InstaClone – A Lifelike Social Media Educational Tool
Short description:
InstaClone is a lifelike social media educational tool designed to promote data and algorithmic literacy in secondary schools. It allows students to "look behind the curtain" and gain a deeper understanding of the underlying mechanisms of social media.
Keywords: social media education, data literacy, educational tool, algorithmic literacy
Target group: secondary students 14 years and older and their teachers
Vision:
InstaClone aims to empower young people to be a positive force for a better and healthier online public discourse, transforming them from mere users of social media platforms to active shapers of the future.
Mission:
Our mission is to provide secondary schools with a comprehensive curriculum intervention tool, accompanied by K-12 classroom materials, that enhances social media education. We strive to foster students' data and algorithmic literacy through a deep understanding of black box algorithms and the possibility to analyze typically inaccessible data.
Project outline:
InstaClone is a web-based environment replicating the functionality and visual appearance of Instagram, offering full control for educational and scientific purposes. It aligns seamlessly with secondary school education and is designed based on a pedagogical research framework of learning and teaching. With its user-friendly interface, InstaClone is freely available to teachers and can be used by anyone without IT experience. Students can engage with the tool in a similar way to Instagram but also use built-in dashboards and analytics features to explore the dynamics of social media.
Funding:
Funding: HfP Think Tank, Re-Boot Social Media Lab
Responsible PI: Doris Holzberger, Tilman Michaeli, Jürgen Pfeffer
Link:
For teachers who are interested in using the environment in their classroom, please inform yourself here.
Contact:
Contact: Tilman.michaeli@tum.de