Can Obstacles to Education Be Overcome with Data Science?

Zach Wasilew Artificial Intelligence, Diversity, EdTech, Education, Equity, Learning, Machine Learning, Poverty

Imagine you need to travel from New York to Los Angeles. (Forget Covid-19 for a moment and remember how things used to be.) You probably think you’re a credit card transaction away from putting your butt on a plane — maybe even a direct flight to your destination. No problem, right? Now, let’s take away access to that plane. And …

Can Machine Learning Solve Problems in Education

Zach Wasilew Education

There are a few essential items you need to solve a problem with machine learning: a straightforward problem to solve, a bunch of data that illustrates the problem, and a human to organize the data to use machine learning to solve the problem. Oh, and a bunch of computing power. It seems straightforward, right? Not so fast! Jumping those hurdles …

Using Data Science to Measure Parent Engagement

Zach Wasilew Artificial Intelligence, EdTech, Education, Learning, Machine Learning

I was recently on a panel of judges hearing final presentations of a high school senior class in entrepreneurship.  The students had self-selected into teams to develop business plans for new ventures.  Unsurprisingly the teams were divided into the more affluent kids and the disadvantaged kids.  The difference in the resulting business plans was instructive. The more affluent groups had …

Using Data Science to Awaken Curiosity

Zach Wasilew Artificial Intelligence, EdTech, Education, Learning, Machine Learning

Have you ever watched someone playing a video game? They generally have a focus and connection that is seemingly unmatched anywhere else in their life. Kids diagnosed with ADHD that would otherwise struggle with distractibility can be entirely and utterly consumed for hours in video games. Although many concerns arise with video games – like addiction and lack of physical …