Free Resources Aimed at Improving Data Literacy

SAS has launched a course designed to teach K–12 educators new strategies for understanding and communicating data to students. SAS also created a set of separate resources for K–12 educators “aimed at helping digital native students also become data natives as well.”

The free course, Data Literacy Essentials, offers six modules designed to provide a clear understanding of data literacy. As SAS explains it: “The new SAS data literacy course … introduces data basics, as well as what it means to be data-literate. It teaches strategies for seeing the usefulness in data, interrogating data, discovering meaning, making decisions and communicating data. The course follows the journeys of a concerned parent, a small business owner and a public health expert, who each use data to navigate and problem-solve through the pandemic. The course also focuses on the ethical challenges of working with data. Data ethics refers to how we seek out, interpret and present data responsibly, including the moral judgments we make when working with data. The course covers how biases influence the ways we interact with and communicate data. It will help people gain the confidence and skills to question the stories people tell with data, and also provide guidance on ways we can work with data more responsibly.”

Data Literacy Essentials also offers progress tracking and a badge for completion.

Two of the six modules in the course are available now.

In addition to the course, SAS has released a set of resources, including a tool called Data Drives, designed to help students think critically about how outcomes are influenced; a collaborative coding environment for iPad called CodeSnaps; and a free app and website called GatherIQ “that teaches students about the United Nations’ 17 Sustainable Development Goals and inspires them to take action to make the world a better place.” Later this summer, SAS will release DataFly, a free tool “for K–12 teachers and students that offers a simple, fast and engaging way to collect and explore data from students in real time, whether they are together in person or virtually.”

Further details can be found on curiosity.sas.com.

About the Author

David Nagel is the former editorial director of 1105 Media's Education Group and editor-in-chief of THE Journal, STEAM Universe, and Spaces4Learning. A 30-year publishing veteran, Nagel has led or contributed to dozens of technology, art, marketing, media, and business publications.

He can be reached at [email protected]. You can also connect with him on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/davidrnagel/ .


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