Hapgood

Mike Caulfield's latest web incarnation. Networked Learning, Open Education, and Online Digital Literacy

  • Statistical Reasoning BEFORE Statistical Methods

    “Recent research suggests that before delving into educating students about statistical methods, statistical literacy, thinking, and reasoning training is needed. In fact, studies have shown that a knowledge base in statistical literacy, reasoning, and thinking is needed for understanding published research (delMas, Garfield, Ooms, & Chance, 2007).” Full article here. The cited article actually talks more… Continue reading

  • We Built the Pineapple, Not Pearson.

    This article makes some excellent points about “Pineapplegate”. On the whole the incident reflects more poorly on our media and public debate than it does on Pearson.  There’s so much wrong with the way that we test students in American education, but smirking at a trippy test question fixes none of it, and denies some… Continue reading

  • You are the “product” at your local bar as well

    I’ve been thinking about this a long time, but a recent tweet by @dkernohan made me think I should throw it up somewhere. There’s a saying that if you are not paying for something like Facebook, that you aren’t the customer — you’re the product. And I think this is true in many ways. But… Continue reading

  • WordPress eTextbooks

    There’s been radio silence the past couple weeks because I’ve been spending my free time writing this WordPress-based eTextbook on Quantitative Literacy. There’s lots to be said about this, I suppose, but one of the things worth mentioning is what a pleasure it has been to author in this way. I’d love to tweak the… Continue reading

  • Quantitative Reasoning MOOC Update

    (Yeah, I finally used the ‘M’ word…) As some of you know, I’ve been working the past three or four months on getting a MOOC on Quantitative Reasoning up and running for Spring 2013.  Jim and Tim and I are in discussions on how this might work at this point, and the current plan is… Continue reading

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  • A Note on Farm Share and Subgroups

    As we say in the COMPARABLE checklist, the story is often somewhere in the edges. Take this chart of the proportion of a food dollar which goes to the farmer vs. post-farm activities. At first it seems to show declining farm revenue as the the market bill (which includes everything from transportation to preparation) climbs:… Continue reading

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  • How Not To Do a Graph: Distribution of U.S. Food Dollar

    From Marion Nestle’s book on Food Politics: Interesting graph, but undermined by its cuteness. Farm value and labor, the first two segments, make up just short of 60% of the total, but appear to be less than 50% (maybe even 40%) because of all the inserted black gaps. But maybe that’s by design, to make… Continue reading

  • Comparison of the Day: SIDS and Prone Sleeping in Norway

    This is a really sad chart: the incidence of SIDS (“crib death”) in Norway plotted out against the rise and fall of parents that put their children to sleep on their stomach. (Which was what they told you to do for a long time). As you can see, there was not only a correlation with the rise… Continue reading

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  • Choosing definitions: BMI vs. DXA (or, Why BMI Is Not a Lie)

    There is a great post over on Kaiser Fung’s blog on the BMI/DXA debate. I suggest you go read it. What it is about is this — there’s a claim to be made that BMI doesn’t measure fat accurately, and a number of people are saying BMI should be replaced by this other measure (DXA)… Continue reading

  • Comparison of the Day: Unemployment by College Major

    In the COMPARABLE framework the “E” is for “Edges”, and part of the “question of edges” is whether there are significant subpopulations. In the case of unemployment of recent college grads, the answer is yes: The center would tell you only that the average unemployment for college grads is about 9%. But the lowest rates… Continue reading