Continuous and Connected

On paper, data has to follow slow cycles. Computers deprecate such cycles, but our workflows seem stuck in a paper-based ideology. Here's what's possible now:

Continuous Collection

There is simply no need to have a reporting cycle at the end of each semester, when that data can be continuously gathered throughout the semester.

Continuous Analysis

Then, the data can be continuously looked at, trends noted, students and teachers who are falling behind given a hand. The concept of reporting could almost be dropped. Parents could also be given the data on a continuous basis, but that opens up a separate can of worms.

Multiple Sources

Data is connected. Some systems may try to become the One True Data Source(TM), but in reality they fail, and become just another data source in the equation. Data analysis has to account for this. I don't know how well analysis services can query disparate DB systems - for the moment I'm figuring some synchronisation will be the easiest way to achieve this (i.e. creating One True Data Source(TM) from a number of external ones).

The (newly developed) school reporting package we've just moved to doesn't account for this. It can handle the continuous nature of data collection, but less so the continuous nature of analysis, and barely at all multiple data sources. Those latter two can probably be hacked onto it using some SQL, but it's a shame the analysis and import features of the product itself look to the past more than to the future.

On the other hand, if everything is continuously continuous, we lose milestones, a sense of accomplishment, of finishing something. Our minds may adapt to this in time (facebook status vs a letter to a dear friend, web snippets vs a book, youtube vs a feature movie), but for now there still is probably some need to have clear end points for some of this (i.e. end of semester reports). But that can co-exist with the continuous collection and analysis.