By Benjamin Herold January 11, 2016
1. SUMMARY
The paper discusses the case of AltSchool as an example of using extreme data gathering techniques to create “never-ending feedback loop of insights, experiments, recommendations , and product tweaks” resulting in potentially interesting education solutions (applications). Privacy and unethical practice are the concern. However, big-data analytics are becoming an inevitable trend in ed-tech. Efficient harvesting and use of the data is another concern due to barriers other than digital technologies.
2. STRENGTHS
The paper is very easy to read and understand.
3. WEAKNESSES
The paper is more like a regular news article than a research paper. It lacks the academic rigor of a research paper reflected by the lacks of referenced works and novel finding. A company’s approach plus several examples cannot be concluded as the indicators for the future of a domain. It did not take into account of emerging technologies such as MagicLeap with mixed-reality and eye-tracking technologies.
