From Data Literacy to Collective Data Stewardship
The project aims to develop and investigate a technology-enhanced learning environment to engage youth from historically underserved communities in learning data literacy concepts and skills as they relate to the use of data for social advocacy. We partner with a youth advisory board to explore how critical perspectives on data inform how such a learning environment should be designed, and how role-based collaborative frameworks might be use to enhance traditional approaches to data literacy. Our technology and curriculum will afford engagement with data literacy through the adoption of four different roles - artist, journalist, detective, and scientist - expanding the scope of data literacy instruction. Youth will collaborate while using our platform in ways that allow them to support each other in embodying these roles and shift between roles as needed. The ultimate goal is for our program to foster data literacy skills that can build understanding amongst youth of how data and data-driven processes influence their lives and communities, thereby fostering a strong civic identity and ideas for action.
This NSF-funded project is a collaboration with Dr. Rosta Farzan and Dr. Jamie Booth at the University of Pittsburgh. Within the lab, Dr. Aditi Mallavarapu and Zak Risha work on the project.
Publications
Risha, Z., Mallavarapu, A., Farzan, R., Booth, J., Sondel, B., & Walker, E. (2022). Proposing a Role Based Framework for Data Literacy. Proceedings of the 16th International Conference of the Learning Sciences, 1601-1604.