Ronald Anderson

Ronald Eugene Anderson (June 14, 1941 – December 21, 2020), also known as Ron Anderson, was an American sociologist. He was a professor emeritus at University of Minnesota in Twin Cities where he taught sociology from 1968 to 2005. His early work focused on social and institutional factors shaping the diffusion of technology-based teaching. Since 2007, his work has focused on web-based compassion and world suffering.

Personal life Anderson was born on Flag Day, June 14, 1941 in Sikeston, Missouri. He was the second of four children born to Merlin Anderson (1911–2000) and his wife Eleanor (née Stafford; 1912–2009).

He traveled with the family to Africa. His parents' were medical missionaries in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia from 1944 to 1953.

He graduated from high school at Upper Columbia Academy in 1958; then graduated from college at La Sierra University in Riverside, CA with a BA in psychology in 1962, and from Stanford University with a PhD in sociology in 1970. In 1968, he accepted a faculty position at the University of Minnesota where he lived and worked until retirement. He died on December 21, 2020, at the age of 79.

Ron was married twice and had two children, Gina and Evan.

Professional History and Honors During most of his professional career, Anderson actively contributed in three distinct disciplines: sociology, educational research, and computer science. While his publications reside within the intersection of these fields, he has received honors or awards for outstanding service from the principal professional associations of each of these three fields: American Sociological Association, the American Educational Research Association, and the Association for Computing Machinery. In 2001, he was awarded the Outstanding Service Award by the Special Interest Group for Computers and SocietySIGCAS Mission — SIGCAS – Computers & Society of the Association for Computing Machinery. In 1990, he became an invited member of Sociological Research Association; and in 2008, he became an invited FellowAERA Fellows of the American Educational Research Association. In August, 2012, the Communication and Information Technology Section of the American Sociological Association will honor him with the prestigious William F. Ogburn Lifetime Achievement AwardAwards | CITASA

Secondary (Re-purposed) Survey Data Analysis Anderson learned secondary data analysis skills from his mentor, Stuart C. Dodd at the University of Washington in 1963, and his advisor, John W. Meyer at Stanford University. Anderson applied these skills with John O. Field to study how ideology influenced presidential elections. The resulting paper,Field, J. O. & Anderson, R. E. (1969) "Ideology in the Public's Con-ceptualization of the 1964 Election," Public Opinion Quarterly 33, pp. 380-398 published in the Public Opinion Quarterly, was reprinted in several major political science texts and was discussed at length by Herbert Hyman, who considered the Anderson-Field link between theoretical analysis and creative mining of secondary data resources to be exemplary and a contribution to both theory and data analysis methodology.Hyman, Herbert (1970) Second¬ary Analysis of Sample Surveys, pp. 185-191.

In 1981, Anderson received a grant from the National Science Foundation to conduct secondary analysis of the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) of science and math. One of the papers from this project was published in 1984 and was the first report on the digital divide in the United States using large-scale, national survey data.R. Anderson, L. Harris, W. Welch (1984) “Inequities in Opportunities for Computer Literacy," The Computing Teacher, 11, 8, pp 10-13. The term digital divide did not appear in the literature or the media until 11 years later.

These results, with lengthy quotes from Anderson, who directed the US portion of the study, were widely disseminated in the popular media including articles in the New York Times,“Richer Schools Likelier to Obtain Computers” New York Times (Sept 6, 1983). the Washington Post,“Computers Give Poor Kids New Handicap” The Washington Post (Front page, September 12, 1983). Business Week,“If women don’t go into Computers” Business Week (June 21, 1982) the Wall Street Journal,“Courses in Computer Literacy Beginning to Draw Bad Marks,” The Wall Street Journal (Sept. 16, 1983) and Ms. Magazine.“Do Schools Teach Computer Anxiety?” Ms. Magazine (December 1982) In the academic literature, Anderson is reported as “explicating the depth of the digital divide in shaping the adolescent life course.”Mortimer, J T. and Larson, R. W. in The Changing Adolescent Experience (2002), . While the media focused upon the findings of sex and income gaps in access and computer course enrollments, Anderson and his associates also found major differences by race and region. Thirty years later, researchers continue to find major gaps (digital divides) in the demographics of the use of information technologyAnderson, R. E. & Ainley, J. (2010) "Technology and Learning: Access in Schools Around the World" in Baker, E., Peterson, P, & McGraw, B. (Eds) International Encyclopedia of Education, Third Edition, Elsevier, vol. 8, pp. 21-33.Bank, Barbara J. (Editor) Gender & Higher Education, Baltimore, MD: The Johns Hopkins University Press, Pp. 254-260. In 1981, Anderson founded and served as director of the Minnesota Center for Survey Research.Minnesota Center for Survey Research: http://oms.umn.edu/mcsr/. He served in that capacity for five years and started the Minnesota State Survey and the Twin Cities Area Survey, both of which are still conducted annually by the center, which is a unit of the University of Minnesota. During the next two decades, Anderson continued survey work but mostly cross-nationally, which is described in later sections below.

