Blurts

The NWEA (think MAP testing folks) offers some data on student learning during the pandemic. The general summary – not too bad. Students taking the exam (an important consideration) scored a bit lower in math, but at about the same level as usual in reading. This outcome is an improvement over what had been predicted by such agencies as Stanford’s Center for Research on Outcomes.

This makes perfect sense to me. Reading is a skill area in which explanations for how it is done are extremely difficult to generate. You can tell if a student comprehends, but telling them how to go about comprehending is difficult. Time engaged and encouragement are important. Math lends itself more to feedback and demonstration. The assistance one might experience in a classroom is not as easy to deliver online.

Issues of participation and access are distinct from the success of what available access can produce and there are obvious concerns here.

The Institute for Digital Public Infrastructure studies the potential of the internet as a resource for the public good as an alternative to profit-making ventures. Think of this as the contrast between commercial television and public television or radio. I think of some of the concepts advanced by this organization as a return to what I used to call the Participatory Web or Web 2.0. The organization will offer academic papers, a podcast series, and gobo.social which uses your Facebook and Twitter feeds to demonstrate how algorithms can influence what you see. If you listen to podcasts and are interested in the future of the Internet, I have enjoyed the focus of this podcast.

I downloaded the CovidAwareMN app to my iPhone today. I have heard about this type of technology for some time but had not made the effort until I learned it was being pushed in my home state. CovidAwareMN (CovidAwareMN web site) explains how the app works focusing on security issues. The app is a free download from the Apple app store or the Google Playstore.

The app works using bluetooth (you will need to have bluetooth turned on) and exchanges a randomly generated identification code with another phone with the same app when you are in close proximity for at least 15 minutes. A record of these codes is accumulated. Codes of those using the app and testing positive are downloaded to your phone daily to see if there is a match indicating you have been exposed. You are responsible for indicating you have COVID.

Privacy is maintained by the use of the random codes designated by the apps. If notified, you are not informed of who was responsible for the exposure. This system assumes infected individuals will use the app to indicate they have tested positive. Only phones with the app installed and active exchange the codes.

The article in StarTribune described North Dakota as an early adopter of a similar system, but indicated only 5% of the population had installed the ND app.

Use of this app will not replace more traditional contact tracing, but it can be useful in addressing the situation in which so many seem unaware of how they might have become infected. I doubt this app has any value to me personally because I am retired and so spend no time in a work setting, don’t visit other people’s homes, and very rarely enter a store. I think adding the app to your phone is simply what everyone should do.

Don’t forget your kids. They have phones too.