El otro día mi amigo Toni Bellver me señalaba una noticia de Slashdot:
How Sensors and Software Turn Farms Into Data Mines
Nerval’s Lobster writes that business intelligence tools have come to agribusiness, with farmers and cattle ranchers using many of the same tools found in numerous corporate cubicles, but fed by sensors you won’t find in cubeland. «Machines (such as this one from DeLaval) keep track of all kinds of data about each cow, including the chemical properties of its milk, and flag when a particular cow is having problems or could be sick. The software can compare current data with historical patterns for the entire herd, and relate to weather conditions and other seasonal variations. Now a farmer can track his herd on his iPad without having to get out of bed, or even from another state. And Farmeron attempts to aggregate all farm-related data in a single Web portal. The company was started by Matija Kopi, the CEO who calls himself the ‘Main Cowboy in the Saddle’ and Marko Dukmeni, the CTO who is their Chief Tractor Hacker. They offer monthly accounts (starting at 25 cents per animal per month) to track animal physical characteristics along with milk production, medical treatments, and even particular feeding group schedules.»
Si el lector o lectora cambia «vaca» por alumno/a obtendrá una excelente definición de qué es eso del «learning analytics». Si aprender es dar sentido, medir clics en el LMS es a aprender lo mismo que «delivery» (o xMOOCs) a enseñar. Lástima que la calidad de la leche, en nuestro caso, solo se pueda medir con pruebas autocorrectivas.
¿Y el oxímoron? «Business inteligence» 😉