What can we say with our data? (30 minutes)
Take about 10 minutes and comment on a Discord post. If you have already commented on a post, comment on another one.
In your comment you can:
- talk about what you liked and *why* in the post
- expand on an idea in the post with ideas of your own
- talk about examples of something talked about in the post. You can pull examples from the reading, a different reading, or your personal experience
Avoiding Big Dick Data and Communication
How do we avoid the GDELT problem and others like it in general? In our projects?
What are all the things you can possibly think of that is important to consider contextually WITHIN the data you have when analyzing AND communicating?
What are all the things you can possibly think of that is important to consider contextually OUTSIDE of the data you have when analyzing AND communicating?
Example from Isabella–what do you think about how this communicates context? What works? Should anything be changed or added?:
Here’s a collection of headlines today in press:
Research Tips (10-15 minutes)
Step 1: Find Your Search Engine
Google is a good place to start. Google will be harder to find and access academic sources, which are highest quality because all academic research that is published is reviewed by experts in that field.
Tip: Our Baruch Newman Library Search Engine is a great place to start!
Other education search engines include:
Step 2: Identify Your Sources
What type of source is most appropriate for the topic that you want to research?
- books or e-books
- edited volumes, collections, or anthologies
- government publications
- newspaper or magazine articles
- articles in scholarly journals
- websites or individual pages on a website
- YouTube videos, films, or documentaries
- Podcasts
Depending on your topic, one kind of source might be better than another. For instance, really “new” topics (e.g., pandemic disinformation) might not have that much academic research and thus could benefit from reputable sources that are not academic.
Step 3: Brainstorm and Use Key Words and Short Phrases
- Think about your topic. What are some words or small phrases that can describe what you are trying to research? Tip: Think of synonyms!!
- In searches, use quotation marks around a short phrase “” and all results populated will include that phrase
- In searches, use Boolean Operators- simple words (AND, OR, NOT or AND NOT) used as conjunctions to combine or exclude keywords in a search
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- AND: both keywords will be present in all result documents
- OR: one or both keywords will be present in all result documents
- NOT or AND NOT: all result documents will contain the first keyword but will specifically exclude documents that also contain the second
Tip: Use parentheses () as a way to combine boolean operators for an even more specific search
Ex: Searching (pollution or deforestation) and climate change return documents containing: pollution and climate change; deforestation and climate change; pollution and deforestation and climate change; but does not return pollution or deforestation when climate change is not mentioned.
Let’s work (20-30 minutes)
Let’s start research and drafting. Let’s get to work! Try to find some sources that can deepen your contextual knowledge about your topic and data.
You can also mess around with some analysis, get started drafting, research organizations or publications for your paper, etc.
I’ll come around and check in with everyone.
Next Time
-Nothing due on March 22–use this time to work on your Data-Driven Argument