Running head: How Algorithms Impact Our Lives 1

How Algorithms Impact Our Lives

Ashley Mazen

Loyola University- ET 690

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Introduction

In this paper I am going to discuss how algorithms impact our lives. I will be talking

about the positive impact they have, but also the negative impact they have. We will be looking

at how using algorithms effect schools and why stakeholders should be aware of algorithms. In

this paper I will be referencing Hannah Fry’s book Hello World: Being Human in the Age of

Algorithms along with some other credible journal articles.

How Algorithms Impact Our Lives

Algorithms are a set of rules to be followed out by calculations to solve problems.

Algorithms are used to help calculate data in all aspects of our lives. They are used to help solve

crimes, they help with medical diagnoses and they calculate the future of cars amongst many

other things. In the book Hello World by Hannah Fry, she discusses the many ways algorithms

are used in our daily lives. Algorithms are used for everything. Every time you do a google

search that data gets placed into an algorithm and then suddenly ads start popping up on your

computer. With so much technology algorithms seem to be more prevalent than ever. We must

ask ourselves this question though, are algorithms more harmful or helpful? In the book Hello

World Fry states “It’s about asking if an algorithm is having a net benefit on society. About

when you should trust a machine over your own judgement, and when you should resist

temptation to leave machines in control” (Fry, 2018). In this paper I am going to focus on

algorithms and how they affect schools, teachers, and students. Let us look at some different

ways algorithms can be positive and negative for schools, students and teachers.
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How Algorithms can be Positive

After reading Hello World, algorithms can be positive to use. Fry states in her book that

with all this new technology it is getting easier to diagnose cancer and other diseases early on.

Early diagnosis of cancer and other diseases is crucial and can save somebody’s life. In Hello

World, Fry talked about how algorithms can be used to diagnose breast cancer. While

algorithms are not always one-hundred percent correct they were determined very useful

when diagnosing breast cancer. Hello World states “One recent study showed that pathologist

manage to correctly diagnose 96 percent of straight-forward malignant specimens” (Fry, 2018).

This is with the help of algorithms. This is awesome compared to a different study done where

pathologists only came up with the same diagnoses 48 percent of the time based on their

opinions. Algorithms can be very beneficial when the case is clear cut. While reading I found a

lot of positive outcomes when police use algorithms for solving crimes, especially when it

comes to burglary, murder, and identifying rapists. In Hello World it states, “Burglars also have

something in common with serial murders and rapists that Rossmo studied: they tend to prefer

sticking to areas they’re familiar with.” (Fry, 2018) Algorithms can help identify locations and

narrow down where burglaries and other criminals are going to strike next. After they narrow

down an area using algorithms they can go through their database to check for possible

suspects. This has helped solve a lot of crimes along with preventing new crimes from

happening. There are some great statistics for how beneficial algorithms can be. You can use

these same type of algorithms when it comes to schools. Algorithms can be put into place to

determine areas where a school is doing well and where a school is struggling. Just like using

the algorithms to diagnose cancer or catch criminals you can find out where students are
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struggling or where they are excelling in. You can pinpoint if the trend seems normal or if every

student is lacking the same skills, which you need to focus on. The data can be compared to

other years to see if from year to year you are having the same problems. You can take that

data and share it with teachers. You can show teachers where students are doing well and what

areas they need more practice in. This in turn will help students because they will then get

instruction in the areas they are struggling in. This type of data should be used to help drive

instruction but not to reprimand schools, teacher, or students.

How Algorithms can be Negative

Going back to the book Hello World it talks about an incident that happened in South

Denver in 2014. Steven Talley was beat up and arrested for several bank robberies by the police

even though he was pleading with them that he was the wrong person. In the book it states

“Talley wasn’t lying. His arrest was the result of his striking resemblance to the right guy-the

real robber” (Fry, 2018). This is an instance where the algorithm got it wrong and had severe

negative impact on an innocent person’s life. There was also another incident where a woman

was traveling to visit her family in another country and while she was traveling she was coded

as being a terrorist. Even though she lived in the United States and had a family there pleading

her case, she was not able to get back in the United States for 10 years because of the mistake.

Now imagine algorithms in schools. Even though it can be challenging to think about algorithms

in schools they are everywhere. Algorithms can be used in schools to see, who gets free and

reduced lunch, different bus routes, used for excel spreedsheets and standardized tests. Let us

take a close look at standardized tests and how these tests can be negative for schools,

teachers and students. If a school preforms poorly on a standardized test that can look bad for
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the school and for the teachers. Standardized tests can also affect students getting into college.

With No Child Left Behind and Race to the Top there has been a lot of pressure for schools to

do well on these tests. There have been many people who have questioned who creates these

algorithms for standardized tests. This can hurt the creditability of using algorithms and make

the tests seem bias. Let us take a closer look at how algorithms can affect schools, teachers,

and students.

How Algorithms Impact Schools, Students, and Teachers

One should wonder who really does create these algorithms and are all sets of

algorithms created equal for all populations of people? Consider how algorithms impact

schools, students, and teachers. Students are being tested all the time to see how they rank

compared to other students their age, to see how “effective” the school is, and how “effective”

the teachers are. Who says what should be on the test though? Are students in Wyoming going

to focus on the same things as students in New York? Using algorithms to test students,

teachers and schools seems like a good way to get measurable data but we hurt the school

system in the process. Using algorithms for high-stake testing in schools can damage student’s

self-esteem, cause school to seem boring, and cause students to be unmotivated. Doing all this

testing is unfair to students, teachers and schools. Teaching should be left to the teaching

professionals. Tests should be used to help drive instruction and to create better instruction not

reprimand people.

