Last week, Leah Powell and Sophia Ziegler presented a workshop at the Humanities Amped Educators meeting. They talked to middle and high school teachers about using the LDL to teach data literacy in the classroom.
Humanities Amped (HA) is an educational non-profit that supports over 1,000 students in more than 50 public school classrooms across Baton Rouge. HA fosters collaborative learning and democratic participation within schools by connecting educators with instructional coaches, community resources, and a robust professional educator network. HA educators encourage students to ask questions about their communities, seek answers with a variety of research methods, and actively connect to what they learn in the classroom. The workshop focused on content relevant to both the lives of the students and the needs of the teachers. In the hands of HA educators, the LDL is a resource that students can use throughout a multi-step research process.
Of particular interest to educators was the LDL’s collections of Baton Rouge-oriented oral histories and transcripts. Using online data tools (such as DataBasic.io), Powell and Ziegler demonstrated how LDL content can be used to teach data literacy and to engage students in critical data analysis. By working with Humanities Amped, LSU Libraries continues to promote the LDL as a valuable pedagogical tool beyond the university setting.
In a follow-up survey assessing the workshop, one educator wrote, “As a teacher, I feel like I can use [LDL] content to enrich my lessons. I think other educators would benefit from similar workshops, so they can think through ways of engaging students with Louisiana's rich history.”
Leah Powell is LSU’s Digital Collections Librarian, and Sophia Ziegler is LSU Libraries’ Head of Digital Programs and Services. The Digital Programs and Services Department of LSU Libraries actively seeks partnerships to strengthen the reach of the Louisiana Digital Library and digital cultural heritage from Louisiana. More about the oral history collections used in the workshop is available here: https://louisianadigitallibrary.org/lsu-thwcoh.
