Data literacy is the ability to identify, collect, process, and interpret data to gain and communicate insights. It relies on many disciplines ranging from maths and statistics to language and arts. Its importance is recognized for industry and business, but learning opportunities outside of tertiary education are lacking. In an increasingly data-driven society, the importance of data literacy is not limited to a professional context. Data literacy involves critical thinking and is crucial to becoming responsible, involved, informed, and contributing members of society. Unfortunately, we believe that socially, economically, or educationally disadvantaged groups do not have access to resources that help them gain (at least) an awareness of the topic. DALIDA is a public engagement project that aims to design workshops about this topic for that particular audience. Recognizing that data literacy is a very complex subject matter, we avail of co-creation activities to ensure that the workshops are attractive and engaging. This paper presents DALIDA, which commenced in 2021, and report on our approach and current progress. Christophe Debruyne, Anne Kearns, Ciaran O'Neill, Mary Colclough, Laura Grehan, and Declan O'Sullivan. 2021. DALIDA: Data Literacy Discussion Workshops for Adults. In 13th ACM Web Science Conference 2021 (WebSci '21). Association for Computing Machinery, New York, NY, USA, 23–25. DOI:https://doi.org/10.1145/3462741.3466662

1. DALIDA:
Data Literacy Discussion
Workshops for Adults
Christophe Debruyne, Anne Kearns, Ciaran
O'Neill, Mary Colclough, Laura Grehan, and
Declan O'Sullivan
2021-06-22 - Data Literacy @ WebSci 2021

2. People produce it…
… and other consume it.
Data is presented everywhere
Images: https://www.pexels.com/ (all free to use)

3. Literacy is the ability to read and write
Numerical literacy is the ability to use and understand mathematics
Computer literacy is the ability to use computers
…
Data literacy is the ability to collect, manage, process,
(re)present, and understand data
What is data literacy?

4. What is involved in data
literacy?
Activities
Read and understand
Create and manage
Process and analyze
Present and communicate
👤
Producer
👤
Consumer
📊📄
Disciplines
reading &
writing
math &
statistics
ICT and
office tools
visualization
& art
programming
&
analysis

5. Data literacy's importance is recognized for knowledge workers in industry
BUT the importance of data literacy is not limited to a professional context
Data literacy involves critical thinking and is crucial to becoming responsible,
involved, informed, and contributing members of society
Importance of data
literacy

6. • Data Literacy Discussion workshops for Adults
• DALIDA's goal is to design and deliver workshops on data literacy
with the community and for the community via co-creation
• The aim of the workshops is to raise awareness:
understand the concept – recognize its importance – develop habits
• Applied to mis- and disinformation on social media, which led to DEBUNKED
DALIDA

7. • Adults with a focus on adults from socially, economically or educationally
disadvantaged backgrounds
• Trinity College Dublin is planning the development of an innovation campus.
Local consultations have indicated that residents are fearful that this campus
will provide opportunities only for the young and highly educated. And the
local community fits the profile of our intended audience.
• The goal is to increase knowledge and interest in STEM careers for residents’
children and grandchildren
Approach: target audience

8. • Introduction to the
topics, and the
process
• Gathering thoughts
Co-creation
WS 1
• Generating ideas
• What do you want
to cover?
• How do you want
to cover it?
Co-creation
WS 2
Pilot WS
• Refine and deliver
5 workshops
Approach: co-creation

9. Approach: application
domain
• Data literacy is complex, draws upon many skills,
and can be applied in many domains
• Choose a domain that accessible to a wide
range of people; mis- and disinformation on
social media
• Feedback co-creation: a focus on local and current topics
Local: misrepresentation of Irish slave history
Current: climate change and COVID19
Data
Literacy
Science
Journalism
Business
Intelligence
Social
media
...
applied to

10. • Part I: Introduction to the topic
• Part II: Disinformation using the Irish Slaves meme
• Discussions
• Part III: Examples with current topics
• Examples of mis- and disinformation
• Discussions on two examples
• Activity: sketching an anti-meme
• Part IV: Wrap-up
Workshop Structure

11. We presented the DALIDA project and resulting DEBUNKED workshops
Approach: audience, co-creation, application domain
Pilot workshop: Wed, 23 June 2021, 19:30 – 21:30 CEST:
https://www.eventbrite.ie/e/workshop-debunked-how-to-tell-
fact-from-fiction-tickets-157471723163
Or https://www.adaptcentre.ie/ for next events
Summary
Data Literacy Discussion Workshops for Adults (DALIDA) is funded
under the SFI DISCOVER Programme (grant 20/DP/8155).
https://youtu.be/MFOe5sGnQK0