Big data is not a wonder cure for productivity and economic growth in every sector. In some fields, such as education, big data, if applied the right way can drive forward innovation and new approaches. But educators have to go about this right way.
Big data solutions have generated a lot of hype and excitement over the last few years. It is - or was - seen as the answer to everything. Capable of generating trillions in new economic activity and opportunities. And then machine learning became a buzzword that soon attached itself to big data. Again, there was considerable hype around the potential impact of combining big data with machine learning, in education and dozens of other sectors.
As Macmillan Learning notes, “gaining useful and reliable insights from educational data - big or small - is part science and part art.”
