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What comes first - the chicken or the egg? Is data literacy the foundation for data culture?

We are faced with a similar question when trying to improve data literacy, drive BI adoption, and build a strong data culture. All three components support one another and collectively drive progress - but does one occur before the others?

What are some of the best strategies for incorporating all three of these components in a company wide initiative to make better data-driven business decisions? Challenges?

Great question @Kate_Baldwin! There are a few resources that I find quite useful in the education space.

1. https://everfi.com/insights/blog/teaching-data-literacy-skills/ - Provides insight on how educators can incorporate data into their curriculum no matter the subject area. The blog focuses mostly on K-12 students.
2. https://guides.emich.edu/c.php?g=585266&p=4042206 - Eastern Michigan University provides teaching tools and archived video presentations.
3. http://www.mikesmit.com/wp-content/papercite-data/pdf/data_literacy.pdf - Great whitepaper on "Strategies and Best Practices for Data Literacy Education"
4. https://vlat.herokuapp.com/ - Visualization Literacy Assessment Test. Not really a resource on integrating data literacy into the classroom but definitely a good resource to test one's knowledge on interpreting visualizations.

I was an investigative reporter at The New York Times for 10 years (2007-2016) and, being a lifelong, proud, card-carrying math geek, gained a reputation for being one of the few reporters who could easily detect data BS among politicians, scientists, and other media outlets, and did so in fields ranging from the National Football League (concussions) to child psychiatry (epidemiology, drug prescriptions). As a member of DLP's advisory board I'm hoping to spearhead efforts to bring better data literacy to the media through web materials, seminars and what-not. As consumers of news media, what do you think are the most pressing issues? Understanding risk? Percentages? Probabilities? Any examples that made you want to punch a hole in the TV?

When I get asked this question from an individual level, I tell people to start with the 2 C's of data literacy: curiosity and creativity. We need to be asking more and more questions around the world of data. Then, bring in the most powerful computer there is into the picture: our minds. By combining these elements, it allows the human element to be brought into the data element, helping with strong solutions.

I enjoy "data book" focused on healthcare - https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/data-book/id1365789336

also "Story Telling With Data"- http://www.storytellingwithdata.com/podcast

For me, one of the fun and entertaining podcasts, that helps open people's minds to how data can be used is "Freakonomics". Another great podcast that dives into the world of data, analytics, and data science from a very strong perspective is "Data Skeptic" by Kyle Polich (one of my absolute favorites).

Freakonomics - https://www.stitcher.com/podcast/stitcher/freakonomics-radio

Data Skeptic - https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/data-skeptic/id890348705

Some of the e-learning modules offered through the Qlik Continuous Classroom are an excellent starting point!

I often talk about my son - now 7 - and our (tongue-in-cheek) disappointment when we discovered he couldn’t read or write or talk when he was born. I joke that instead of enrolling him in an undergraduate degree in English literature that we began to sing to him, and read to him, and play word games and watch Sesame Street.

Data literacy is no different. We don’t need to start this journey with expensive courses or piles of textbooks - we need to immerse ourselves (and our children) in the concepts of data literacy as soon as possible. The more comfortable we are with the numbers, the questions, the logic, the critical thinking - the more commonplace will data literacy become.

I say start young!

The age you are now is the best time to start.

I'm working with my 8 year old granddaughters on Creative Writing. Hey that's not Data Literacy? Yeah it is. In order to write you have to write a million questions first. Where is the Narwhal family going to live? Do they have any relatives in the town? What will daddy Narwhals job be?

Curiosity is a critical key to Data Literacy. Gotta learn to ask questions, more questions and then another question.

Point of my rambling is that Data Literacy is all around us if we tie the elements together. We don't have to say "Hey let me teach about data." Let's Montessori this stuff. Teach it where there interests already lay and work from there.

Hi all,

Some great podcasts there. If you're in marketing the Digital Marketing Podcast is good and often tackles a range of data issues (skills gap in data, metrics/measurement and the best tools to use): https://www.targetinternet.com/digital-marketing-podcasts/.

My organisation (and proud founding partner of the @DataLitProject - Chartered Institute of Marketing) offers a number of free webinars on the topic: https://exchange.cim.co.uk/webinar/? As we generate new webinars/content we'll add links to the forum/DataLitProject to share the content with everyone.

James