EvergreenLP: Using a social network as a learning platform

Abstract

We are living more of our lives situated within online networks and communities where digital artifacts can be collected and processed to showcase individual and group behavior representations. Growing data bandwidth coupled with amplified computational resources are aligning to allow for analysis of human behaviors at unprecedented scales. The proper data generation, collection, storage and analysis techniques are mostly untaught in the undergraduate experience. Pedagogical research shows that project based learning encourages and supports design thinking and collaborative work; skills that are important to practitioners in data science centric industries. To address these academic needs, we develop the Evergreen Learning Platform (EvergreenLP). EvergreenLP is an interdisciplinary project based learning framework that leverages pedagogy rooted in Critical Media Literacy. Students take advantage of design-learning principles on the front-end and computational discipline standards on the back end. Students are engaged in the design, development and use of this platform while simultaneously contributing data content on the chosen social media platform. Our data analysis and visualization environment allows the student coders and non-coders to explore data science principles in context of a current event or topic trending on twitter. In this paper, we experimentally assess and present the benefits of introducing culturally relevant data techniques to African-American female students in an interdisciplinary seminar on #BlackGirlMagic (#BGM).