Tag Archives: data

More health data tracking

Leave a reply

A while ago my wife bought a Hume scale. You pull a handle with sensors up from the base, stand on the scale while holding the handle, and it gives health data far beyond what a simple weight scale does. That said, I’ve questioned the accuracy, and it definitely took some time to adjust, or should I say acclimate, to what it was reading about me.

The thing that really didn’t seem right at first was the heart rate, now with my Garmin watch to compare, I think it is about a heartbeat or two per minute above accurate, but that isn’t a drastic difference. The other thing I wasn’t sure about was body fat percentage, but I just did a scan at my gym that tends to be more accurate and it was pretty close there too.

One stat that all 3 sensors, the Hume, my watch, and this gym scale, all tell me seems to be accurate but the information is useless, and that’s BMI – Body Mass Index. The stats shared with me are 25.3, 26.0, and 25.2 BMI respectively and the Hume app says,

“25.3

High

A ratio of weight to height squared, widely used as a general health screening tool. It is generally regarded as an outdated measurement for health as it does not differentiate between muscle and fat. We have included it here for users which find it useful.

ⓘ Your rating is scored against medical and scientific benchmarks established for people your same age, sex at birth and height.”

And my watch bluntly says,

“Average BMI 26.0

Reducing your BMI to 21.9 can help lower your Fitness Age.

To help achieve this goal:

• Focus on both diet and exercise.

Cutting calories has been shown to be most effective for weight loss, but both regular exercise and calorie maintenance are important for keeping the weight off.”

However, further down in the description of BMI my watch also says,

“Keep in mind that BMI may not be a useful metric for everyone. Highly trained and muscular athletes, for example, may report high BMI numbers even though they are very fit.”

I don’t know if I’d call myself a ‘highly trained and muscular athlete’, but when my Hume app tells me that my body fat percentage is 14.8% and the fancy gym scale says it’s 14.6%, I’m definitely not cutting calories and trying to keep weight off… in fact I’m hoping to gain another 8-10 pounds this year.

All that said, I’ve learned that BMI is not a measure I plan on concerning myself with. And while it’s flattering to have such a low body fat percentage, I wouldn’t mind if that went up a bit while I focused on gaining more muscle. And so it’s good to have data to track but I’m not fixated on the numbers as much as the trends I’m seeing, as these numbers fluctuate.

I’ve learned that my diet does affect my weight and when I’m active I need to maintain my calories and especially my protein. I’ve learned that sleep affects my ‘health score’ and that sleep really is important for my strength, recovery, and overall health. And finally, as mentioned, trends matter more than concerning myself with daily numbers.

I’ve enjoyed tracking these and more data points on my Hume scale and Garmin watch, I do wish theses apps spoke to each other and shared data, but both put product loyalty (buy our watch AND our scale) over customer convenience. What I like is that I can see how my stats are trending, and while I do pay some attention to the numbers regularly, I’m not preoccupied or worried about them… which I think is healthy.

The upside down bell curve

Leave a reply

The bell curve, also known as a normal distribution, is a graph that depicts how values in a dataset are distributed. Most values cluster around the average with fewer values appearing at the extremes… those rare few that do very well or very poorly.

But there is a new curve evolving that matters more, the upside down bell curve where the ones on the extremes are where most of the data points are distributed. In an era of free and openly available information, this is the new learning curve. There is no more average majority, instead there are those that understand and those that do not. Those that participate and those that opt out. Those that engage and those that choose not to. Those that seek to learn and those that disengage.

The resources needed to do well are available. The access to information is there for all who want it. The opportunity to get that information in a format or delivery that makes sense to you is easy to find. The question is, are you willing to put the effort in?

If you learn how you best learn, then access to information is no longer a barrier and you will likely learn very well. You will be with the majority of people on the successful side of the distribution curve. If you decide it’s too hard, or choose not to engage, you will be with the other majority, ignorantly selecting the unsuccessful side of the distribution.

