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Arguably, yes. As covered in Stephenson's Dodge. Students are fully anonymized, in meatspace as well as in data. So there's no possibility that anything except

Arguably, yes. As covered in Stephenson's Dodge. Students are fully anonymized, in meatspace as well as in data. So there's no possibility that anything except performance affects assessment.

ineedasername 7y ago
Stephenson managed to present both a Utopian and Dystopian view of the future at the same time... I'm not sure his work there is very instructive in this matter. But the thing is, factors other than quantifiable performance do impact assessment. As just one small example, from what I have seen in analyzing the data, the best performing students at some of the worst inner city schools tend not to be nearly as prepared for college as comparable students from better school districts. In short, there quantifiable performance, anonymous from further detail and context, would not accurately predict their academic performance. At the same time, these students typically have overcome many more obstacles to get to where they are, and while they do not always get the same grades, their determination often sees them through to the end where their counterparts may not. Context matters, and the more context you get, the less anonymous things become. That's the problem with either extremist view of total open "privacy is dead" views or total privacy maximism. They seek to avoid the hard work of dealing with the ambiguity in favor of black/white views. Because it is hard work. It involves messy questions. Do we save students hundreds of thousands of dollars and years of their lives by tracking details of course interactions and systems usages? A noble goal, put that way it's hard to say no. But what if the student doesn't want it? Do we give up on it completely? What if we can balance it somehow with informed consent, is that sufficient? If not, is there something we can do that doesn't sacrifice things that are beneficial for students but also allows each person to fully control their data footprint? If we go ahead with any of this, what further monitoring might we then justify? Is it a slippery slope or do we have checks & balances in place to make sure data capture & usage doesn't leap ahead of carefully considered policy & consequences? None of the above are easy. You can ignore them all if you choose a black or white view of things. But either way you give up quite a bit, and whether you choose black or whether you choose white, society will still exist in unending shades of gray.
- mirimir 7y ago
  That's true about the novel [Fall, not Dodge]. But not, I think, about the idea of students being anonymous. I mean, it's not that Sophia remained entirely anonymous. But she did retain full control over who had access to what. She was anonymous in applying for an internship. But as a grad student, she got lots of expert coaching.

Arguably, yes. As covered in Stephenson's Dodge. Students are fully anonymized, in meatspace as well as in data. So there's no possibility that anything except performance affects assessment.

ineedasername 7y ago

Stephenson managed to present both a Utopian and Dystopian view of the future at the same time... I'm not sure his work there is very instructive in this matter. But the thing is, factors other than quantifiable performance do impact assessment. As just one small example, from what I have seen in analyzing the data, the best performing students at some of the worst inner city schools tend not to be nearly as prepared for college as comparable students from better school districts. In short, there quantifiable performance, anonymous from further detail and context, would not accurately predict their academic performance. At the same time, these students typically have overcome many more obstacles to get to where they are, and while they do not always get the same grades, their determination often sees them through to the end where their counterparts may not. Context matters, and the more context you get, the less anonymous things become. That's the problem with either extremist view of total open "privacy is dead" views or total privacy maximism. They seek to avoid the hard work of dealing with the ambiguity in favor of black/white views. Because it is hard work. It involves messy questions. Do we save students hundreds of thousands of dollars and years of their lives by tracking details of course interactions and systems usages? A noble goal, put that way it's hard to say no. But what if the student doesn't want it? Do we give up on it completely? What if we can balance it somehow with informed consent, is that sufficient? If not, is there something we can do that doesn't sacrifice things that are beneficial for students but also allows each person to fully control their data footprint? If we go ahead with any of this, what further monitoring might we then justify? Is it a slippery slope or do we have checks & balances in place to make sure data capture & usage doesn't leap ahead of carefully considered policy & consequences? None of the above are easy. You can ignore them all if you choose a black or white view of things. But either way you give up quite a bit, and whether you choose black or whether you choose white, society will still exist in unending shades of gray.

mirimir 7y ago
That's true about the novel [Fall, not Dodge]. But not, I think, about the idea of students being anonymous. I mean, it's not that Sophia remained entirely anonymous. But she did retain full control over who had access to what. She was anonymous in applying for an internship. But as a grad student, she got lots of expert coaching.