Talk:Eventmath/Lesson plans/Comparing streaming service pay rates to artists

Main task instead of rewriting original tweet

I used this lesson in my class and found that students were very interested in the topic! They were shocked by how little all of the platforms pay, and we had great discussions about how different ways of representing that numerical information made these concepts more/less clear to the reader.

However, I didn't have much success with the main activity of having students rewrite the original Tweet using the reciprocal numbers. Once the students calculated those new values to fill out the table, they didn't see any value in rewriting the Tweet (or didn't feel like sharing what they did). Instead, we ended up discussing how artists might share this kind of information, in general.

I'm hoping someone will have a suggestion for a different central activity for this lesson plan that goes beyond merely asking students to calculate values and reflect on them. Professorbrendan (discuss • contribs) 17:00, 27 June 2022 (UTC)

Ooh! Good question. How about something like the following? This is an extension of one of the existing homework prompts, but I think it could work well as a class activity. Students could complete it by drawing on paper (art supplies might be provided for those who want them) or by using software (spreadsheet software that supports charts and graphs, for example). Either would work for a real tweet (it's common to make a drawing by hand, take a picture of it, and then attach the picture to the tweet).

Activity:

Create a new tweet as follows.

1. Replace either list of numbers ($/stream or streams/$) with an appropriate graphical representation that makes the information easier to digest, without sacrificing accuracy.
2. Create ALT text for the graphic so that it's accessible to more people (e.g. people with visual or cognitive impairments, people who are searching with a search engine, or people for whom the image fails to load). According to the Twitter Help Center, "Good image descriptions are concise and descriptive, helping people understand what’s happening in an image." If the graphic conveys certain insights better than the numbers alone, an image description might convey those same insights verbally.

Here are some things I like about this activity:

• It preserves the spirit of the original activity, which I think is to help students to become better producers of quantitative information, in addition to becoming more critical consumers.
• This is an authentic activity, since a graphic with an image description really could make the tweet easier to understand.
• The rewritten tweets will be substantially different, so students may be more likely to see the value in this activity.
• The aesthetic aspects might inspire more creativity.
• Formulating a verbal description for the alt text may improve students' understanding.
• There will likely be many opportunities for constructive feedback (guidance on the type of plot, axis labels, etc.)

Resources for the instructor about writing good alt text:

The lesson plan could perhaps include a very brief summary of the relevant portions of the guides below.

• WebAIM article on alt text
• University of Minnesota guide to alt text (with examples for charts and graphs)
• Advice from a Harvard University guide on digital accessibility

What do you think? Greg at Higher Math Help (discuss • contribs) 06:02, 28 June 2022 (UTC)

This is a great idea!!! I especially like how it involves the students actually creating something (the visual representation of data), which was the intent behind the original activity (rewriting the tweet). And the end result is something the students can share on social media, which will likely inspire them and give them more agency in the activity. Finally, having them create the alt text is awesome, too, thank you for those resources. Professorbrendan (discuss • contribs) 17:29, 29 June 2022 (UTC)

Moving first-person experience into the endorsements

@Professorbrendan: There's a helpful comment in the initial discussion. I propose moving it to the endorsements.

(I had success with posing these questions to students on paper as a mock "quiz" for a couple of minutes, and then asking them to compare answers in groups of 2 or 3 to see if any questions arise before the main task.)

Since many people may ultimately contribute to this lesson plan, it's not easy to know who "I" refers to here. Also, it will probably help to have all first-hand experience in one section, so that it's easy to find. However, it is helpful to mention the success of the mock quiz as this idea is introduced. So, I propose the following:

1. Move the quoted text into the endorsements, by editing the current endorsement.
2. Make a remark under "Initial discussion" that summarizes the same experience, in the third person (e.g. "Based on the endorsements, the mock quiz has been successful in at least one classroom," or something along those lines.)

Thoughts?

Greg at Higher Math Help (discuss • contribs) 22:03, 18 August 2022 (UTC)