{"id":5920,"date":"2013-05-10T08:05:59","date_gmt":"2013-05-10T12:05:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/shermandorn.com\/wordpress\/?p=5920"},"modified":"2013-05-09T08:19:31","modified_gmt":"2013-05-09T12:19:31","slug":"shermans-style-note-an-algorithm-is-not-personal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/shermandorn.com\/?p=5920","title":{"rendered":"Sherman&#8217;s style note: An algorithm is not personal"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Style note to education beat reporters: an algorithm is not &#8220;personalization&#8221; of education, no matter how many people make the claim. As computerized algorithms currently exist, here are the things that an algorithm\u00a0<em>cannot<\/em> identify in an educational context:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"line-height: 13px;\">An algorithm does not know when to pull a student aside at a quiet moment to ask about her mother. When a teacher knows and reaches out, that&#8217;s personalization.<\/span><\/li>\n<li>An algorithm does not know when a joke will disarm a tense moment for a particular class. When a teacher knows\u00a0and launches the joke, that&#8217;s personalization.<\/li>\n<li>An algorithm does not know how long to wait before the student in the second row will not be able to remain silent for one minute longer and just has to speak up. When a teacher knows and waits, that&#8217;s personalization.<\/li>\n<li>An algorithm does not know when the uncomfortable student leaning out of his chair needs to go use the bathroom. When a teacher knows and gives permission, that&#8217;s personalization.<\/li>\n<li>An algorithm does not know who needs to be persuaded against starting a fight at lunch. When a teacher knows and talks the student down, that&#8217;s personalization.<\/li>\n<li>An algorithm does not know when the blank look means &#8220;you lost me a while ago and I hope my friend understood what you just said,&#8221; and when it means &#8220;I&#8217;m not buying what you&#8217;re selling today.&#8221; When a teacher knows and responds to that student, that&#8217;s personalization.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>This is not a slam against all algorithms &#8212; they have their uses. But the claim that an algorithm can personalize education? Not currently possible.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Style note to education beat reporters: an algorithm is not &#8220;personalization&#8221; of education, no matter how many people make the claim. As computerized algorithms currently exist, here are the things that an algorithm\u00a0cannot identify in an educational context: An algorithm does not know when to pull a student aside at a quiet moment to ask [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[11,6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5920","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-education-policy","category-teaching"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pag0MB-1xu","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/shermandorn.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5920","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/shermandorn.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/shermandorn.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shermandorn.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shermandorn.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5920"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/shermandorn.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5920\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5922,"href":"https:\/\/shermandorn.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5920\/revisions\/5922"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/shermandorn.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5920"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shermandorn.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5920"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shermandorn.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5920"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}