For a long time, education saw the learner mainly at specific moments: attendance, an assignment, an exam, and a final grade. But with digital platforms, online learning, smartphones, artificial intelligence, and virtual environments, the learning process itself began to leave behind a digital trail that can be analyzed: What did the learner open? Where did they stop? What did they repeat? Where did they struggle? How much time did they need? Which skills did they master?
This raises a new question: if we can understand the learning journey itself rather than only its final outcome, can education become better at understanding the differences between individual learners? Or do we risk making another mistake by reducing a human being to a collection of numbers and indicators?
An exam often tells us where the learner arrived; data may help us understand how they got there.
Human Learning (19): When the System Began to See the Learner Through Data… Can Education Understand Each Person Better?
For a long time, education saw the learner mainly at specific moments: attendance, an assignment, an exam, and a final grade. But with digital platforms, online learning, smartphones, artificial intelligence, and virtual environments, the learning process itself began to leave behind a digital trail that can be analyzed: What did the learner open? Where did they stop? What did they repeat? Where did they struggle? How much time did they need? Which skills did they master? This raises a new question: if we can understand the learning journey itself rather than only its final outcome, can education become better at understanding the differences between individual learners? Or do we risk making another mistake by reducing a human being to a collection of numbers and indicators? An exam often tells us where the learner arrived; data may help us understand how they got there.