Are we using data effectively to address inequity in our communities? Do we really know what is going on? Are we able to make confident projections? I think not. This is from a piece I wrote back in 2008 [on a website that is no longer available] and yet I feel the same question is as relevant today as it…
Posts By Me
Real-Time Geiger Counter feeds: This map uses crowd-sourced radiation geiger counter readings from across Japan. http://japan.failedrobot.com/ There are now hundreds of radiation-related feeds from Japan on Pachube, monitoring conditions in realtime and underpinning more than half a dozen incredibly valuable applications built by people around the world. They combine 'official' data, 'unofficial' official data, and, most importantly to us, realtime…
Confessions of a "non-facebooker".. or.. why the cost of admission is too steep! If you're not paying for something, you're not the customer; you're the product being sold. - Andrew Lewis My colleague stood genuinely "stunned" for a few seconds while they tried to process the fact I was not on Facebook, had never used Facebook and clearly had no…
Sometimes, the big picture gets lost in the day to day. Watch the video below http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y4MnpzG5Sqc KONY 2012 Thanks to @stephenfry and many others for raising awareness. To follow up, follow this link to the Invisible Children site on Amazon S3.
Yes, a lame play on words, but still, the Gonski report - [Australian Government review of Funding for Schooling] could be considered a new "Aussie Pizza". Lot's of toppings, everyone has their own unique version, everyone would recognise one if they saw it, but no-one is sure that they can agree on what the "real" aussie pizza is. Of course,…
Three years ago today, I witnessed first-hand, the unrelenting and profoundly destructive force of the fires that created Australia's worst natural disaster in recorded history. The fires that began on February 7th 2009 "Black Saturday" took many lives, destroyed many homes and buildings and most certainly altered the psyche of many that I know, including me. 1000 plus degrees is…
In the most recent quarterly report [August 2011] on Household Debt and Credit by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York it reports [amongst many other things] that for the student loans will exceed $100 billion dollars and all outstanding balances will exceed $1 trillion dollars. Staggering numbers. Links: Quarterly Report on Household Debt and Credit [PDF]
A new report, released in September of this year, conducted jointly by Ericsson (NASDAQ:ERIC), Arthur D. Little and Chalmers University of Technology in 33 OECD countries, quantifies the isolated impact of broadband speed, showing that doubling the broadband speed for an economy increases GDP by 0.3%. A 0.3 percent GDP growth in the OECD region is equivalent to USD 126…
On a warm, almost balmy evening in Melbourne, I had the pleasure of attending the inaugural [and very heavily subscribed] Professorial Lecture by Professor John Hattie, entitled "The Future of Measurement - making learning visible" as part of the Dean’s Lecture series at the Melbourne Graduate School of Education. Returning to the university grounds is always a pleasure and the…