Thanks, Sarah! Too early to tell with DV4L.  Especially during the pandemic, the social studies teachers we're working with are just starting to incorporate the new data literacy goals into their social studies curricula.  Bahare is now working with a few teachers who are developing lesson plans for data literacy using tools. One theme we're seeing: Teachers try out new curricula first on the topics that they're most excited about.

 - Mark

Hi Kirstin,

We could go on for hours about how we scaffold our social studies teachers -- it's something that we think about a lot.  For example, we use minimal manuals to guide use with the tools that we include as design probes. We structure our participatory design sessions so that everyone gets something working (a visualization appears) within 10 minutes, everybody tries something new (some flexibility in outcomes), and we provide suggested paths for a few more things to explore.  We haven't contrasted with STEM teachers, but Tammy has a quote that I love: Most people don't become a history teacher because they love numbers, data, and computers.  History teachers are more drawn to narrative and context. So, the focus in developing and using visualizations are different than in STEM courses.

- Mark

Hi Joan,

The co-lead on the project, Tammy Shreiner, has published a journal article tracking data literacy standards in all 50 states: https://www.emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.1108/ILS-03-2020-0054/full/html

- Mark

Hi Joan, DV4L does not require any tech skills to work with, thanks for asking!
-Bahare

Hi Rosio,

Thank you! We just published a paper at SITE 2021 on our latest findings from our participatory design sessions -- see blog post here. One lesson is about the need for good user-centered design. Social studies teachers don't want to spend their time teaching a tool. So, by making task-specific tools, we create things that are easier to adopt and use.

 - Mark

Thanks!  We think that we are integrating programming. What would you call integrating programming?

 - Mark

Fair question. Well, I may also have misunderstood. In the video, you showed teachers writing code (JavaScript?) but then note that they were worried about getting it right and show the final tool which appeared to be a mix of dropdown menus to select the axis and I inferred no more Javascript required. So I inferred they were just making choices using those menus and not necessarily programming?  So I'd say that that is certainly tied to all sorts of great CS / computational ideas, but would have assumed it might not be viewed as programming without more control / power?  I think it's great either way, but as I think about some of my own projects and how they are similar or different, I was hoping to see how you were tackling that part and it's fit with CS ... expectations?

The code is a JSON object -- it's based on the way that Vega-Lite expresses code. The video mostly focuses on DV4L.  You can see both versions in this blog post.  http://historyindata.org/dv4l/ is the base version, where code is only visible when you click on a saved graph. http://historyindata.org/dv4l/scripting/ is the scripting version where you can edit the JSON or use the pull-down menus. The menus update the script, and vice-versa. Both will generate the graph. This is our scaffolding to ease into programming. 

We're not putting all our eggs into the one basket.  We're working on additional tools where programming is more visible.  We're developing all of these in a participatory design process, so we create prototypes (low-fidelity and high-fidelity) as design probes for our co-designers and design informants. Here's a video that we created for a group of teachers we're working with this week. This one is for a slow construct graph tool, where code is more visible and editable. 

Overall, I see this as design-based research using the technology of task-specific programming languages. One of the variables we vary is how much the programming language looks like a traditional text language versus more domain-relevant representations, like matrices for pre-calculus. We're exploring different degrees to how central programming is to the activity.

Very cool!! That's really interesting. I appreciate you elaborating and will be diving in now! 

Thanks, Susan.  I'm learning a lot about history education in this project. For the teachers we're working with, everything starts with stories, and the data only comes in if the teachers can figure out how it enhances the story. They're not at all interested in data that doesn't connect to the stories (narrative and context) that they're communicating.

Thanks, Kristin!  We've been thinking about the roles that data visualization can play in connecting students with challenging and difficult stories, like genocide and racism. Tammy Shreiner is eager to move our project towards critical data literacy.

Hi Josephine,

Thanks for coming by!  We're mostly using data from Our World In Data, Data.gov, and the United Nations.  I'd love to hear what works for you to get social studies to engage with the computing-based modules.  Our focus isn't classroom implementation yet.  Rather, we're focusing on iterative participatory design so that we have tools that social studies want to adopt.  Even though data literacy is part of social studies standards in most states, few teachers we have found actively use computational tools for any of those learning goals.

In terms of learning outcomes, it's the social studies standards first.  We want to help teachers achieve their goals. Secondly, affective outcomes about computing -- increasing self-efficacy around computing. Third, we hope to achieve learning outcomes around computing aligned with the earliest stages of the Everyday Computing learning objectives, e.g., recognizing that programs are deterministic, that changing the order of lines might or might not change the outcome, and that programs are exacting in syntax.