Categories:
Economic Education
Does anyone out there know any AP Statistics teachers? They might be interested in using an interactive web site that I am working on. If so, tell them to get in touch with me. I have only a few slots left in my allowable roster of online learners.
For a recent plea for better understanding of statistics, see Stuart Buck and Megan McArdle.
as mathematician John Allen Paulos is fond of pointing out, Americans are often too innumerate to analyze statistics printed in the newspaper. America’s schools haven’t given its citizens any more ability than its journalists to analyze the information that floods our lives. We would call it a case of the blind leading the blind, but the comparison is inappropriate. Blind people know they can’t see.
READER COMMENTS
Giovanni
Sep 14 2006 at 12:38pm
Congratz, Megan McArdle, for busting a big publication running bogus statistics. However, pleading with the world to learn more math and statistics is a pretty trite and pointless conclusion.
The media has always presented biased perspectives and misleading or even inaccurate statistics. Sure it’s annoying and we frown upon it, but that’s how the media works. This is nothing remotely new. Despite her obvious intelligence, I’ve even caught Megan McArdle herself blogging with errors in her math.
joe shropshire
Sep 14 2006 at 3:26pm
I have only a few slots left in my allowable roster of online learners
Not a statistics teacher but I would be interested in enrolling. How does one sign up?
Brad Hutchings
Sep 14 2006 at 3:48pm
Actually, is there any way the curious could observe what you’ve done? I have someone I would like to convince that the web is the best way to deploy educational content right now. He seems convinced that people really want to use a self-contained application. Calculus, not statistics. Yeah, I know, how can I possibly have to argue this in 2006…
Arnold Kling
Sep 14 2006 at 4:16pm
To contact me, try arnoldsk at us dot net
N.R.Gopal
Sep 14 2006 at 4:54pm
I teach economics in a school in India . I want to enrol for your online statistics programme. How do I do it?
Gopal
daublin
Sep 16 2006 at 4:38am
Some knowledge of statistics is vital for being literate nowadays. If you want to understand the world you live in, you need to read scientific arguments, and for that you need to understand statistics.
Arnold, could you perhaps post your site for the general public to play with?
Brad, there are tradeoffs in both directions. Web content has zero install cost but has technical limitations that make it, frankly, crappier. So you and your colleague are both right — the question is, which is more important: easy install, or better software?
For the main software a class uses, a little bit of install time is no big deal. If you are talking about something that will get used for one class period, then install time is everything.
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