Are you crawling, walking, or running towards data literacy?
It can be tricky to decipher what is important to tell the right story your business needs in today’s information age. “Data Literacy is recognizing, through the noise, which data is reliable,” explains Dr. Jack Slingluff. “It’s being able to, first and foremost, find reliable data or create it, and then transform it into a meaningful story that really fits your needs.” In today’s business landscape, there is a door you can use to make or break understanding your business. The lock is completely understanding all the information you collect. The key is data.
Grounded With Data simplifies data literacy in a Crawl, Walk, Run assessment of how comfortable you are with different aspects of your data.
Patti Brownsord, the co-founder of Grounded With Data, explains the strategy for understanding data literacy. “We have been working with people who want to do more with their data, who know they need more, but they need to have some starter metrics that will help them get comfortable with tracking their data. Whether it’s a service or product, or some metrics to manage as a team. Not the heavy math, r-squared regression analysis.” In the crawling stage, the main goal is to be curious. Asking questions about specific data areas in your business that you would like to know more about can be built upon as you advance to the walking stage.
The crawling stage starts with qualitative research. “So being grounded in data isn’t just necessarily asking, ‘what are your metrics?’ says Patti Brownsord. “But also asking, ‘what are all of the insights telling you? And how does it all fit together?’” Recently, Grounded With Data was involved in a survey for understanding Gen Z, and an important observation they discovered was how differently information is received from other generational groups. This is an excellent example of gathering qualitative data in the crawling stage. Patti elaborated: “One reason to do the research was to create a messaging strategy. And the other reason was just to learn more about Gen Z and their habits and why they are the way they are.”
“What data literacy means is being able to tell what is reliable data, or knowing where to find reliable data and how to tell a story from it,” adds Dr. Jack. It is essential to understand the data to get you asking the right questions to develop the right insights. The Journal of Media Literacy Education conducted a study in the DataBuzz project that looked at the different types of data collection and testing competency among various groups of people. They found that although citizens might be well aware of data and algorithms in society, they “lack numerical and statistical skills to independently use data (Seymoens, T., Van Audenhove, L., Van den Broeck, W., & Mariën, I.).”
Take the Crawl, Walk, Run assessment and identify where you are with understanding data literacy.
DataBuzz is a high-tech, mobile educational lab housed in a 13-meter electric bus. Its specific goal is to increase the data literacy of different segments of society in the Brussels region through inclusive and participatory games and workshops. Read more about their study here.
