What If You Didn’t Go to College?

A Data-Driven Social Media Learning Experience

By Joey Azoulai

This project combines social media and data visualization to help high school students weigh
the pros and cons of attending college. High school students have a growing number of options
when it comes to postsecondary education but rarely have an opportunity to assess these
options from a quantitative perspective or from perspectives outside of their community. A
person’s lifetime earnings will, to a large extent, be determined by their educational attainment
and the communities that they come from. In this learning experience, students will leverage
Instagram and statistics to form an understanding how their post secondary choices can affect
their life outcomes. In this project, learners combine formal materials (the data visualization) with
informal expertise (comments from the community) to gain both a quantitative and qualitative
view into the connection between degree attainment and lifetime earnings. Both of these
perspectives will be important for these learners as they navigate their postsecondary options.

Target Audience
This project is geared toward high school juniors and seniors who are considering whether or
not to go straight to college after graduation. My assumption is that these learners will be low
socio-economic status (SES) because this population is more likely than their wealthier peers to
consider alternatives to a 4-year degree.

Learning Objectives
Students will be able to…

● Determine the drawbacks and benefits of going to college by analyzing data

visualizations to cite lifetime earning differentials between various levels of education.

● Reflect on their personal set of priorities and life circumstances and incorporate these
into their decision about if and when to attend college.

● Judge the credibility and usefulness of comments made by the community and
incorporate these into their decision about if and when to attend college.

Learning Theories
● Mobile Computing - ​Instagram is a mobile-only social media platform. Mobile
computing can bridge the gap between formal and informal learning experiences
(Greenhow & Lewin 2016). Students can connect with expertise outside of their
institutions as well as engage in communication with their peers (Gikas & Grant 2013).
 ● Connected Learning Theory ​describes an approach to learning that is socially
constructed, community orientated, and leverages the learner’s background and
interests. This approach can be especially useful in reaching underrepresented or
diverse groups of learners (Davis & Fullerton 2016).

Sources

Davis, K., & Fullerton, S. (2016). Connected learning in and after school: Exploring technology's
role in the learning experiences of diverse high school students. ​The Information Society​, ​32​(2),
98-116.

Gikas, J., & Grant, M. M. (2013). Mobile computing devices in higher education: Student
perspectives on learning with cellphones, smartphones & social media. The Internet and Higher
Education, 19, 18-26.

Greenhow, C., & Lewin, C. (2016). Social media and education: Reconceptualizing the
boundaries of formal and informal learning. ​Learning, media and technology​, ​41​(1), 6-30.