{"id":83,"date":"2018-07-11T10:57:37","date_gmt":"2018-07-11T10:57:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lisp20.epgpbooks.inflibnet.ac.in\/?post_type=chapter&p=83"},"modified":"2018-12-07T07:17:52","modified_gmt":"2018-12-07T07:17:52","slug":"data-literacy-definition-importance-and-scope","status":"publish","type":"chapter","link":"https:\/\/ebooks.inflibnet.ac.in\/lisp20\/chapter\/data-literacy-definition-importance-and-scope\/","title":{"rendered":"Data Literacy: Definition, Importance and scope"},"content":{"raw":"
\"epgp<\/a>\r\n<\/span><\/div>\r\n
\r\n\r\n \r\n\r\n \r\n\r\n \r\n\r\n \r\n\r\nStructure of Module<\/strong>\r\n\r\n1 Introduction\r\n\r\n2 Definition of Data Literacy\r\n\r\n3 Importance of Data Literacy\r\n\r\n4 How to access data\/ Finding data 4.1 over view of data.gov.in\r\n\r\n4.1.1 How to search data data.gov.in\r\n\r\n4.1.2 How to create Visualisation\/infographics on data.gov.in\r\n\r\n4.2 About dataportal.org\r\n\r\n4.3 Data Hub\r\n\r\n4.4 Tricks for data search\r\n\r\n5 Summary\r\n\r\n \r\n\r\n1.\u00a0<\/strong>INTRODUCTION<\/strong>\r\n\r\n \r\n

Data has always been a key concern for researchers, educationists, journalists, marketing professionals, scientists and to all those who are involved in research across all professions. To study any phenomenon, collection of data is central. In any research whether it is academic or applied most of the resources during research are allocated for data collection. Since the sharing till few years back was not very prevalent in the absence of the right medium, there used to be lot of duplication even in data collection. Data collected for one study was limited to that study and if in case someone wanted to conduct research on the similar topics the data collection had to be done afresh. This no doubt led to the wastage of resources and time. Also data collected for one particular study could have been used for number of studies and based on the data in hand researchers could have conceived some new projects that could have been possible with the analysis of the same data. With the emergence of internet especially with the open data movement, data now is available for the people to use reuse remix and redistribute. The online space is inundated with lot of data. This offers another challenge that is how to sift the relevant, accurate and authentic data. Keeping this in view a new concept has emerged called data literacy. Many countries have introduced data literacy in their curriculum both in school as well as higher education level. Also this can be integrated with other subjects to make it more relevant and contextual.<\/span><\/p>\r\n \r\n

2.\u00a0<\/strong>DEFINITION<\/strong><\/p>\r\n \r\n

The UNESCO MIL Curriculum and Competency Framework combines two distinct areas- media literacy and information Literacy- under one umbrella term; Media and Information Literacy.<\/span><\/p>\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n\"\"\r\n

The Data Literacy is subsumed under information Literacy as it deals with Defining and articulating information needs, Locate and Access information, Access information, organize information, make ethical use of information , communicate information, use ICT skills for information processing. According to UNESCO MIL Curriculum Information is data that have been collected, processed and interpreted so that they can be presented in a useable form.\u2018Information is data that have been processed into a form that is meaningful to the recipient and is of real or perceived value in current or prospective actions or decisions\u2019 (Davis and Olsen, 1984)<\/span><\/p>\r\n \r\n

Since data is a piece of information according to Oxford Dictionary, it becomes a part of Information Literacy. So the data is <\/span>Facts <\/a>and <\/span>statistics <\/a>collected together for reference or analysis ( Oxford dictionary) and after the invent of computers its is The quantities, characters, or <\/span>symbols <\/a>on which <\/span>operations <\/a>are performed by a computer, which may be stored and <\/span>transmitted <\/a>in the form of electrical signals and recorded on<\/span>magnetic, <\/a>optical, <\/a>or <\/span>mechanical <\/a>recording media.<\/span><\/p>\r\n \r\n

According to NSB 2005 data can be defined as \u201cany information that can be stored in digital form, including text numbers, images video or movies , audio software algorithm equations animation,\u00a0<\/span>models simulations. This way every factual information is data. Data also originates from works of art and literature, as well as from artifacts of cultural heritage ( Nielson & Hjorland 2012). The data also emerges from the score cards of students and promotion list of teachers. Research data is the output from any systematic investigation that involves a process of observation, experiment or testing the hypothesis ( Pyor , 2012).<\/span><\/p>\r\n \r\n

