Thing 17: Data literacy & outreach
What resources exist for building an inclusive culture of data literacy - not just scientists and science disciplines? Find resources and think about the skills we need as information and data professionals
- Getting started: enjoy a quirky video and find some resources to build data literacy
- Learn more: tinker, tailor, soldier, sailor?: is data literacy the same for all of us?
- Challenge me: B(uild)YO data technical skills through the 4 Carpentries
Getting started
Building data literacy - what can you do?
We all have a role to play in building a world of data literate citizens.
- Enjoy this quirky and clever 1.48min video from a cartoonist: What is data literacy?
- Choose one of the sites from the list below. As you look around the site, think about how you might use these ideas to ‘grow’ your, or other people’s, data literacy
- For Universities and research institutes: Curtin University (Note: most universities have similar resources for those in universities or research institutes)
- For Federal, State or Local Govt: Publishing your data in Govt data portals
- For Business: Open data that drives business (UK, 2015)
- For teachers and school librarians: Scroll down to Resources for educators to find data repositories which have teaching materials
- For lecturers: Have a look at the 9 case studies of how research data is used in various curricula
- For librarians: A “top ten” list of recommendations for libraries to get started with research data management from LIBER (3 pages)
Learn more
Data literacy for whom?
People have very diverse needs in terms of what data literacy means for them.
Choose from the list below and explore “data literacy” from the perspectives of these diverse roles:
- Australian Public Service: will launch the APS Data Skills and Capability Framework in 2016 to ensure employees across the APS can develop a minimum level of data literacy. Report
- Entrepreneurs: Data Literacy – What It Is And Why None of Us Have It (from Forbes Magazine)
- Political science students: Data Literacy and Data Visualization Lecture 1: Introduction (Note: you need iTunes)
- Writers, journalists: Become Data Literate in 3 Simple Steps - checking the facts when writing the news
- Teachers and high school students: Data Literacy is Essential to Modern Society (aka: Winning and losing on the Lottery) Video 3.51mins (2016)
- Citizens: Open data for accountable governance: Is data literacy the key to citizen engagement?
Consider: your ideas about how we can build universal data literacy if we have such diverse needs.
Challenge me
DIY to build your own data literacy
Technical data wrangling skills are fast becoming a new form of data literacy. The four Carpentry concepts have really taken off over the past couple of years.
The “hour a week” for 23 (research data) Things doesn’t allow time to do any of the Carpentry modules (most need a couple of hours to complete) but here’s a chance to find out what all the Carpentry buzz is about.
Have a look at this Environmental scan of courses offering data skills. Then choose 1 Carpentry to explore in depth or browse over them all:
Consider: your ideas or experience about the value of the various Carpentry courses.
Do you have a question? Want to share a resource?
- Post to the Data Librarians Slack group to connect with the community.
- Tweet to @ardc_au using hashtag #23things
Keep on going to the next thing: Data interviews: talk the talk or return to all the things