Open Data to Develop Critical Citizens' Data Literacy

Before starting!

Before participating in the synchronous sessions we are asking for your consent to collect data during the workshops for learning and/or for research purposes. This data includes recordings of your discussions, reflections and the digital mindmaps or infographics that you produce. Your participation is completely anonymous and any information you provide cannot be traced to you personally. Please read and sign the Registration & Informed Consent Form to indicate if you give your consent. Once you complete the form you will be given access to the link for the synchronous session regardless of whether you agree or not to take part in the research.

Understanding

Self-paced learning - [Asynchronous Activity - '10 minutes]

Nowadays there is increasing public pressure to open the data generated by public administration and the scientific system, being these activities maintained through public funding (Zuiderwijk & Janssen, 2014). In fact, the so-called movement of “Open Data” embraces a philosophy of democratization of knowledge that can be considered in line with the prior movements of Open Access and Open Science. The most enthusiastic discourses on the availability of data and the feasibility of appropriation by the civil society are based on politic ideals as empowerment, public engagement and political monitoring. More recently, as the volumes of data produced are higher and higher big data that becomes public could be the base for new business models and crowd-work models towards economic development (Baack, 2015).

However, this utopia could be hindered by an already well-known problem in the digital society: the need of skills and knowledge to navigate within the digital abundance, continuously produced by the digital and open web. Some have compared the problem of appropriation of open data to the phenomenon of digital divide (Gurstein, 2011). Therefore, moving beyond the access to open data, to produce civic monitoring, empowerment and social innovation, requires the development of minimal skills that lead the citizens to critically select data, understand their quality and relate them with relevant social problems. This entails technical, political, ethical and even aesthetical criteria when approaching data, to generate social innovations that lead to contextual problem solving (Zuiderwijk et al., 2012).

In addition, identifying and reading open data would be the lowest level in the analysis and use of public data. However, a more democratic approach to data in the society is also based on the citizens engagement with data ecosystems and participation through feed-back in the quality of data, or in processes of design to extract and represent data (Janssen, Charalabidis, & Zuiderwijk, 2012).

References: Go to the section Further Learning

Activity 1 - See and Reflect

Let's get started by understanding what is Open Data with this short video from the U of G Library. (3 min). Here, the relevance of Open Data for science learning is explained by the EDCWorldwide (3 min)

Take a look at one experience of usage of Open Data as Open Educational Resources: The presentation of Barcelona Open Data Challenge (Barcelona Repte Dades Obertes) (5 min)

Exploring & Reflecting

Self-paced learning - [Asynchronous Activity - '30 minutes]

Reflect and take notes: How would you use these resources within your class?

[Formal Learning]

• In which extent the concept of open data could be applied to my (workshop’s participant) pedagogical practices?

• Which sets of data could be useful for me?

• Which are the critical issues that I should face to implement open data in my pedagogical practices?

[Non-formal and Informal learning]

• Which types of learning processes are triggered by (this) open dataset? How could I recognise non-formal and informal learning with Open Data?

• Which are the critical issues that could face in my attempt to recognise the learning outputs in activities with Open Data?

Design for Learning

Collaborative learning - [Synchronous Activity - '90 minutes]

📌Before starting! Please sign this Consent Form for the synchronous sessions. After completing it, you will receive the link to access the session.

Activity 4 - Create and Reflect.

Using Open Data as springboard for citizens' data literacy

For this activity, you will compile a mindmap or infographic to capture your "design ideas" to adopt open data as a springboard for civic data literacy into one of your learning activities . After a brief presentation by the trainers explaining the activity, you'll collaborate with peers in a discussion to capture an ideal learning design idea, considering the following:

• Who is going to learn with your activity?

• In which context? How this learning activity could be relevant for such socio-cultural context?

• Which are the learning goals I would propose to my students?

• Which open data can be adopted to trigger students reflection about a community, local, regional, national or global problem?

• What kind of solutions could be built by the students through reading, analysing, and presenting as data storytelling ? How could you use the resources (explored at the activity 3) to support your activity?

• What should the students do? Which preparatory activities do you need to consider or which skills should your students possess at the beginning of the activity? Could/Should you collaborate with another colleague to develop your learning activity?

• Could the families or the community get engaged in their inquiry or experimental activity?

• How could do the students present their work? Could you (or the school) open this work to raise awareness on a local or globally relevant problem?

For the mindmap or infographic, you can either use tools like MINDMEISTER, MINDOMO or CANVA or design your own in a paper, take a picture and share!