Coming on to data literacy it is the ability to consume for knowledge, produce coherently and think critically about data. Data literacy includes statistical literacy but also understands how to work with large data sets, how they are produced, how to connect various data sets and hoe to interpret them. <\/span>(http:\/\/datajournalismhandbook.org\/1.0\/en\/understanding_data_1.html) <\/a>and data literacy skills include how to identify, collect, organize, analyze, summarize and orioritise data. Developing hypothesis, identifying problems, interpreting data and determining, planning, implementing as well as monitoring courses of action also pertain to the required abilities ( mandinach & Gummer, 2013)<\/span><\/p>\r\n \r\n

Though researchers have always been playing with data but the big data that is enabled by the capacity of computers to search, aggregate and cross reference large data sets has made this field more popular and relevant to wide variety of professions. <\/span>Big data<\/strong> is a broad term for <\/span>data<\/strong> sets so <\/span>large<\/strong> or complex that traditional <\/span>data<\/strong>processing applications are inadequate. Challenges include analysis, capture, <\/span>data<\/strong> curation, search, sharing, storage, transfer, visualization, and information privacy. https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/<\/a><\/span>Big<\/strong>_<\/span>data<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\r\n \r\n

3 Importance of Data Literacy<\/strong><\/p>\r\n \r\n

\u201cWe use data every day\u2014to choose medications or health practices, to decide on a place to live, or to make judgments about education policy and practice. The newspapers and TV news are full of data about nutrition, side effects of popular drugs, and polls for current elections. Surely there is valuable information here, but how do you judge the reliability of what you read, see, or hear? This is no trivial\u00a0<\/em>skill\u2014and we are not preparing students to make these critical and subtle distinctions.\u201d <\/em>\u2013 Andee Rubin, 2005<\/span><\/p>\r\n \r\n

Since there is a huge amount of data available in books, research studies and online platform, it would be a good idea to use that data to develop new insights. Following are the importance of data literacy:<\/span><\/p>\r\n\r\n

\r\n\r\n \r\n\r\n1.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Utilization of already available data sets for developing new insights\r\n\r\n2.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Initiating new research studies based on the data already available.\r\n\r\n3.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Looking at data from different subject perspective.\r\n

4.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Inculcating interest amongst students and teachers for data which is otherwise considered as mind-numbing.<\/p>\r\n5.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Encouraging students to ask and answer data-based questions\r\n\r\n6.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Data Literacy will help students to use use appropriate data, and data representations in their work.\r\n\r\n7.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Accessing relevant data and analysing the same\r\n\r\n8.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Developing interest in creating stories based on data.\r\n\r\n \r\n\r\n4. How to Access data\/ Finding data<\/strong>\r\n\r\n \r\n

The first and foremost task while working with data is where to find it. With so much of information available reaching the desired data is very difficult. Though with open data movement there are number of open data websites, but other than these open data repositories there are number of other platforms from where data can be accessed.<\/p>\r\n \r\n\r\nBut before we get into how to access let us first understand what exactly is open data.\r\n\r\n \r\n

Open in open data means anyone can freely access, use, modify, and share for any purpose ( subject, at most to requirements that preserve provenance and openness ( opendefinition.org) which means open data and content can be freely used, modified and shared by anyone for any purpose.<\/p>\r\n \r\n

If we take example of India and the data sets which are openly available for the researchers, teachers and students etc, data.gov.in is the platform one needs to visit.<\/span><\/p>\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n

\r\n\r\n \r\n\r\n4.1 Overview of data.gov.in<\/strong>\r\n\r\n\"\"\r\n

The data.gov.in is the result of the National Data Sharing and Accessibility Policy (NDSAP) which was notified by Government of India in March 2012 to promote a culture of data sharing and data utility for larger socio-economic goal. Adhering to the norms laid out by this policy, the National Informatics Centre (NIC) has set up Open Government Data (OGD) Platform India \u2013 (http:\/\/data.gov.in<\/a>) which is a state of the art dynamic data sharing platform espousing the principle of Open Government Data. The portal has many rich features to support this policy such as:<\/p>\r\n\r\n