Using Technology to Think with Data across the Curriculum

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Using Technology to Think with Data across the
Curriculum
Mark van t Hooft, Karen Swan, Annette
Kratcoski, Evren Koptur Kent State
University Research Center for Educational
Technology NECC Conference, San Antonio,
Texas July 2008
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Overview

• Why Data Literacy?
• Project Goals and Objectives
• Unit Background Thinking with Data
• Digital Tools and Thinking with Data
• Sample Activity

This material is based upon work supported by the
National Science Foundation under Grant No.
ESI-0628122. Any opinions, findings, and
conclusions or recommendations expressed in this
material are those of the author(s) and do not
necessarily reflect the views of the National
Science Foundation.
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Why Data Literacy?

• We use data every dayto choose medications or
  health practices, to decide on a place to live,
  or to make judgments about education policy and
  practice. The newspapers and TV news are full of
  data about nutrition, side effects of popular
  drugs, and polls for current elections. Surely
  there is valuable information here, but how do
  you judge the reliability of what you read, see,
  or hear? This is no trivial skilland we are not
  preparing students to make these critical and
  subtle distinctions.
• -- Andee Rubin

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Goals Objectives

• Develop a modular, interdisciplinary middle
  school unit, consisting of a series of four
  subject area modules that
• support deep student understanding of
  standards-based content processes in four
  disciplines Social Studies, Mathematics,
  Science, English Language Arts.
• use real-world data across the disciplines,
  allowing students to engage in key aspects of
  data literacy both within across the
  disciplines.
• are based on recent robust findings in
  cognition instruction, specifically address
  the notion of transfer across the curriculum
  (PFL).
• Integrate digital tools to support learning
  across modules.
• Create a set of assessments that measure student
  growth in data literacy as well as unique
  disciplinary approaches to it.

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Standards-Based Content
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Unit Context World Water Issues
Water Use in the Tigris-Euphrates Basin (SS,
Math, Science)
and in the United States (ELA)
"The Earth, with its diverse and abundant life
forms, including over six billion humans, is
facing a serious water crisis. All the signs
suggest that it is getting worse and will
continue to do so, unless corrective action is
taken. The crisis is one of governance,
essentially caused by the ways in which humans
have mismanaged water. -- World Water
Development Report (United Nations, 2000)
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Real-World Data
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Pedagogical Approach PFL

• A focus on peoples abilities to to learn in
  knowledge-rich environments
• Rather than evaluate whether people can generate
  a finished product, the focus shifts to whether
  they are prepared to learn to solve new problems
• Bransford Schwartz. (2001). Rethinking
  Transfer A Simple Proposal With Multiple
  Implications.

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Pedagogical Approach PFL
Preparation for Future Learning

• preparing students to learn in one curricular
  context (SS),
• with formal learning occurring in another (Math),
  
• extending the PFL approach to include application
  (Science)
• communication activities (ELA).

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Technology and Data Literacy

• Knowing how to use digital and connected
  technology has become an ever-increasing part of
  being literate, as technology has become the pen
  and paper of our time, the lens through which
  we experience much of our world
• -- Warlick, 2006
• Large generalizations about digital kids and
  their affinity for new styles of learning have a
  pernicious consequence they can blind us to the
  actual literacy gaps that exist in childrens use
  of digital media. If using digital tools well
  actually places cognitive demands on children
  that they need help with, wed better attend to
  and address them. We are beginning to recognize
  that the literacy demands of common media tools
  vary according to the purpose to which they are
  put.
• --Tally, 2007

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Use of Digital Technology in the Modules

• What we could/should use
• vs
• What the reality of school imposes
• How do we deal most effectively with this
  tension, without shortchanging learners?
• How much choice can/should we provide as part of
  the basic unit? Or should this just be a
  consideration for module extensions?
• What are the literacy demands that the use of
  digital technologies for learning puts on
  students?

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Use of Digital Technology in the Modules
Emphasis on simple tools (for a variety of
reasons, including access and scalability)

• Internet-based materials
• Word processor
• PowerPoint for content delivery
• Spreadsheets
• Digital maps

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Fostering Data Literacy Across the Curriculum

• Requires
• input from across the disciplines, allowing each
  teacher to remain a content expert
• but not imposing responsibility for teaching a
  new discipline (data literacy) on teachers
• Our approach
• Investigate a complex, engaging, real-world
  problem
• Social studies sets the context
• Math is used for quantitative analysis
• Science investigates the context from a
  scientific perspective, building upon analyses
  conducted in math
• ELA has students explore issues emerging from the
  data and communicate positions regarding these

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An Example
http//www.rcet.org/twd/index.html
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Science Challenge How does irrigation affect the
soil?

• Challenge Questions
• Which country depends the most on irrigation?
• Put the countries in rank order based on the
  percentage of irrigated land with salty soil.
• Which country has the most salty soil with a
  severe salinity problem?
• What do you think the relation is among rainfall,
  irrigation, and salty soil problems?

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Challenge 2 What leads to salt runoff in the
rivers?

• Challenge Questions
• Where is it most/least salty?
• What types of land are near the most and least
  salty parts of the river?
• What do you think is causing these problems?

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Conclusions (Lessons Learned So Far)

• Data literacy is a part of all aspects of our
  lives, including education. It is important to
  teach, but not easy to do.
• Teaching it across the curriculum may help in
  this matter.
• Integrating digital tools creates opportunities
  for rich experiences for data literacy (variety
  of resources data manipulation in multiple
  formats media creation).
• Integrating digital tools creates challenges
  (students and teachers technology literacy
  levels access).

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http//www.rcet.org