Using Critical Thinking and Numeracy to Evaluate Social Media

Last week I was in Nebraska working with some great adult ed teachers on critical thinking, numeracy, and social media. We spent a great deal of time discussing critical thinking and the ways in which we can engage our students with instructional strategies that foster deeper reasoning and questioning. The teachers evaluated some data regarding demographics of social media users on Facebook, Twitter, and MySpace, and generated lesson plans and follow-up questions from that data. In their analysis of the bar graphs (attached), they made some important observations and follow-up questions about the 25-34 year olds using these social media platforms.

What do you notice and wonder about this population, and what additional questions might you want to ask about the data when it was gathered, currently, and in 10 more years? Share your questions and ideas and keep this conversation going with your colleagues in Nebraska.