Abstract
We quantify ourselves each day. Our identities are streamed in gigabytes of data that capture (and shape?) who we are, where we go, what we do, and even how we think. This notion that all that we are can be reduced to data is both exciting and frightening. How exciting that we might be on the threshold of understanding ourselves, or at least of getting a detailed picture of our patterns of being. But is that all? Are we, in the end, just a quintessence of data?
DOI
10.5642/steam.20140102.3
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 License.
Recommended Citation
Dias, Shamini
(2014)
"More than Gigabytes of Data,"
The STEAM Journal:
Vol. 1:
Iss.
2, Article 3.
DOI: 10.5642/steam.20140102.3
Available at:
https://scholarship.claremont.edu/steam/vol1/iss2/3
Author/Artist Bio
I believe in stories as a foundational learning medium across all disciplines; the human brain is wired to seek patterns, and what are stories but information woven into a pattern (I agree with Brene Brown that “stories are data with a soul”). I trained as a public school teacher and as a storyteller, and have explored using drama, art, and story making with learners from age 4 through adults, in schools and business settings. The arts, especially performance through narrative and visual story making, are powerful modes for teaching, learning, and communicating ideas in multiple subjects and contexts. My interest in STEAM emerges naturally out of my practice as an educator and researcher in seeking organic and synergistic interactions between the skills and mindsets that both scientists and artists use when they reach for excellence in their work. Putting the “A” into STEM education adds the missing link that makes STEM disciplines relevant, accessible, intriguing, awe-inspiring, and a natural part of our lives. Shamini Dias completed a PhD in Education at Claremont Graduate University and is currently the director of The Student Success Center at Claremont Gradate University