data modeling with Nike + iPod

http://edcommunity.apple.com/ali/story.php?itemID=10588

I read an interesting short article on teaching statistics to children using the Nike + iPod sports kit. Children wear the special Nikes hooked up to their iPod and record workout information, such as calories burned. They can use the data that they collect to make predictions on how many calories will be burned during future workouts -- varying weight, length of workout, intensity, etc.

Although this sounds like a fun way to gather data, it also seems like an extraordinarily expensive way to gather such data. It is also clearly a ploy to boost Nike and iPod sales by selling them to schools and cultivating students' interest in them. I do not love this idea. Children are already bombarded with advertising. They don't need it in their classrooms as well.

Also, Nike does not have a stellar record in terms of social consciousness. They are one of a group of popular shoe and clothing companies who have unfair work conditions for those who manufacture their products. Nike officials even admitted to using child labor to make their products (although, they said it was a mistake).