There will be anomalies, those that have learning challenges that are not met and struggle, and those that make no effort yet still find it easy to understand things. There will also be those few that just choose to squeak by, capable of more but neither excelling or struggling. But this is the era of extremes. This is a time when the ‘A’, the ‘Exceeding Expectations’, the ability to excel, is available to most… and yet will only be achieved by the ones who actually choose it.

The mathematical average of the curve might be the same, but the distribution will be starkly divided.

Almost free

Leave a reply

I remember being a young kid when a door-to-door salesman came to our house and sold my dad a Junior Encyclopedia set. I was amazed at all the information in there. I could just think of any topic and it seemed that there was an entry for it.

In Grade 10 or 11 I took a programming course in high school. I don’t remember much other than having to punch little dots out of cards and handing them in. My teacher would bring them back to us the next class with a printout of the instructions we created with these punch cards.

At the time, I owned a Commodore Vic 20 which had 20k of memory. I remember buying the 16k adapter cartridge so that I could have 36k of memory, but I can’t remember why I wanted the extra data. I think I was writing a book on bass fishing with my buddy on the Commodore and we were using up too much space.

Now our fridges can do more than my Vic 20, and our phones give us access to quite literally any information we desire. Computers have wafer thin chips in them, the size of my finger nail, that can store entire libraries of information. We have no shortage of information or storage… as long as we aren’t trying to store 20,000 photos on our phones.

Information used to be power. Now it seems that information is free. Well, almost free, because we actually pay for information with our attention. The website is free but you’ve got to see the advertising. The podcast is free but you have to listen to commercials. Social media content is free but influencers push products your way, and sell you programs. And you end up not scrolling past an ad because it is designed like the content you normally consume.

We don’t have to buy encyclopedias anymore, information is almost free… The price we pay is our attention.

Bells and whistles

Leave a reply

My wife bought a scale that tells you more than your weight. It’s called Hume and it gives a whole bunch of data to you about your body. You stand on it barefoot and hold a handle with sensors on it and it gives you your fat percentage, lean mass, subcutaneous fat mass, body water percentage, heart rate, and more information.

It seems interesting and I’ll try it for a few more weeks, but I’m questioning the accuracy of it. First of all, it had my body fat percentage go up over 3% in 10 days. That seems odd. And it says my heart rate is higher than I think it is. Yesterday and today I canceled and redid my first weigh-in because it said my heart rate was above 80 yesterday and 78 today. I know that when I wake up in the morning my heart rate is not that high. My second reading today was 70. I then took out our blood pressure monitor which also measures my heart rate and it measured it at 57.

Sometimes I think too many features are put onto things and they come at a cost to other features. In this day and age, heart rate should be a low bar for accuracy. Being off about 20 beats a minute is not acceptable. I don’t want ‘all the bells and whistles’ if they are not hitting accurate notes.

Again, I’ll try this new toy out for a couple more weeks, but I have to say I’m disappointed so far, and if it can’t get heart rate and body fat percentage right, can you blame me for questioning the other results? And if I’m not accurately tracking these data points, why would I use the product, no matter what bells and whistles it claims to offer.

Instant feedback

Leave a reply

Yesterday, at our welcome back session for principals, one of the assistant superintendents asks us a couple questions to get feedback on what we thought was important for our district visioning. This is a typical kind of exercise to start the year. Usually this data is collected then in a later session we look at the data and trends.

But instead, he had us do the activity individually, then connect as a table group to prioritize our results. Then one person per table put the top 5 answers into a Microsoft form.

The assistant superintendent then used Copilot, Microsoft’s Artificial Intelligence LLM, to not only collate the data, but also to look for trends. He did this during a break so that we were not waiting on him. Then we came back and discussed not only the results but also his line of questioning.

Probably my favourite part of this is when he told Copilot, ‘here is the data’, but forgot to paste it in. Why? Because it’s important to model that you can make mistakes when trying something new.

