Analytics in Learning and Education

After having read the article Analytic in Learning and Education by Phil Long and George Siemens, I can consume that analytics is one of the most important parts of developments in the educational field. Analytics has always been granted in science, and nowadays with all the technological opportunities is can be used for deeper understanding of human learning process, as well as certain and useful developments in education. As stated in the article the ides is simple and potentially transformative: analytics provides a new model for college and university leaders to improve teaching, learning,
organizational efficiency, and decision making and, as a consequence, serve as a foundation for systemic change. But using analytics requires that we think carefully about what we need to know and what data is most likely to tell us what we need to know. Continued growth in the amount of data creates an environment in which new or novel approaches are required to understand the patterns of value that exist within the data. P.W. Anderson stated that “more is different,” emphasizing that
new models of and approaches to data interaction are desperately needed when we are confronted with abundance.
Or, as stated by David Gelernter: “If you have three pet dogs, give them names. If you have 10,000 head of cattle, don’t bother.” Quantity changes the methods and approaches that we use to interact with and make sense of data.

Google’s Marissa Mayer suggests that data is today defined by three elements:
1. Speed—The increasing availability of data in real time, making it possible to process and act on it
instantaneously
2. Scale—Increase in computing power: Moore’s law (stating that the number of transistors on a circuit board will double roughly every two years) continues to hold true.

3. Sensors—New types of data: “Social data is set to be surpassed in the data economy, though, by data published by physical, real-world objects like sensors, smart grids and connected devices”—that is, the “Internet of Things.”

Analytics in learning leads to the understanding of new techniques to be developed and integrated into education to achieve better results for student learning. And by development of the educational fields we will reach to the points of lifelong learning and wave of innovations which will make a better world for all of us.

However, i still need to read the article more attentively and watch more videos on the topic to be able to give a more profound feedback and share my own profound opinion.