STATISTICAL LITERACY AND BIG DATA

Abstract

Statistics educators have developed concepts and pedagogical approaches regarding statistical literacy in order to enable students to deal with statistical data as citizens. Statistical literacy is important to interpret and evaluate statistical information, as well as to develop data-based arguments. The emergence of information clusters called big data have been shown as an even more challenging phenomenon for statistics education. Big data refers to sets of information that are continuously generated by several media in various social situations, including web page captures, smartphone uses, online shopping, and banking. Generally, people are not aware of different processes in which they are engaged in big data production, nor in possible consequences of the uses of data may have. This paper discusses the need to develop a perspective of literacy in big data in the scope of statistical literacy processes.