What is the purpose of the Knowledge Sharing Community?
We are building a knowledge sharing community in Data Education across the Edinburgh city region (Edinburgh, Mid Lothian, West Lothian, East Lothian, Fife and the Borders) to give teachers and learners of all ages and stages the opportunity to build skills and confidence in data education and influence the shape and content of a data skills curriculum.
It is an opportunity for you and your school to lead on data education; to share innovations and insights, practice and pedagogy with colleagues and be an integral research partner in data education.
How can I participate?
You can participate in several ways.
1. External collaboration and professional engagement
- Sign up to our mailing list to find out what’s going on in Data Education.
- Come along to the events that we will be running throughout the year.
2. Practitioner Enquiry
- Explore the technology and resource materials available and consider how best to use them to your school.
- Plan with the support of the data education team to try it out in your own teaching practice, evaluate and share your experiences with the team.
3. Curriculum and Pedagogical Innovation
Join our knowledge sharing community (KSC) – we need you and your growing expertise – share your experience teaching with data with your KSC colleagues – blog about it, reflect on it, what worked, what needs work.
There are various badges you can earn for taking part.
Tell me more about badges!
Badges are designed to help guide you through a simple six step professional development cycle. We know that teachers are always busy so the six steps are flexible in terms of when you take them and how long you spend on them.
Participate: Come along to a data education seminar – think about how you might relate and use the content of what is covered within your classroom teaching practice
Engage : We will run an informal session for you and other KSC colleagues to discuss and develop the seminar themes further. The Data Education in Schools (DES) team will provide you with further related materials – readings, videos, news stories – which can extend your knowledge even more.
Reflect: How can you bring this new knowledge and data skills into your teaching, where does it fit within your curricula, is there a suitable project, are there colleagues you can collaborate with, further resources / skills that you will need?
Explore: Plan a lesson or series of lessons based on the above – discover and download resources, create your own or tweak what you find and try it out with your learners.
Share: What happened, how did it go? What did you learn, what would you do differently? Share your reflections with your KSC colleagues, via a short blog post.
Evaluate: Explore what others have written about their own adventures with data, how their experience relates to your own, reflect and comment on others, on what you might develop learn and share from their experiences and how it relates to your own.
How much time will it take?
We estimate that it will take about 10-15 hours to complete all six steps and achieve your badge.
How many badges are there?
We currently have the following badges that you can take – and we will be adding more with each seminar and event we plan.
Everyday Data: Defend the Rhino: Team up with conservationists and data scientists to explore machine learning and image sorting algorithms – and help save rhinos in the process
Everyday Data: Data Fit : Physical activity is as vital for our youngsters in this Covid climate as it has ever been – in this badge you will explore some of the mini-projects that you can do with your learners to collect and interpret data on physical activity and make plans based on what you discover.
Everyday Data: Coronavirus data talks: Data collection and interpretation has played an important part in a lot of policy and government decision-making around Coronavirus. It is also a tricky subject to talk to very young children about it. This badge will explore three related themes with Covid at its core. You can choose which one suits you and your learners the best.
What will I gain?
You will gain new skills and expertise and be part of a community of leaders in this important area of knowledge, skills, qualifications and careers. Your knowledge and experience in teaching the stages and subjects you work closely with will be vital in forming the dynamic and creative cross-disciplinary community of leaders in 3-18 data education that this region needs.
What will the benefit be to my school?
Data is important to economic growth, social change and public services across the Edinburgh city region and the skills to interpret data and make decisions based on it are increasingly important in a range of jobs across many sectors. Supporting your young leaners to develop confidence and competence with data and the passion and curiosity to continue their journey with data will enable them to pursue varied career opportunities within this significant area of growth for the Edinburgh city region.