Update of our Database & Glossary

Published by Ina Sander on

In the last 12 months (spring 2023 – spring 2024), we have been busy giving our database for online critical data literacy resources and our glossary a thorough update. We hope that these changes make the database and the glossary more attractive and easier to use for anyone interested in learning and teaching about data technologies.

With the help of two student assistants at the Grimme Institute and one student assistant at the Helmut-Schmidt-University, we were able to:

  • Review all resources in the database, including:
    • Maintenance checks: do the URLs work, are descriptions are accurate, is a screenshot is included? etc.
    • Content review: do all resources fit the criteria for our database?
  • Make all necessary maintenance changes
  • Fine-tune the filter „formats“: Now you can differentiate between „Lesson plan / teaching material“ and „Online course”
  • Add thematic tags to all resources for better usability. Now, users can search for themes such as „Digital Rights“, „Privacy“ or „Discrimination“
  • Add a new filter: “Offline use possible?“. This has been requested by participants in workshops we have given on the database, in which especially teachers report on lacking wifi in schools and/or voice the wish to use offline resources.
  • Added about 20 new resources, including many for younger children. Our database now includes almost 160 resources – and counting!

A joint working group consisting of members from the Grimme Institute, University of Cologne and several CBDALN members has also been busy in giving the (German-language) Glossary on our website an update:

  • The design was entirely remodeled to improve usability and allow for the selection of several categories per entry
  • Four perspectives are now covered: media education, media studies, law studies and recently also media/digital economics from the University of Cologne
  • At present there are 69 entries in the glossary, new entries are constantly being added.

The database and the glossary have further been integrated in a German-speaking online module on Big Data Literacy for teacher education at the University of Cologne, funded by the Grimme Research College.

We hope that all of these resources are helpful for fostering critical data literacy in practice!

Do you have feedback on our resources or suggestions for new entries in the database? Get in touch with Harald Gapski and Ina Sander: info@bigdataliteracy.net

We look forward to hearing from you!

Categories: News