Lesson Plan
Lead By: Emily Hines, Sarah Izzell, Meredith Vertrees
Day 1
Introduction of topics & Review of Reading
Article 1: A Linguistic Approach to Categorical Color Assignment for Data Visualization [Link]
Activity #1: Data Mapping & Analysis
Students will be given printed map of main campus to map out their day and how they interact with Big Data. They will place their pencil on either a dorm or parking deck and then, without lifting their pencil, retrace their steps from the day, moving their pencil to each location. When they reach a building/destination, they will place a spot to mark it. As they reach a location, students will mark how they interacted with Big Data at that location, such as a tally mark for each card swipe, or for each time they logged into wifi. Students will end up with a complete data map of their day. Next we will take up all the data maps, and line them up on the whiteboard for comparison. We’ll note of any overlap of most visited locations, and any overlap of locations that have the most data being generated. The class will then take on the role of university board members to decide how the university can be improved based on the data presented. For example, we may see that a majority of students are using wifi in talley and so we might need to make sure there is ample wifi available.
Homework: Blog Post: Students will look at their own Instagram/Facebook photos and talk about how they might be targeted by direct advertising. They should mention what kind of data their photos communicate (was the photo taken with a phone? Is there evidence of big data contributions in the photo? What type of ads would the student receive based on the social media site that their photo is hosted on?)
Day 2
Article 2: “Visual Rhetoric and the Promotion of Scientific Ideas: The Strange Case of the Prion”
Class Discussion about article 2.
Video: TED talk: Turning Powerful Stats into Art.
Article 3: Visability ad Rhetoric: The Power of Visual Images in Norman Rockwell’s Depictions of Civil Rights. [Link]
Activity Groups will be provided with viral images that attempted to create social awareness / change. Some of these images were successful and some were not. Groups will have to determine what event or issue that image is portraying/what emotions are evoked, etc.
Discussion questions include:
What are your initial thoughts of the images? How do they make you feel/ what emotions do they provoke?
All of these images went viral on the Internet. What effect do you think that has?
What message were they trying to communicate? Is that different from the message they did communicate?
How does big data indicate that there is a social or cultural problem? How can this data be manipulated?
The Slideshow Presentation:
https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/12nfGwtO6agsD3Ig-S86b2VP-gKZZpoogOhV_eQHpbGs/edit?usp=sharing