From Hate Speech to Societal Empowerment: A Pedagogical Journey Through Computational Thinking and NLP for High School Students

Alessandra Teresa Cignarella, Elisa Chierchiello, Chiara Ferrando, Simona Frenda, Soda Marem Lo, Andrea Marra

Abstract
The teaching laboratory we have created integrates methodologies to address the topic of hate speech on social media among students while fostering computational thinking and AI education for societal impact. We provide a foundational understanding of hate speech and introduce computational concepts using matrices, bag of words, and practical exercises in platforms like Colaboratory. Additionally, we emphasize the application of AI, particularly in NLP, to address real-world challenges. Through retrospective evaluation, we assess the efficacy of our approach, aiming to empower students as proactive contributors to societal betterment. With this paper we present an overview of the laboratory’s structure, the primary materials used, and insights gleaned from six editions conducted to the present date.
Anthology ID:
2024.teachingnlp-1.7
Volume:
Proceedings of the Sixth Workshop on Teaching NLP
Month:
August
Year:
2024
Address:
Bangkok, Thailand
Editors:
Sana Al-azzawi, Laura Biester, György Kovács, Ana Marasović, Leena Mathur, Margot Mieskes, Leonie Weissweiler
Venues:
TeachingNLP | WS
SIG:
Publisher:
Association for Computational Linguistics
Note:
Pages:
54–65
Language:
URL:
https://aclanthology.org/2024.teachingnlp-1.7
DOI:
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Cite (ACL):
Alessandra Teresa Cignarella, Elisa Chierchiello, Chiara Ferrando, Simona Frenda, Soda Marem Lo, and Andrea Marra. 2024. From Hate Speech to Societal Empowerment: A Pedagogical Journey Through Computational Thinking and NLP for High School Students. In Proceedings of the Sixth Workshop on Teaching NLP, pages 54–65, Bangkok, Thailand. Association for Computational Linguistics.
Cite (Informal):
From Hate Speech to Societal Empowerment: A Pedagogical Journey Through Computational Thinking and NLP for High School Students (Cignarella et al., TeachingNLP-WS 2024)
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