Hyde
Park, The Serpentine Lake, London, UK
Photo
by Jonathan Acuña
What’s Needed
to be a Data Scientist?
In language
learning and education
By Prof. Jonathan Acuña-Solano, M. Ed.
School of English
Faculty of Social Sciences
Universidad Latina de Costa Rica
Sunday, July 21, 2019
Post 330 / DS Log 3
After putting together all pieces of
information in the infographic I created to see what’s needed to be a data scientist,
lots of thoughts came into my mind as to how this relates to me as a language
instructor and educator. What’s really behind all this new knowledge linked to
Data Science (DS) and Big Data (BD)? Let me explore some of my ideas regarding
DS and BG and their connection with education.
With a bit of curiosity, all teachers
can become data scientists of their own data. Each of our courses is a unique situation
that will generate data that must be comprehended to cater for student learning
and coaching needs. Teachers have the capacity to analyze, provide solutions to
class situations, and spot ways to interpret the data, e.g., exam results,
platform grades and performance, etc. Basic statistical analysis is needed to
go into mining data for analysis and interpretation, and in the end, we can
provide better teaching and coaching to learners. Educators need to become data
miners and explorers to provide students with ways to develop skills and
competencies.
Mining our own data also reflects our
ability to tell the story behind what is being analyzed and understood. In a
school situation, where lots of data pertaining grades (and other pieces of
information) is stored in a data base, a teacher or school administrator can
analyze, interpret, and tell the story that data tell him/her. Finding ways to
present discoveries among the analyzed data is something that with a bit of
exercise any educator can do. The identification of new revelations in data can
be a happy, joyful moment since it can be the identification of a path to follow
to help students in their learning process.
Dr. Murtaza Haider (2018) stated that
a great sense of humor is needed by anyone working as a data scientist, and I
bet it is the same principle for any educator. The teacher can laugh at him/herself
because of the “crazy ideas” that can arise from the interpretation of data in
the school data base. Seriousness in data mining, interpretation, and analysis is
not always good because humor can be a great part of team building that can
erase worries from the face of educators. The teacher has to be good at laughing
at his/her “odd” ideas that can help comprehend what is happening in a class,
course, or school year.
There are more traits a teacher data
scientist needs to embody. What was introduced here was a good account of
characteristics needed by a miner in data science. It is our task to see how
they become relevant to our teaching profession and how we can use these data
to help the learners, the institution, and the educators with ways to correct
paths and provide guidance towards success.
References
Haider, M. (2018). Specific Skills to Hire a Data
Scientist. [Video File]. Retrieved from Laureate Edcuation, Inc. at https://dtl.laureate.net/webapps/blackboard/content/listContent.jsp?course_id=_165016_1&content_id=_801204_1&mode=reset
Sunday, July 21, 2019
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