Peer Review Activity (30-45 min)
Let’s work with someone close to you, may need a trio. Do the following:
- Explain what the data set or database is to your partner(s)
- Share a link or send attachment to their email so they can look themselves
- Share your in-progress draft for Part I of the Data Set Critical Biography
- Each group member looks through the in-progress version and brainstorms other possible ways to address question.
While you are working together, I’ll come around and check in with everyone to see how it’s going.
Practice with Questioning Data Sets (Part II Questions) (30-45 min)
Refreshers:
- Looking around, not just “in” (go to “Looking **Around** Not Just In” about looking for information around the data set and not just within the data set)
- Primary and Secondary Research (this is also linked on the “Data Resources” page on our menu bar on course site)
After thinking about those refreshers, I want us to re-visit the prompt for the Part II questions and get some practice on an example data set. Make sure you have the prompt handy (it is in assignment instructions folder for today as well as for March 1).
Here are the questions from Part II:
- What sorts of goals does this collection of data seem to prioritize? What are all the possible reasons this data might be collected by the people and/or organizations that are collecting it? Think especially of the person and/or organization who collected the data.
- What sorts of goals does this collection of data seem to NOT prioritize? Who is overlooked here? Think especially of anyone who might be harmed by this collection of data.
- What data is missing? What data would offer a fuller understanding of any or all of the variables? Why? How?
- If this data was collected again, what possible missing data could help create a more ethical and socially just data set that lessened harm, helped people in an ethically sound way, and/or challenged oppressive powers?
- What “root causes” of problems that the data set is relevant to are important to think about when looking at this data set? Use Collins’ matrix of domination from the introduction to help answer this question.
- What historical and cultural knowledge would benefit any user in looking at this data set? What should people know before trying to understand, analyze, or use this data in any way that would help reduce harm and/or challenge oppression? Why?
Activity
In five groups of 3 and two groups of 2, you are going to try to brainstorm some possible answers for each question about the following data set. First, let’s take care of groups here:
Group 1: Harshita, Calvin, Aftar
Group 2: Jesus, Terence, Mike
Group 3: Isabella, Inesa, Dora
Group 4: Joanna, E’Longe, Eva
Group 5: Najae, Usri, Kabilan
Group 6: Letycja and Evelyn
Group 7: Alvy and TJ
Data Set for Activity
The data set we will look at is about Airbnb listings in NYC for 2019. I found this at Kaggle, and anything on Kaggle you will have to remember is often cleaned up and retrieved from somewhere else (look at “context” to get a sense of original location).
To get the csv file, go to the download button that is highlighted in the image below.
Also good to know: When using Kaggle, sometimes multiple data sets are available, so you might want to scroll all the way down and click around followed by clicking the download button to the right (highlighted in below image:
If no one in your group wants to make a Kaggle account to get access to the data set, I used my Kaggle account to download it. It is on our Blackboard website under “Resources Unable to be Posted on Website”.
Specifics of Activity
- Try to talk through each question and list as many possibilities as you can think of on this Google Doc (type into the boxes along with the other groups)
- What possibility was most interesting to you?
- What question was most confusing for how to approach for this data set (or just in general)
Next Time (2-5 min)
- Turn in Part II of Data Set Critical Biography by end of day Tuesday, March 1. Submit to Blackboard.