Why Big Data Isn’t So Bad

Privacy Issues Aside, Gathering Information Can Help Improve Health, Learning, and Living

Big data gets a bad rap.

While stories show up practically every day about the novel and sometimes surprising ways Internet companies can use the massive amounts of data they collect from us (recently, for instance, Belgium criticized the way Facebook shares users’ likes with its advertisers), the ability to collect and analyze large amounts of social science data has the capacity to do much social good.

I know this because I’m an economist who has been working with extremely large datasets from a time before we even called this “big …

by Phillip Leslie | June 4, 2015

The Future Is Calling and Universities Better Figure Out How to Answer

Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom and ASU President Michael Crow Discuss the Merits of Online Classes, Hands-On Learning, and Access for Anyone Who Wants a College Degree

by Alexis Hauk | May 19, 2015

What if you could learn to sing like Maria Callas, theorize like Stephen Hawking, and, at the same time, become fluent in Russian and French? What if you could accomplish …

How U.S. Colleges Can Make the Grade

Professors, Administrators, and Education Innovators Describe What an Ideal American University Would Look Like

May 16, 2015

Higher education in America could be headed for rock bottom. Tuition has continued to rise at a steady pace, and years of deep cuts in state funding have forced colleges …

Even for the Tech Generation, Online Testing Is a Closed Circuit

When It Comes to Learning Measurements, This High Schooler Wants to Stick With Good Old-Fashioned Pencil and Paper

by Rebecca Castillo | May 12, 2015

Remember the days when computers were a passing fad and information was derived from dusty encyclopedias after hours of searching? Me neither. I was born in 1998. By the time …

Goodbye, Chalkboard. Hello, Chat Room.

Free Online Courses, Crowdsourcing, and Big Data Are Transforming the University from a Gatekeeper to a Public Resource

March 16, 2015

In 2001, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology announced it was going to put the university’s entire body of course materials online, for free. That meant syllabuses, as well as problem …

Do You Know Where Your Big Data Is?

Corporations are Constantly Gathering—and Selling—Your Personal Information, Says Adam Tanner. But You Don’t Have to Roll Over and Give it to Them.

by Sarah Rothbard | September 26, 2014

The infamous East German secret police—the Stasi—have nothing on 21st century corporations when it comes to extracting personal information from individuals. Adam Tanner, author of What Stays in Vegas: The …

internet