Contribution to National Outcomes
We are better educated, more skilled and more successful, renowned for our research and innovation.
We will consult with our partners Wikimedia UK, Young Scot, SCVO, GTCS, and SDS to develop practical ways to improve data literacy in Scotland, and reach very distinct communities of learners. Our expertise in design and implementation of innovative curricula will guarantee that a proposed Scottish Data Ambassadors programme, informed through the consultation process, can be successfully piloted to deliver a research-informed, practical and innovative approach to civic society.
This will be developed from insights produced in both the Knowledge Exchange and Public Dissemination activities. Our partners from the SCA, the Data Lab, and Creative Stirling will help us ensure that the proposed recommendations can have meaningful impact within policy-making and creative industries. In sum, our aim is to develop distinctive, innovative and internationally ground-breaking knowledge concerning the current state and future development of data literacy.
Our young people are successful learners, confident individuals, effective contributors and responsible citizens.
Young people and lifelong learning are at the centre of our objectives for growth of knowledge and dissemination. Our research network has expertise in the fields of ethics, connectivity and lifelong learning. We will use this expertise to inform Young Scot’s co-creation methodologies, in deliberation with policy-makers and civic society on aspects of self-learning, online rights, responsible civic participation, and critical understanding of data-driven innovation.
In order to generate a fruitful discussion on these issues and create a community of opinion leaders able to share this knowledge further, Young Scot, SCVO and SDS will reach out to their communities, which have young people at their heart, who will inform our procedures and help shape our exploratory research from the start of the programme. Another important dimension of this is the legacy outcome of the Wiki Literacy workshop (KE 4): the focus of learners as producers, rather than just consumers, and the civic aims of the Wikimedia Foundation to open education for young people and lifelong learners is compliant with this national outcome, and shares the aim of effective contribution, the right to access of information, and freedom of information in a more general sense.
We have strong, resilient and supportive communities where people take responsibility for their own actions and how they affect others.
We draw on expertise from Creative Stirling’s Creative Director, Joe Hall, who oversees new approaches to delivering inclusive cultural activity with an emphasis on community empowerment, digital literacy and place regeneration. Creative Stirling’s vision for outreach programmes is to foster inclusion and participation for diverse members of the community. Working closely with Creative Stirling, CoderDojo Lead Mentor Dr Gregory Huczynski, will facilitate a hands-on workshop to develop and test data awareness and to work on challenges set by local authority, third sector and business sector constituents to develop data-driven outputs.
We live in well-designed, sustainable places where we are able to access the amenities and services we need.
Brett Goldstein (former Data Officer, City of Chicago) and TimoCantell (Director, City of Helsinki Urban Facts,) who are confirmed speakers in our first KE Workshop, will share success stories concerning innovation and civic data uses, challenges presented by varying and low levels of data literacy in their respective cities’ populations, and solutions to those challenges. These challenges include interventions on educational policy-making in data literacy, environmental impacts and sustainability, and strengthening local democracy agendas.
We also have the participation of the UBDC at the University of Glasgow, and, through the SCA, representation from local authorities across Scotland’s largest cities (Aberdeen, Dundee, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Inverness, Perth and Stirling) to share similar successes, on various scales, and in diverse contexts.
Our public services are high quality, continually improving, efficient and responsive to local people's needs.
We will address the needs of schools, including (through consultant with the GCTS) teachers’ professional learning, local and national government initiatives, and civic society. We will address multi-disciplinary themes, brining expertise from a range of public and third sector organisations, to enhance a) educational technologies – designing ground-breaking pedagogical approaches and appropriation of new practices and resources such as Open Educational Resources (OERs); b) enable informed publics, lifelong learning, participatory local democracies, and a responsible public sphere by providing a platform at for deliberation and knowledge generation; and c) facilitate self-sustainable creative entrepreneurship and social enterprise.
We have tackled the significant inequalities in Scottish society.
The idea for this research network draws upon existing policies on open data governance and digital literacy, and was initially inspired by the Open Data Charter launched during the 39th G8 summit in 2013. The document acknowledged the central role that open data increasingly plays in improving governance and stimulating growth through data-driven civic innovation in the G8.
However, despite the efforts of the Scottish government to open up their datasets for public scrutiny, the critical knowledge and skills to turn data into insight that informs decision-making and inclusiveness in society does not appear to be a key priority of Curriculum for Excellence. The idea behind the “Life in Data” programme therefore resonates with Scotland’s Economic Strategy (2015), which recognises that increasing competitiveness and tackling inequality should be mutually supportive. We believe that this journey starts with education, and continues through the life-stages of individuals and their communities, in aspects of cultural production, creativity and lifelong learning.
Representation from different sectors and levels of practice is thus essential to the success of the project. Our programme team, committed participants and community partners, form a representative constituency, coming together to debate open data and discuss how and where research and policy impacts on practice, and where practice drives research and policy-making.
In drawing on the academic expertise and knowledge of our confirmed participants, the network team asserts that enabling data literacy should be a priority for governments spearheading open data agendas. An educational structure that values data democratisation is necessary in order to meet the demands of a changing society where we need to prepare learners for occupations that in many cases do not yet exist.