Image Courtesey of Wikimedia Commons / Camelia.boban

mashable.com | Article Link | by James O'Brien

The days of paper textbooks seem destined to become as distant a memory as cursive handwriting. In 2014, big data is reshaping the way students receive curriculum and learn, and the tools of the new and digital classroom are changing the dynamics for educators.

"Data is changing the way people think," says Eileen Murphy Buckley, founder and CEO of ThinkCERCA, a company in the data-driven education space. "From critical accountability to teacher accountability to the way we arrange time, our learning spaces, technologies — data is disrupting everything."

The inclusion of the computer in K–12 classes is nothing new; they've been on desks since the days of Texas Instruments. In more recent times, however, pupils aren't turning to their screens to learn a little BASIC or play a round of Oregon Trail — they're increasingly experiencing data-driven teaching as a fully integrated part of a post-textbook, personalized academic process.

If you think about the impact of technology on our lives today, algorithms are analyzing our behavior — both on and offline — all the time. They shape what we do in the moment, and they often steer us toward what we do next.

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