Humanities module uses COVID-19 to teach students how to interpret and use data
Professor Jim Porter of English and Emerging Technology in Business & Design created modules in two courses to help students access, interpret and use data about the COVID-19 pandemic. The module in his ENG 222 course teaches students to understand and critique complex data visualizations. “These visualizations are providing information, yes, but that information is also guiding public action,” he writes to students. A separate module in Digital Media Ethics identifies the “infodemic” that accompanies the pandemic. “Misinformation travels much farther and faster than accurate information,” Porter says. “That just makes it more dangerous.”