Analytics and Metaphors: Grounding Our Understanding in a Conceptual Framework

The popularity of the analytics movement in education has given rise to a large number of platforms, all of which intend to increase the probability of student success. In this webinar, Dziuban and Moskal will suggest that making instructional and policy decisions by casting various approaches to analytics in terms of representable metaphors can be helpful for understanding their potential and possible limitations. This presentation derives from the work of Lakoff and Johnson, who argue that since our conceptual system is largely metaphorical, what we experience every day also is largely metaphorical. Further, Katrina Meyer suggests that metaphors create a framework for understanding our emerging technological world. Based on these assumptions, the presenters create metaphors for analytics approaches that range from Boolean classification to transforming higher education. By using metaphors, they describe something we may not fully understand in terms of something that is more familiar.