I was discussing with a colleague before the meeting that I was hoping to see this happen. I’m tired of people collecting large amounts of data that will then take hours to assess, when we have new technology that can find trends invisible to us in mere seconds.

In the meeting we still did a lot of activities to connect us to our peers, we still had great table talks and meaningful conversations, but when it came time to collect and assess data we didn’t go old school, instead we took advantage of the technology available to us in a meaningful way. And yes, more analysis of the data may come later, and not all of it using AI, but to have this powerful tool use available and to not both use it and model it, would be a real shame.

It was really great to see this happen in yesterday’s first meeting of the year.

New study: ‘Stupidity is Contagious’

Leave a reply

Is this the newest epidemic?

New study: ‘Stupidity is Contagious’

Some very interesting findings have come from a new study:

  • Researchers at the Institute for Cognitive Decay claim stupidity spreads “at rates comparable to the common cold, but with longer-lasting effects.”
  • Dr. Helen Tropp, lead researcher:
    “It turns out stupidity is highly contagious, especially when transmitted through phrases like ‘I did my own research’ or ‘That’s just your opinion.’”
  • Study participants who spent just 10 minutes in a room with someone spouting conspiracy theories lost an average of 12 IQ points, some “permanently.”
  • Exposure is not limited to in-person contact: scrolling through the ‘For you’ section of X (Twitter) carries “a 73% risk of infection.”
  • In rural test sites, researchers noticed “stupidity clusters” forming, which they compared to “wildfires fueled by bad takes, energy drinks, and supplements promoted on ‘Bro Culture’ podcasts.”
  • One experimental group was forced to binge-watch reality TV marathons—nearly half had lowered basic math test results afterward, and 12% struggled to write in complete sentences when asked to summarize episodes in a paragraph.
  • Professor Alan Greaves, epidemiologist:
    “We tried developing a stupidity vaccine, but test subjects refused it, saying they ‘don’t believe in science.’ At that point, we gave up.”

And if these ‘research based’ bullet points weren’t enough ‘evidence’, let me be explicit in saying these were all Chat GPT inspired, following a response to my request for them stating, “Here’s a bundle of fake “facts,” bogus statistics, and ridiculous quotes you can mix into your parody piece.” I tweaked them a little, but none of them were my ideas.

Stupidity travels at the speed of laziness.

Stupidity isn’t contagious, lazy thinking is. We no longer live in a world where information can be taken at face value without some level of fact checking. Our bullshit detectors need to be left in the ‘on’ position. And we need to be sceptical of evidence, be that evidence in favour of or against what we believe.

It can be a quote, an AI generated video, or even a person of influence that you have followed and admired, but who was equally duped (or lazy) in their gathering of information… Misinformation, fake “facts”, and downright intentional falsified data is everywhere these days, and if we are lazy with our diligence, it’s easy to contribute to the spread of information and lies.

So while this study was made up, it seems to me that if we are lazy in the way we consume (and share information), as many people seem to be, this really is leading to the spread of stupidity.

To Prove or Improve?

It was a simple question asked in a meeting of BC online schools.

“Are we using data to prove or to improve?”

Is it about accountability or improvement? What does the data teach us about our practice? How does it affect our future outcomes and where we focus our support and funding?

What is the real value of collecting data, and how is it best used to inform our practice?

Playing with Bing copilot

I asked Bing copilot about myself:

What does David Truss write about on http://davidtruss.com

The response:

David Truss writes about various topics related to education, learning, and technology on his website http://davidtruss.com. He shares his thoughts, experiences, and reflections as an educator, a student, a thinker, and a dreamer. He also showcases his presentations, podcasts, resources, and projects that he has created or contributed to. Some of the themes that he explores on his website are:

  • Inquiry-based learning and teaching
  • Blended learning and distributed learning
  • Leadership and innovation
  • Student voice and choice
  • Global citizenship and social responsibility
  • Personalized learning and professional growth

You can find more information about David Truss and his work on his website 1 or on his blog Pair-a-Dimes for Your Thoughts.