Computing Applications in Research and Teaching In the late 1960s, Anderson worked full-time as a computer programmer at the Stanford University Computation Center, now called Information Technology Services. Throughout his career as a sociologist, he also worked as a computer consultant developing applications for many educational, governmental and business organizations.Vita of Ronald Anderson: http://www.soc.umn.edu/~rea/documents/ron%20anderson%20vita%20full%20%2022july2012.pdf Many of publications by Anderson (125 articles, 4 books authored, and 5 books edited) describe and critique the use of computers and new media in research, teaching, and learning.Vita of Ronald Anderson: http://www.soc.umn.edu/~rea/documents/ron%20anderson%20vita%20full%20%2022july2012.pdf. He also (with David Garson) has served as Co-Editor of the Sage Publishing academic journal, Social Science Computer Review, since 1987.Social Science Computer Review

Simulation Modeling Anderson pioneered the development of two major simulation models. The first provides scenario-based analysis of the impacts of changing sentencing laws. This work started in 1979 for the Minnesota Sentencing Guidelines CommissionMinnesota Sentencing Guidelines Commission: http://www.msgc.state.mn.us/. and the [Minnesota Department of Corrections] (MDOC). It consisted of a [microsimulation] model of the effects of hypothetical changes in sentencing laws upon prison and probation populations. The model, now called the Structured Sentencing Simulation,Anderson, R. E.(1993) "Development of a Structured Sentencing Simulation," Social Science Computer Review 11,2 pp. 166-178.http://www.nccourts.org/Courts/CRS/Councils/spac/Documents/2011-popproj.pdf. is still used by [Minnesota] and [North Carolina] in prison population projections and “what if” scenario simulations.

His second major simulation work, between 2009 and 2012, addresses college student retention. He and demographer, Martin Spielauer,Martin Spielauer: http://www.spielauer.ca/ developed a computer model called MicroCC.Spielauer, M. & Anderson, R. E. (2012) “Microsimulation Modeling of Student Success in Community Colleges Using MicroCC,” Social Science Computer Review 30, 4 (Nov 2012) pp499-512. It was developed under a grant from the [National Science Foundation], and has been applied to 250,000 community college students in New England.DECA report on community college student progress: http://www.colorado.edu/ibs/decaproject/pubs/Report%20on%20Feasibility%20of%20Using%20SURs%20for%20ATE%20Retention%20v2%206july10.pdf.

Educational Software During the 1970s and 80s, Anderson pioneered educational software applications for social science teaching and research. He developed over 50 applications that were distributed by Random House, Longman Publishing, and Control Data Corporation. Some of the more popular titles include Social Indicators Game, The Public Opinion Exercise: American Sexual Values and Social Power Game.Magnuson-Martinson, Scott (1995) "Classroom Computerization: Ambivalent Attitudes and Ambiguous Outcomes." Teaching Sociology. 23:1-7. The latter game received the NCRIPTAL/EDUCOM Higher Education Distinguished Software Award in 1987.

Lectures on New Media in Education Principally during the 1980s and 1990s, Anderson gave invited lectures on using new media, which includes educational technology and instructional technology, to teachers and administrators in both secondary and postsecondary institutions as well as national educational organizations. The latter included the Ministry of Education (Singapore), Japan's National Institute for Educational Policy Research,Japan’s National Institute for Educational Policy Research: http://www.nier.go.jp/English/index.html and the Ministry of Education and Research (Norway). Within the United States, his lectures included the National Academy of Sciences, Eastern Montana College, University of Akron, University of Dayton, Ball State University, and Eastern Michigan University.

Social Implications of Technology During the 1970s, Anderson published a number of articles on the ways in which the social context of computing shaped its use and development. In his writing on the social aspects and implications of computing, he persistently emphasized the need for research data for making decisions about the implementation of computer technology. The ACM Digital Library contains 33 articles by Anderson with a total of 982 citations and 617 downloads in 2012 alone.ACM Digital Library: http://dl.acm.org/author_page.cfm?id=81100104145&CFID=85046073&CFTOKEN=10671748

With funding from the National Science Foundation to the Minnesota Educational Computing Consortium, Ron Anderson and Dan Klassen conducted the first large-scale survey, which surveyed the nearly 7,000 Minnesota high school teachers of math and science regarding their use of computers in teaching. They found that in 1978, before the release of the PC, half of the teachers used computers in their classes and the social context and social attributes of the teachers determined computer utilization.Anderson, R.E., Hansen, T., Johnson, D.C., and Klassen, D.L.(1979) "Acceptance and Rejection of Instructional Computing by Secondary School Teachers," Sociology of Work and Occupations 6,2 pp 227-250.

In 1982, then U.S. Congressman Al Gore invited Anderson to participate in the “Computers and Education Hearings” of the Subcommittee on Investigations and Oversight of the House Science and Technology CommitteeSubcommittee on Investigations and Oversight of the U. S. House Science and Technology Committee: http://science.house.gov/subcommittee-investigations-and-oversight in Washington, D.C., on September 29, 1983. The full Statement of Ronald E. Anderson before the Subcommittee can be downloaded from the ACM Digital Library.Statement before the Subcommittee on Investigations and Oversight of the House Science and Technology Committee on 1984 The statement emphasized differences in the implementation of computer utilization in schools based upon social and demographic factors, and the need for local and national evidence-based accountability.