My View on Predictive Modeling and Machine Learning

My View on Predictive Modeling and Machine Learning

 

            When it comes to Predictive modeling data and Machine learning, there are numerous techniques that could be useful. The education system, businesses and companies have a type of system to some degree. Every work area must interpret the data to view their processes. Therefore, what is Predictive Modeling? In the educational field, it is a form of data. According to (Porter & Balu,2016) “Predictive modeling is an estimate individuals’ future outcomes or even their probabilities of future outcome. The outcome is done by building and test model using data on similar individuals whose outcome is already known. Commonly used in business and marketing research is gaining currency in many social policy domains as a way to identify individuals who may benefit from targeted intervention”. Predictive modeling, in the education system, as well as reading and interpreting data correctly, will provide help to the individual so they can improve and find the best outcome for the students. When it comes to businesses and companies, the use of data is to figure the outcome that will be best for their growth. At some point, these three-work fields have use predictive modeling to build up to where the individual, business, and company need to be.

 

 

Predictive Modeling in Education 

 The purpose of the educational field using predictive modeling is to help students that are at risk and not meeting the academic standards. Predictive Modeling helps and guides educators to see what steps they need to take into action to get a good outcome for the students. The article that I read called, “Predictive Modeling of K-12 Academic Outcomes A Prime for Researcher Working with Education Data”, mentioned that the school uses the 

“ABC indicators for attendance, behavior, and course performance. An example that the article use was students who are at risk to not graduating high school” (Porter & Balu,2016). The education system uses data that can includes homework, test score, daily attendance, etc. The data is then categorized and is updating as the inputs are being entered. This is done by the use machine learning.

 

 

Machine learning in Education

Machine learning is a computer program that uses codes and determine or make a prediction of an outcome. Machine learning uses procedures to solve problems. When data is collected the machine learning is detecting data, labeling data, and clustering data. When the educator’s view data results and academic milestones are not reached, figuring out a solution is the next step. This is done by gathering data results, getting prepared, and start assisting the students who needs the help. An example of machine learning is the STARR testing in Texas. Students are tested and are measured on how well they learned the material for that school year in order to pass to the next grade level. The machine learning collects number data of who is high, average, low or at risk. Another example of machine learning is behavior and attendance. Did the student go all year long? Did the student miss half of the year? That also plays a key role on students learning. With machine learning, it can be predicted if the student is at risk by the data that is being input daily. Machine learning is utilized in many ways and is being operated in any field. The world is filled with data and is not going anywhere anytime soon. Data and technology are going to evolve even more. I would love to learn more about machine learning because there are many types software that are being use today and different types of programs that can be useful in any work field profession. A reference is provided below about Machine Learning in Educational Technology. 

 

 

References

 

Porter, K. & Balu, R., (2016) PREDICTIVE MODELING OF K-12 ACADEMIC OUTCOMES: A Primer for Researchers Working with Education Data. 

Nafea, Ibtehal Talal. “Machine Learning in Educational Technology.” IntechOpen, IntechOpen, 19 Sept. 2018, www.intechopen.com/books/machine-learning-advanced-techniques-and-emerging-applications/machine-learning-in-educational-technology. 

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Understanding Data

Data system, data privacy, data security is some words we must learn and understand. So, we ask our self what data is and how it is useful to us. Not many people know how to use data or do not even know what data is. Is data really important and if it is how is it important is it? Living in the 21 century of technology, we can say that it is not going to go away anytime soon. If anything, technology is only going to evolve. 

After reading the articles on why data is important, I came to the conclusion that data is very crucial for an individual to use and understand. Data is like another language with different words that make up what it is. As I was reading the articles about data, I found three terms that stood out to me which were data systems, data privacy and data security. At first glance, I thought that two of the term were the same, but the terms are different. Data systems collect and store large amount of data. “Data privacy is the confidentiality right of the individuals” (SREB). Data security “protects the system from unauthorized users” (SREB). Data is everywhere and it is used by almost everyone. If you know to interpret it, you can most definitely use it.. Data is known facts and data can be used to answer questions. Data can be used to analyze, create structure, order and trying to get meaning out it. 

Who can use data? Can educator’s data can be collected by interviewing, a case study, observations, and questionnaires to improve student achievement? When reading data from different sources, for example, official government reports previous research, we need to make sure we know how to read data so we can find the best solution for the problem we face. Businesses and companies can use data in a form of three categories, descriptive, predictive and prescriptive. Descriptive is similar to tracking the product. Predictive is similar to how much a product would sell and prescriptive is what is the best way to sell the product.  I use this example because of my background in working in a salon. I was in charge with the inventory of all the beauty products and it was my duty to find out what products would sell and ones that would not. I also had to figure out how I can make them sell in the best possible way.

As for me, figuring out what data it and how to use it is properly is very important to my future work field. It will be very beneficial because I can do many things with data. I still need to learn more about data such as how to use it in a more advance way and why I need to use it. If I can gain full knowledge on how to read data and how to use and interpret it correctly and efficiently, I can, one day, help others with data problems that I have had in the past.

References:

 Southern Regional Education Board (2018) 10 Issues In Educational Technology. https://www.sreb.org/10issues

Data Definitions Southern Regional Education Board (2018) 10 Issues In Educational Technology. https://www.sreb.org/10issues

El Education https://eleducation.org/resources/using-data-useful-data

Shutter Stock. https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/important-information-locked-chain-padlock-computer-746984344 

 

 

 

An Analysis of Technology Through My Eyes

An Analysis of Technology Through My Eyes

By: Edith Trevino

 

Oh boy, we all know that 2020 has been a very rough year for everyone and when I say everyone, I mean everyone! Every person from the adults, to the teens, to even the kids! This pandemic has brought us so many changes and challenges, and to be honest, I don’t think it is going to go back to normal anytime soon. So, we as mankind, have to adapt, accept, change our lifestyles because of this pandemic. Here is three points I would like to talk about in my blog.

