#schoolofdata

Download paper here We really like this bit of research from Rahul Bhargava and Catherine D'Ignazio because it pins down some key practical elements that anyone trying to help people learn about using data should remember. They point out that though more and more tools are now available to help people start to work with data, they rarely help people learn more deeply: "a tool that is easy to learn is not necessarily designed to support rich learning.” As they put it, many tools “introduce themselves as ‘magic’, explicitly hiding the mental models and software operations that they run through to produce their outputs."  

They recommend that tool designers and educators “design from the start with...strong pedagogical principles in mind,” referring to Paulo Freire and Seymour Papert in particular. If you’re building a tool, aim to do so according to four design principles:

Focused: A focused tool does one thing well - giving enough space for a learner to experiment, but not so many options that they get lost.

Guided: guiding a learner through an example activity as soon as they start (potentially creating example outputs too).

Inviting: Making tools appealing and non-intimidating to learners by using relevant information, or funny and playful approaches that encourage learners to experiment.

Expandable: Pitching a tool at the right level for the learner's abilities, while also giving them a path to find out more about how the tool works and learn more deeply about the issue.

(They also come up with a helpful definition of data literacy - the ability to read, work with, analyze and argue with data.)

Reading data: understanding what data is, and what aspects of the world it represents.

Working with data: creating, acquiring, cleaning,and managing it.

Analysing data: filtering, sorting, aggregating, comparing, and performing other such analytic operations on it.

A un año de haberse lanzado Escuela de Datos, Open Knowledge Foundation (OKFN) da un siguiente paso internacional con el inicio de un programa de mentores (llamados fellows) que tendrán la vital labor de promover el uso de datos y entrenar en toda la cadena de valor de datos a periodistas, activistas y grupos involucrados. En la sesión inaugural del OKFest 2014, se dio a conocer los 12 fellows que integran la 1ra generación, que abarca países en África, Asia, América Latina y Europa.

El potencial de una red de formadores y formadoras tan amplia y diversa es extraordinaria ya que, de articularse de manera dinámica y proactiva, fomenta un intercambio de experiencias, tácticas y contenidos del que se beneficiarán todas las personas involucradas. Por ejemplo, las experiencias iniciales que hemos impulsado desde SocialTIC a la comunidad de Escuela de Datos, como el fusionar expediciones de datos con micro-sesiones de aprendizaje de herramientas, ya han permeado en las estructuras metodológicas de entrenadores en Latinoamérica, Sudáfrica y Europa. A nivel temático, la red de entrenadores podrá mejorar sus capacidades técnicas al estar en contacto directo con contrapartes especializadas.

Al finalizar OKFest, se realizó el #DataCamp, un fin de semana de convivencia, intercambio de saberes y articulación programática. Dos días bastaron para ver cómo la unión e interacción de individuos con metas similares es posible y se inician los lazos que podrán llevar la formación en datos desde Tijuana hasta Yakarta pasando por Johannesburgo y Nueva Delhi.

The first Greek Data Expedition ended on 7 May 2014 with a final presentation on Open Data based Journalism  in open collaboration space of Coho

The Data Expedition was launched on April 3rd this year, as an initiative by the Open Knowledge Foundation Charter in Greece, working in collaboration with the IT Applications laboratory in Media (AUTH Department of Journalism), and Postgraduate WebScience (AUTH Department of Mathematics).

The presentation included four groups of four postgraduate students from the Mathematics School’s ‘WebScience MSc’. and two postgraduates from the Journalism Department’s ‘Journalism and New Media MSc’. Each cooperated (mostly through Google Hangout and Google Drive) to search for data, make statistical analysis, create visualizations and generate the final data-based article.

The Data Journalism issues were related to the following topics:

Air quality in Greece

New technologies in business: Europe’ BUSINESS online

Student Mobility in Europe: “Where are the European students?

Greece and e-Government

The articles will be posted in the Greek version of the School Data, with the completed analysis and methodology to be posted via google docs.

You can stay informed of Open Data topics in Greece on the OKFN Greece website.  

On the occasion of Open Data Day, OKF France launched a beta version of L'Ecole des données (ecoledesdonnees.org). It proposes a French translation of some of the courses offered by School of Data. Courses were translated collaboratively by the community during two translation sprints.

We hope L'Ecole des Données will help extend the public of open data and reduce the obstacles people face when they use data. Our aim with L'Ecole des Données is to get everyone on board, especially people without skills in data analysis and who don't speak English, so that they can use open data to support their activities. 

The site is currently beta. We will soon improve the translations and create new content which specifically address local context.