—–

I followed up more specifically with my daily blog:

What does David Truss write about on http://daily-ink.davidtruss.com?

The response:

David Truss writes about his personal and professional experiences, reflections, and insights on his daily blog Daily-Ink. He describes his writing as his artistic expression, and his keyboard as his brush. He commits to writing daily to feel like an artist. He covers various topics related to education, learning, technology, leadership, innovation, global citizenship, and more. Some of his recent posts are:

  • Rewind: He looks back at the past year of the pandemic and how it changed his life and work. He also rewinds to previous years and how different decisions and events shaped his career and family. He wonders how he will look at February 2021 a decade from now.
  • Headspace: He shares his thoughts on meditation and mindfulness, and how they help him cope with stress and anxiety. He recommends some apps and podcasts that he uses to practice meditation and mindfulness.
  • Cruise ships and education: He draws an analogy between cruise ships and education systems, and how they both need to adapt to the changing needs and expectations of their customers and stakeholders. He argues that education needs to be more personalized, flexible, and relevant for the learners of today and tomorrow.

—–

I had to update the links to the posts because they all went to my blog’s home page, but those were correct post titles. Also the ‘Headspace’ post made no mention of meditation and mindfulness, though I do mention those frequently in other posts… and that particular post isn’t really typical of the things I write about.

I then switched from asking questions to clicking on Bing’s copilot suggested questions. The first one was:

What is David Truss’s background?

The response:

David Truss is a Canadian educator and administrator who is currently the principal of three programs in Coquitlam, BC: Coquitlam Open Learning, Inquiry Hub Secondary School, and Suwa’lkh Learning Centre. He has a background in inquiry-based learning, blended learning, distributed learning, leadership, innovation, global citizenship, and social responsibility. He is also a blogger, podcaster, author, and speaker who shares his thoughts and experiences on education, learning, and technology. He has a website Pair-a-Dimes where he showcases his work and resources. He also wrote an eBook called Twitter Edu where he shares his tips and tricks on using Twitter for professional learning and networking.

—–

This time I didn’t change the links… because I think it’s valuable to mention how wrong they are. The link to my blog, Pair-a-Dimes, above actually goes to a Barbara Bray podcast about me, and the link to my Twitter book actually goes to the Encyclopedia Britannica page for Liz Truss, former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. The rest of the data is quite accurate (other than I no longer run Suwa’lkh), but it seems copilot has a linking issue.

The next suggested question:

Can you show me some of his projects?

Sure, I can show you some of his projects that he has created or contributed to. Here are some examples:

  • Inquiry Hub Secondary School: This is a high school in Coquitlam, BC, Canada that focuses on independent learning and inquiry-based projects. David Truss is the principal of this school and one of the founders. He also shares his experiences and insights on leading and learning in this innovative environment. You can learn more about this school on its website 1 or on Wikipedia 2.
  • 10 Truss Houses That Brilliantly Blend Architecture With Engineering: This is an article that David Truss wrote for Architizer Journal, where he showcases 10 residential projects that use trusses as a major design element. He explores how these structural systems frame spatial experiences and respond to diverse landscapes. You can read his article here 3.
  • Twitter Edu: This is an eBook that David Truss co-authored with Eric Sheninger, where they share their tips and tricks on using Twitter for professional learning and networking. They explain how to create a personal learning network, find and share resources, and connect with other educators around the world. You can download their eBook here .

—–

The middle point is not remotely about me, and the last one didn’t link to my e-book. This request was the first one that really deviated from my profile with the Architecture article about truss supports. I had to do a search to find this article, since it wasn’t linked, and the link that it goes to above in the search results is an article about Liz Truss.

I followed one more copilot suggested question:

What is David Truss’s Twitter handle?

