VIRTUAL New Schools of Thought

Abstract

At a time when Artificial Intelligence (AI) is increasingly being used to navigate our world, Big Data is growing exponentially. Before the design students create data projects, they must understand how the Internet of Everything (IoE) is shifting consumer demographics to the milieu of the individual to predict behavior through collecting this data. An introduction to the information theory of Shannon, Weaver, and Simondon, introduces design students to the complexities of “Technics and Culture” and examines the kinds of structure Big Data has and how Machine Learning, AI, and algorithms organize and change this data. The author has created a course on data storytelling where students can learn by using open-source data sets, simple mapping, and data-related projects. The resources and projects in the course emphasize that there are more than numbers at work in Big Data. Instead of dashboards of query results, students can use games, quizzes, infographics, zines, animations, and more to persuade audiences with data. An appreciation of the qualitative nature of data helps the design student learn to leverage the relationships and milieu of data in their design practice.