Using R to enhance numeracy in geography: some pros and cons

Using R to enhance numeracyin geography: some pros and cons
Rich Harriswww.social-statistic.org@socstatistics
Using R to enhance numeracy in geography: some pros and cons by Richard Harris / University of Bristol is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.

From my office door
A society in which our lives and choices are enriched by an understanding of statistics
getstats.org.uk
A little idealistic but…

The Crisis of Numeracy
To unravel the complexities of society requires a highly skilled research base, equipped with suitable tools and techniques, most notably advanced quantitative methods […] Yet there are persistent concerns that the UK lacks the critical mass to satisfy such demand.
ESRC document (2011)

How can R help?
Broadly intuitive
Strong focus on graphics
It has in build good practice
It’s free and cross-platform
http://cran.r-project.org/
Extendable and customisable
Libraries for mapping, spatial statistics, spatial regression, geostatistics, etc.
Large user community

It’s not esoteric!
“R is used at the world’s largest technology companies (including Google, Microsoft and Facebook), the largest pharmaceutical companies (including Johnson & Johnson, Merck, and Pfizer), and at hundreds of other companies. It’s used in statistics classes at universities around the world and be statistical researchers to try new techniques and algorithms”
Adler (2010)

Example graphic made in R:Guardian league table rankings by University

Reading data into R

Exploring the data

Pseudo-code &Simple descriptive statistics

Manipulating the data

Inferential statistics

Relational statistics

Mapping(this is where it gets interesting!)

Some pros
Command line
Faster, pedagogically superior (learning by doing, no dumb button pushing!)
Keeps a clear log of what’s been tried
Which could be re-run as a script
Graphics are of publishable quality and easy to customise
Interactive
Extensive help documentation
Realistic exposure to research level computing environment

Some cons
Risk of automated copying by scripts
I always create individualised data for assessed project work
Pigeon English is hard for overseas students
There is native language support
Will often allow you to make errors!
Isn’t a software package that will mean much to most employers
Though the skill of statistical computing may be more credible

In general
“R is very good at plotting graphics, analyzing data, and fitting statistical models using data that fits in the computer’s memory. It’s not good at storing data in complicated structures, efficiently querying data, or working with data that doesn’t fit in the computer’s memory.”
Adler (2010)

Integration into the curriculum at Bristol School of Geographical Sciences

Resources
Books & Manuals for R
http://cran.r-project.org/
Using R for Introductory Statistics (Verzani, 2004)
Statistics: An Introduction Using R (Crawley, 2005)
R in a Nutshell (Adler, 2009)
The UseR series
http://www.springer.com/series/6991
Integration of R with Excel
http://www.statconn.com/
https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-sig-teaching
Special Interest Group (SIG) on teaching statistics with R. One particular focus of the SIG is to provide helpful support to instructors new to R who are teaching introductory statistics courses populated with students with little experience in statistics, statistical software, and command line interfaces.

And of course…
Workshop tomorrow
13.30 – 15.00 (Horton B)
Teaching material
www.social-statistics.org
From late 2011 onwards

Using R to enhance numeracy in geography: some pros and cons

by Rich Harris

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