This was the response:

David Truss’s Twitter handle is @datruss. He is a Canadian educator, administrator, blogger, podcaster, author, and speaker. He tweets about education, learning, technology, leadership, innovation, global citizenship, and more. He has over 18.5K followers and follows over 10.6K accounts. He joined Twitter in March 2008 and has posted over 55.6K tweets as of April 2023. You can follow him on Twitter to get his latest updates and insights

—–

Once again the links went to articles about Liz, but the information was correct other than totals for my follows/following, which are both around 13K.

Overall, I’m impressed by the accuracy of copilot, and disappointed by the lack of reliable links. I think of Bing copilot a bit like I think of Wikipedia, it’s a great place to start your research, but not a definitive source to base any answers on. It’s a copilot when you are taking off on a search but once you are in the air, you need to take over the steering and guide the search plane to more credible or primary sources of information.

—

One final thought: The html code that pasted onto my blog from copilot was very messy. I’d suggest pasting without formatting and adding the correct links after you have pasted everything… lesson learned!

Keeper of your digital history

When I lived in China, I had a hard time communicating on any social media. I connected to this blog using Posterous, which let me post easily from an App on my phone, before WordPress had an App. When Posterous went defunct all the images I posted through their App were not saved on WordPress and so those images were lost. So I have old posts like this, where I only have a dead link where a photo used to be:

This isn’t the only social media company that has gone defunct, taking the history of my work with it. I loved using the Ning Network communites like Classroom 2.0, I had a student project with over a 100,000 visits on Wikispaces, this video had close to 100,000 views on BlipTV, and I had great conversations archived on coComment. My original blog was on ELGG, where I had a great community of bloggers to learn from, then it switched to Eduspaces which was less friendly and forced me to do the smart thing and self-host on DavidTruss.com. Delicious, Diigo, and Scribed were communities but now they’ve changed and are just ‘places’ that I used to visit and use. And there are plenty of other tools that have come and gone and when they are gone, so is a record of everything I did in those spaces.

One social media tool that I have used more than any other is Twitter. I was such a fan, I even wrote an ebook about how to get started on Twitter, then gave it away for free. I have Tweeted 33,800+ times since I started Twitter in 2007. Today I decided to request an archive of all my tweets.

I’ve lost too many great conversations and archives of data because of social media services either transforming to something different, suddenly requiring fees that are beyond what I’m willing to pay, or just going defunct… and with so much happening to Twitter right now, I just figured I’d request my data and store it myself for safe keeping. If anything happens to Twitter, I want a record of what I did in this social media space. I’m not predicting that Twitter will go the way of the dodo bird, but I’m just not confident it will look the same at the end of 2023, now that it is privately owned and operated. I want a backup of my data… just in case.

Are our apps over-sharing our data?

My guess is, yes. I know that when I google search a product, I will likely see an ad for that item on Facebook. I know that information is being shared. But I’ve been listening to The Quantum Moment on my Audible App and today on my 30 minutes of TikTok (my time limit on weekdays) I ended up seeing 4 videos on: the Space-Time continuum (x2), an Einstein thought experiment, and the physics of light and heat vs dark and cold.

Now before reading this book, I did have a few science videos as part of my algorithm, but mostly related to space and the James Webb telescope. Now, from ‘out of nowhere’, I’m getting physics videos, after I start listening to a book about physics on a totally different app.

Part of me thinks this is great, after all I did enjoy the videos and found them interesting. That’s why I like TikTok, it feeds me more interesting content than any 30 minute show I could possibly find on TV. But part of me wonders, what other data is being shared? How much do my apps know about what I do on other apps? How targeted is the advertising I see? What about when I google medication, or symptoms? What about the health apps I use?

Is anything private anymore, or when I agree to use an app, am I agreeing to share my whole life? I might have enjoyed the videos, but I don’t think TikTok should know what books I’m listening to, unless I’ve explicitly permitted it to.