Contrary to popular belief, “data can never be objective and neutral.” This is the view of Donata Columbro, journalist, communicator, and adjunct professor at IULM University in Milan, who has dedicated several essays to the topic. Her reflections, particularly those in “When Data Discriminates” (Il Margine, 2024), inspired this workshop, designed to encourage critical reflection on data.
Far from being neutral information, data contains prejudices, biases, and stereotypes. If we don’t understand how it is collected, processed, and interpreted, it can mislead, reinforcing stigmas and discrimination. For this reason, it is essential that everyone, especially the youngest, understand the processes that generate it.
Data has always been a useful tool for understanding reality, and today it is more crucial than ever thanks to information technologies that produce it in abundance in a wide range of sectors. Navigating data is challenging for everyone, especially adolescents who haven’t developed the knowledge and skills to decode its complexity.
Through a practical and interactive approach, students will use concrete examples to identify cognitive biases induced by data, understand how algorithms can discriminate against certain groups of people, and recognize when numbers are used misleadingly in the media.
The workshop is aimed at middle school students, from eighth grade onward. The goal is for them to understand that “data is a necessary ingredient for discovery, but a human being is needed to select it, interpret it, and transform it into insight.”