Reflections on Stata as a Tool for Life-long Learning

Lee SieswerdaEpidemiologist, Thunder Bay District Health Unit

Assistant Professor, Northern Ontario School of Medicine

Streptococcus pyogenes

Necrotizing fasciitis

010

2030

40A

nnua

lized

rat

e pe

r 10

0,00

0

03.6

1020

3040

50ca

ses

1995

/96

1996

/97

1997

/98

1998

/99

1999

/00

2000

/01

2001

/02

2002

/03

2003

/04

2004

/05

2005

/06

2006

/07

2007

/08

2008

/09

season (July-June)

cases Annualized rate per 100,000

Thunder Bay District Health Unit, 1995/96 to 2009-03-31Confirmed Group A Streptococcal Disease

Principles of adult learning

– Participatory - adults learn by doing– Self-directed and informal – They do most of their

learning on their own, jumping around to find what is most relevant and interesting.

– Connected to existing knowledge and experience– Practical and goal-oriented - learn what they need

to solve a problem– Convenient – barriers to real progress should be

minimized

“Creativity is a learning process where the teacher and the pupil are located in the same individual”

Arthur KoestlerBritish novelist and essayist

“Creativity in science could be described as the act of putting two and two together to make five”

Arthur Koestler

tabulate -> svy tabulate -> svy estimation

regress -> estimation commands -> poisson -> nbreg

regress -> estimation commands -> GLM -> xt commands -> xtmixed

Stata characteristics

• Design elements• responsive, consistent syntax,

emphasis on typing and syntax

• Full suite of procedures at base price

• Documentation• well-written, encyclopaedic, cross-

linked

• Extendible and supported• ability of user to add procedures • good community of programmers • Programming same language as syntax

• Not so esoteric that learning is actually impeded

Principles of Adult Education

• Participatory - learn by doing

• Self-directed and informal

• Connected to existing knowledge and experience

• Practical and goal-oriented - learn what they need to solve a problem

• Convenient – barriers to real progress should be minimized

A Tool?

A library?

Software?

A knowledgeable expert?

“I keep saying that the sexy job in the next 10 years will be statisticians...and I’m not kidding.”

Hal VarianChief economist, Google