 

On a different note, I will credit Steve LoCascio, who was my "co-operating teacher" as I was learning, with demonstrating that the properly-timed application of the right information and motivation profoundly affected students as individuals and groups. 

In both cases, the power of high quality feedback was highlighted. Feedback is something that we seek as naturally curious creatures: we want to know if our actions have created the result that we imagined. In the learning process, the repeating path of action, feedback, adjustment, and trying again is a loose description of a "feedback loop".

So how important is feedback, really? Imagine trying to learn something without feedback for a moment. It's a bit like trying to park a car in utter darkness! Deprived of direction based upon our performance of a task, we may conitnue to grow in any direction with regard to that task, including a negative one! 

Now we come to a point in connecting this idea to lab work for students: if this strategy is to be effective, feedback and multiple feedback loops must be part of any well-designed lab experience. While this may sound "good", or "obvious", as pointed out in previous posts, it is not the norm. Lab exercises unfortunately are "one-and-done" and rarely revisited. Another important point arises from this: in STEM education, design is emphasized, which in itself is a process involving (you guessed it) feedback loops! Only one conslusion is possible from these facts: common science labwork is inherently incompatible with what we intuitively understand about STEM and design!

Yes, during my in-service, it came to light that feedback trumped all other teacher actions in improving student achievement, including having students do homework. Simple homework, or practice, without feedback, should be rethought and then discarded. Feedback might come in many forms, and does not mean that every stroke of the student's pencil, or keyboard, must be viewed, analyzed and reported back. It does mean that meaningful feedback is necessary to keep the practice from being a waste. 

I am extremely interested in your thoughts on this topic. I believe this should be the cornerstone idea behind any learning environment, from a "brick and mortor" classroom to an online learning system. So yes good reader, I now ask you for what we all need to learn *grins* feedback!

I promise that I will return to the Curiosity mission in my next post. Until then, I can recall sitting in a teacher "in-service" many years ago. Let's say 15 years ago +/- 5 years. The presentation was interesting, and had to deal with research on what teacher activities improved student learning. These activities included lecturing, one-to-one practice, tutoring, cooperative learning and several other teaching techniques and behaviors. Perhaps I am too competitive, but I was interested