Links to External Articles and Interviews

Last week I was off the grid (not just lack of Internet but also lack of electricity), but thanks to publishing cycles I managed to stay artificially productive: two blog posts and one interview for an article.

• Post at 20MM on Textbook Preference Report: It’s Difficult to Prefer What You Can’t Access

Last week brought news of a new study on textbooks for college students, this time from a research arm of the  National Association of College Stores. The report, “Student Watch: Attitudes and Behaviors toward Course Materials, Fall 2013″, seems to throw some cold water on the idea of digital textbooks based on the press release summary [snip]

While there is some useful information in this survey, I fear that the press release is missing some important context. Namely, how can students prefer something that is not really available?

• Post at EvoLLLution on Big Data Hype: The Day the Big Data Hype Died

March 28, 2014 may well go down as the turning point where Big Data lost its placement as a silver bullet and came down to earth in a more productive manner. Triggered by a March 14 article in Science Magazine that identified “big data hubris” as one of the sources of the well-known failures of Google Flu Trends,[1] there were five significant articles in one day on the disillusionment with Big Data. [snip]

Does this mean Big Data is over and that education will move past this over-hyped concept? Perhaps Mike Caulfield from the Hapgood Blog stated it best, including adding the education perspective . . .

• Interview as Part of Buzzfeed Article: Why Education Startups Rarely Go Public

This is the fun one for me, as I finally have my youngest daughter’s interest (you made Buzzfeed!). Buzzfeed has added a new education beat focusing on the business of education.

The public debut last week of education technology company 2U, which partners with nonprofit and public universities to offer online degree programs, may have looked like a harbinger of IPO riches to come for companies that, like 2U, promise to disrupt the traditional education industry. At least that’s what the investors and founders of these companies want to believe. [snip]

“We live in a post-Facebook area where startups have this idea that they can design a good product and then just grow, grow, grow,” said Phil Hill, an education technology consultant and analyst. “That’s not how it actually works in education.”