To help students become data literate we must acknowledge several core aspects of our data-driven world and the factors driving disinformation.

Data is everywhere, nearly everything is digital and those digital things produce and consume data. Examples include chatbots, TV show recommendations, autonomous vehicles, fraud detection, job screening, medical imaging, social sentiment analysis and text message auto-complete, just to name a few. Awareness of how much data and data applications permeate our daily life is the first step toward data literacy.
Nearly every person and activity in the world is producing data. From online activities, mobile device usage, personal health apps, home assistant and countless other things a person does, nearly all of it produces data for someone to analyze. These data sources are the input to processes that are generating value (e.g., products, decisions and actions) for someone or for some organization and for almost every single industry, job and market. People need to understand their roles as contributors and consumers of data.
Students can be part of the digital transformation of the world. Through data science, machine learning and AI, students have the ability to compare complex data to the analogous normal cognitive abilities of pattern detection, pattern recognition and evidence-based decision-making.

There are many free data literacy courses and curricula that equip students, teachers, leaders and individuals with the data literacy skills needed to make sense of the data citizens encounter every day. Check out the resources offered by the News Literacy Project, which works with educators and journalists to give students the skills they need to discern fact from fiction and to know what to trust.

Instant Insights /

How to build data literacy to help students navigate misinformation

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