Homework due 12/4/09

On pages 182 and 183 of A Gift of Fire, answer questions 4.8 and 4.10; post your answers on your blog!

4.8
Consider the case described in Section 4.1.2, in which a boy was assumed to be a drug abuser because two schools used different disciplinary codes in their computerized records.
a) Is this kind of problem more likely to occur with computerized records than with paper records? Why, or why not?

I believe that the problem could equally occur either with a paper record or a computerized record. This is because there are many factors that are associated with errors in a database or on a record. For example, there are many people in this world and thusly a name can be mistaken, nonhuman machines running and recording things about actual humans could lead to potential problems because the machines cannot recognize special cases and it does not have any common sense, many people have too much faith in computerized records and their accuracy, some people create errors when putting information into the database, failure to update information, and many people do not want to take the blame if something goes wrong within the computerized records. People managing paper records can have all of these problems as well because people are prone to make mistakes. No one is perfect and therefor a database whether it be paper or electronic is going to have a mistake or two or three etc. There is no possible way to determine if a computerized record has any more potential at being less problamatic than paper records because both actually have a lot of common factors that make record keeping very difficult.

b) Describe some policies or practices that can help prevent such problems.
There are many policies and/or practices that can help prevent such problems. For starters, if the people that are using either the paper or the computerized record system if they enter the persons name with his/her social security number then that fixes the problem of the large population and names being mis-matched, second, if the people that are using the paper records know about the special case scenarios beforehand and if the computerized records are programmed with these special case scenarios then that fizes the second problem dealing with machines not having common sense, thirdly, if people are more cautious about how/when/why/where they are putting data entries into the records then that would fix the accuracy problem, fourthly, if people are more careful when entering the data into the records then that fixes the carelessness errors, fifth, make sure that the information in the records are updated frequently (month, year, etc.) to fix the problem dealing with lack of updated information, and six, make sure that if there is an error either with a person at fault or a machine, take responsibility for it so that more problems may not arise but rather be settled quickly and efficiently.

4.10
Consider the standardized-test-score-reporting error discussed in the box in Section 4.1.3 Suppose the scores had been reported to the schools as significantly higher, rather than lower, than the correct scores. Do you think the schools would have questioned the scores? Do you think the error would have been discovered? If so, how? Give a few examples of situations where you think computer errors would not be reported. For each example, give your reason (e.g optimism, ignorance, gullibility, dishonesty).

Personally, I do not think that the school would have questioned the higher scores unless they had morals. But I mean in todays world, where nearly everything is a competition, people want to show other people that their schools are superior and if this means using false test scores as proof, so be it. I think that if the scores were really low, like 10 percent all around lower than the year they were before then the school would have done something but if it was higher ten percent then heck, make it work for in your benefit. I think that the error would have been eventually caught because school testing officials (like in Section 4.1.3) would have been very skeptical of the scores showing sudden rises in every category. Also, I bet that they would have questioned the "CTB" and looked into it further especially if it was a school that could never in its right mind achieve test scores like that.
Some examples of where computer errors would not be reported could be:
- If a bank or the government issues you a check for way more than it should be - dishonesty because one should report that but who is going to do that in this economy?
- If a store does not charge your credit card - again dishonesty because they are stealing
- If a person goes through the wrong lane in a toll plaza - truthful because they are the ones actually at fault