               This photo by Unknown Author is Licensed under CC BY-NC 

1.     I recently read an article entitled, “10 issues in Educational Technology”, by the Southern Regional Education Board.  According to the article by the SREB, it says:

“The explosion in mobile technology and social networking has paralleled a rapid growth in educational technology applications and technology-mediated instruction. In 2017, the Gartner Hype Cycle for Education tracked over fifty emergent education-related technologies in various stages of development and implementation. These technologies represented various applications, promising practices and enhanced methods which attempt to meet evolving expectations for information and learning systems and for engaging students more deeply in their learning (SREB2018). Emerging technologies in school with strategic decision making, foster faculty with professional development in technology to maximize their benefit to students” (SREB2018).

 

·      Wow. You see, this was back in 2017 and 2018. Now we are in the year 2021 and technology is only going to evolve even more and like I said in the beginning we, as mankind, have to adapt and change. Technology is going to be in our everyday lives from now on and we need to get on board with the educators to help our children learn and be familiar with technology. Every school needs to have communication and collaborations with the teachers and administrators and even the parents as our technology advances and evolves. As it is, I believe it was very difficult change on everyone when the switch was made from a traditional, in-classroom setting to online video chats and homework. This was challenging because educators had no choice but to re-plan most of their lesson plans to fit with the online setting and this took much time off their hands. It requires training, support, and coordination from technology experts. As a former educator, I personally know how much planning it takes to make a lesson plan. I know that an educator only wants the best learning environment and experience for every one of their students.

This photo by unknown Author is licensed under CC BY 

2.My other point that I found interesting to me and maybe possibly could be to you. In the same article that read it says:

 

This Photo by Unknown Author is licensed under CC BY-SA-NC

·    “Technology security is a global issue for education, government, military, business and private individuals. Today all technology systems, from learning management systems to institutional networks, access points, wi-fi networks, enterprise resource planning, and student information systems, need technology security extending from the user level to the network, institution and beyond, including vendor partners. More schools and institutions now use third-party vendor networks, cloud-based services, and online educational tools than ever before, which makes them vulnerable to external access. If they have multiple devices and sensors (known as the Internet of Tings or IOT) connected to their network, they create additional risk of unauthorized network access. More than 72 percent of IOT devices are hackable and expose risks for unauthorized access to larger systems” (SREB2018).

·      I really hope this caught your attention. We have very intelligent people living in this world. As technology is getting more advance, so are hackers. Some of the issues that the education system is going to have or is already experiencing is hacking problems. I have personally seen it with my eyes. So, let’s go back a couple of months ago. When my kids went back to school, it was a full remote learning experience, so everything was done online. I am not kidding you, there would be times a random so called “student” would hack into the class. These people would show up and begin to say vulgar words and text in the chat saying threats such as, “I’m going to hack this teacher’s computer” and many more. The thing is those students were not even in the teacher’s rosters. You had to have special code to enter any class. This went on for a couples of weeks until finally the administration fixed the issue. With that being said you can probably agree that the school system needs to have a better security system for technology moving forward. 

3.My last point is that schools may have issues with digital literacy among the students and staff. As I was reading the article by the South Regional Education Board, 2018, it said: 

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·      “A 2016 Stanford University study of nearly 8,000 secondary school and college students in 12 states makes clear that these skills are unlikely to develop on their own. It shows that most students cannot distinguish between an advertisement and a news article or determine the source of the information. Eighty percent of middle graders thought an ad marked as “sponsored content” was a legitimate news article. High school students couldn’t discern between fake news accounts and actual news sources on social media. College students were not able to evaluate the credibility of a website or wade through contradictory results of a Google search to find reliable and accurate information” (SREB2018). 

·      With Technology moving exponentially fast, we need to teach the students and staff about digital literacy. Digital Literacy pertains to reading, writing, and math in the modern world. Digital literacy is going to be the new thing for students, and it is important that schools need to embed this at a young age so the students can be familiar as they mature and develop the necessary skills to reach their goals. Technology is moving so fast that digital literacy has to be part of student’s school experiences, so they won’t have any trouble as they go into this new world.  

·      Another research by the SREB shows that: 

·      “A lack of digital literacy skills contributes to a “digital divide”. People with lower incomes, the elderly, the less-educated, the unemployed, and people with disabilities have less access to digital communications — and therefore less opportunity to build skills related to the technology. Many of these people are already marginalized; their digital illiteracy only adds to their isolation because they are unable to access support networks, government services, political processes, or economic opportunities” (SREB2018). 

This is why I say and agree that educator’s needs to teach the fundamental skills that students need from a young age all the way to college to be fully aware and focus on learning technology so they can be successful in this digital world that we are on. In addition to my readings, I would still want to learn more about technology on how it will be use and on how to incorporate technology in general. Here are some of the links that I found a that could be useful, which I like because it has categories broken down into sections from most popular articles to recent articles.  

 

 

 

References:

Southern Regional Education Board (2018) 10 Issues In Educational Technology. https://www.sreb.org/10issues

 

The Conversation Articles On Technology In Education 

 

2021https://theconversation.com/us/topics/technology-in-education-9121  

Becton Loveless. Education Corner, Technology In Education The Complete Guide,2021 

https://www.educationcorner.com/education-technologies.html

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