Benefits of Algorithms
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Even though I think most algorithms should be left out of schools because no two

schools are the same, there are some definite benefits to using algorithms. They can help you

with data inside of the school. They can show you what students are learning and what

students still need to work on. They can also help students with special needs. In the article An

Evolutionary Algorithm for the Discovery of Rare Class Associations rules in Learning

Management Systems they talk about how you can use algorithms to help you understand

infrequent associations with educational tasks. The article states “Infrequent associations might

allow the instructor to verify a set of rules concerning certain unusual learning problems, for

instance dealing with students with special needs. Thus, this information could help the

instructor to discover a minority of students who may need specific support in their learning

process” (Luna, Romero, Romero & Ventura, 2014). In another article I read called Classification

and Prediction Based Data Mining Algorithms to Predict Slow Learners in Education Sector they

talked about Educational Data Mining (EDM). In the article they describe data mining software

as it “allows the users to analyze data from different dimensions, categorize it and summarize

the relationships which are identified during the mining process” (Kaur, Singh & Singh Josan,

2015). The article also states that EDM can “predict the outcome of the performance at higher

secondary education” (Kaur, Singh & Singh Josan, 2015). This type of data is good for

administration to share with their staff to help students if they have special needs.

If you look at algorithms outside of the school setting you see a lot of innovations have

been created with the use of algorithms. We just need to be careful and use human judgement

and realize there are many ways to determine how successful a school, a teacher, or a student

is.
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Disadvantages of Algorithms

There are disadvantages to using algorithms as well. Think about who creates the

algorithms and what exactly is the formula for every algorithm? A lot of that information is not

known. Which can lead people to believe that algorithms can be biased or possibly even racist.

Algorithms cannot make judgment calls. Algorithms are very black and white. Sometimes there

are gray areas that need a human touch. In the article Computer Adaptive Testing, Big Data and

Algorithmic approaches to Education it talks about how there needs to be a change in how we

test students. The article states “This stationary assumption excludes changes in behavior

during the test due to fatigue, learning, strategy shifts, and other factors (Thompson, 2017).

The article is basically saying that he does agree with testing, but not the way it is being done.

Thompson believes in the CAT (computerized adaptive testing) testing progress. He states,

“computerized adaptive testing, which applies prediction methodologies to reduce the length

of a test without sacrificing accuracy” (Thompson, 2017). I agree with Thompson that

something needs to change with how we test students and use algorithms to rank students

based on how well they did on a test. Standardized tests have done so much damage to

schools, teachers and students. Students are learning content to do well on a test and not

learning how to be productive members of society. The stress these tests put on people is

incredible and what valuable information do you get out of these tests? Algorithms are

arguably a good tool to use if they can be overridden if it seems necessary to do or just be used

as one piece of evidence.

Why Stakeholders Should be Aware

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Stakeholders need to be aware of algorithms. While algorithms can give us useful

information they also cannot make judgement calls. Stakeholders need to understand that

algorithms are one piece of information. Especially algorithms that are used in schools.

Standardized tests should not be the determining factor if a student goes to college or not. It

should not determine how good teachers and schools are. Standardized tests only measure

content and that is it. There are many other factors to determining the quality of students,

schools and teachers. I agree algorithms should be used but we need to remember that they

cannot make judgement calls and they should not be the soul decision maker. We need to use

algorithms in a more positive way in schools instead of using them to bring a school, teacher or

student down.

Conclusion

After I have completed all my research and reading, I have decided that algorithms are a

useful tool and we should use them. Algorithms make our lives easier and help us be

innovative. We should use technology if it makes our jobs more effective and if it makes sense

to do so. I do caution though that algorithms are only one piece of information that is following

a code. It cannot replace human thinking and intuition. We should use algorithms as one piece

of evidence and make sure we use our good judgement when making important decisions.

Schools, teachers and students should also not be scored based on algorithms. There are many

other values to determine the quality of schools, students and teachers.

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References

Fry, H. (2018). Hello World Being Human in the Age of Algorithms. New York, New York:

W.W. Norton & Company, Inc.

Kaur P., Singh M. & Singh Josan G. (2015). Classification and Prediction Based Data Mining

Algorithms to Predict Slow Learners in Education Sector. Procedia Computer Science,

57, pgs. 500-508.

Luna J. M., Romero C., Romero J.R., & Ventura S. (2014). An Evolutionary Algorithm for the

Discovery of Rare Class Association Rules in Learning Management Systems. Appl

Intell, 42, pgs. 501-513.

Thompson G. (2017). Computer Adaptive Testing, Big Idea and Algorithmic Approaches to

Education. British Journal of Education, 38:6, pgs. 827-840.

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Waxman, H. C., Boriack, A. W., Lee, Y. & MacNeil A. (2013) Principals’ Perceptions of the

Importance of Technology in Schools. Contemporary Educational Technology, 4(3),

Pgs. 187-196.