Data Literacy for Citizenship

In a digital world where data are more than ever ubiquitous, almost every app and every service is collecting data about people, and that people can access an immense amount of data, understanding the role of those data -and the algorithms behind them- in our lives (sometimes in the proposal we will refer to this as “data and algorithmic literacy”), as well as to learn how to use them, and how to take informed decisions about them, is more critical that never before.

DALI aims to empower individuals (young adults, general adults, seniors) for responsible citizenship / civic engagement in terms of data, by acquiring and developing key competences related to data literacy. Adults (as teachers, parents, families, workers, and so on) are in charge of the social uses and regulation of data, both at home and in the education of the young people, and moreover, in most of our countries adults are legally responsible for their children's data. Furthermore, seniors encounter data in their daily lives, such as grandparents interacting with their families, and as citizens interacting with public services such as tax or health systems.

Testing of a DALI board game prototype at SLATE's offices in Bergen, Norway, as part of the SEIS Summer School event, September 2022. Photo: Ingvild Abildgaard Jansen.

DALI addresses the basic training of data literacy (i.e., supporting individuals in acquiring and developing basic skills and key competences) for adult learners in non-formal contexts,through the co-creation, piloting, and evaluation of pedagogical strategies and a toolkit of games and playful learning resources with adult learners, as well as methods for implementation with stakeholders that work with adult education. By taking a playful approach we attempt to increase learning demand and take-up through effective outreach, guidance and motivational strategies.

Adults recruited from our associated partner organisations and individuals (politicians, seniors, students, unemployed, workers, parents, adult educators, etc.) will participate in a co-creation process, will pilot and evaluate the games and playful learning materials, and adult educators will test the facilitator guide and, together with politicians, evaluate the policy recommendations and guidelines.

The Main Objectives

  • to provide an overview of the state of the field of research on data and algorithm literacy and to formulate a general framework for understanding Data literacy
  • to identify the data literacy needs of the target user groups (young adults, general adults, seniors)
  • to define a set flexible pedagogical strategies based on a networked playful learning approach, specifically conceived to foster the development of adult’s data and algorithmic literacy in a variety of non-formal contexts.
  • to deliver a multilingual toolkit that comprises playful and game-based resources and the facilitators guidelines manual
  • to develop a framework for the implementation of the learning materials and the toolkit in different contexts (including a facilitators' guide)
  • to develop a set of policy recommendations for the development of a European Data Literacy framework for citizens, including young adults, professionals and seniors,
  • to develop a set of guidelines that serve other adult education institutions to address the topic of data and algorithmic literacy through educational measures

Raising awareness for data and its use and increasing data literacy in European citizens is the overall impact we intend to achieve with the DALI project. We support this by providing educational materials for use in non-formal learning contexts that are tried and tested with the target stakeholder groups and made available for free access on a Creative Commons (CC BY-SA) license to ensure open access. Maintaining a repository of results after the project, and adding our results to existing repositories (e.g., Wikimedia Commons, EPALE), is over will support the use by institutions and organisations, in Europe and internationally, to foster digital competence and agency.

Project Period:

31 December 2020 - 30 December 2023

Project Period:

December 2020

December 2023

Funded By:

ERASMUS + Strategic Partnership (2020-1-NO01-KA204-076492)

Project Leader:

Barbara Wasson (Coordinator)

Project Members:

SLATE, University of Bergen: Barbara Wasson, Cecilie Hansen, Gleb Belokrys, Martin Heitmann, Fride Haram Klykken, Yann Mariton, Jorunn Viken, Inmaculada Haba-Ortuño.

Project Partners:

Universidad de Murcia: Linda Castañeda, José A. Ruipérez-Valiente, Inmaculada Haba-Ortuño.

Freidrich-Alexander-Universitaet Erlangen Nurenberg: Svenja Bedenlier, Victoria Marín, Aristidis Protopsaltis, Ruth Maloszek.

Coventry University: Daniel Villar-Onrubia, Sylvester Arnab, Samantha Clarke, Petros Lameras.

Universitat de les Illes Balears: Gemma Tur, Barbara de Benito, Antoni Gamundrí.

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‍Visiting Address:

Christiesgate 12, 2nd floor

Postal Address:

University of Bergen
PO Box 7807
N-5020 Bergen, Norway