This is the series we’re highlighting in this post.
For this Digital Data Stories (DDS) Series on Series entry, we’re exploring our Publication Series where we use the format of the publication to highlight important aspects of data literacy. We do this because reading and writing language are foundational to data literacy. That’s because they help us understand “what aspects of the world” (Bhargava et al. 2016:198) data represent.
Whether focused on data-related topics or not, publications require us to use our data literacy skills. We use those skills to understand and evaluate whether the author(s) of a publication communicate their objective in relation to the structured observations they present. This means that publications help us learn about data literacy (from the content provided) and practice our data literacy skills (by seeing that content as data itself).
The goal of these Data Stories is for participants to read and engage with published works to practice their abilities to read, work with, analyze, argue, and communicate with data. We chose this format because not everyone has the time to work through tutorials. Furthermore, tutorials sometimes fail to explain how those skills transfer to other contexts. So our goal with the Data Stories in this series is to make the implicit, explicit. And to do that, sometimes you just need to say it.
We wrote Whose Heritage a few years ago but it’s a Data Story Short that slots nicely into the Publication Series, so check it out!
So that’s what we do in these stories. The works we recommend, created, and wrote in the Publication Series all discuss or apply data literacy topics or skills. These include narrative articles written by the Data Literacy Program (DLP) that turn data into narrative and academic publications about the broad value of data stories. These resources also encourage users to read and engage with publications by authors outside the DLP who are experts in specific data literacy topics and skills. These non-DLP publications allow archaeological data literacy learners to connect their skills with interdisciplinary discussions that show how data literacy is a foundational literacy in many fields.
In addition to reading publications, many of the Data Stories in this series include discussion or reflection components. These guides teach people how to critically read and engage with publications by having them contemplate their understanding of the material before and after reading and then evaluate the article’s ability to communicate its points.
By engaging with articles, rather than using them as passive sources of knowledge, these Data Stories impart best practices and encourage ethical scholarship from the start. Thoughtful response and reflection remind archaeologically-inclined audiences that the discipline is a practice, with knowledge and data created by people. This demonstrates how archaeological data–and the people who create it–are part of a subjective experience.
Here’s one of our upcoming Data Stories from the Publication Series. It includes recommended articles, a reflection guide, and a work of interactive fiction.
Such demonstrations encourage learners to be self-reflexive in their work; acknowledge the subjective nature of archaeological narrative and data creation in the work of others; and see archaeological knowledge as dynamic, with our stories of the past changing as we learn more. Such reflection also encourages ethical practice because the Data Stories ask participants to consider the consequences of archaeological data and knowledge sharing.
The resources in the Publication Series are best suited to students in upper division or graduate, seminar-style courses, or for personal use and research by archaeologically-affiliated professionals or adults of the public with some interest in academic discussion. In addition, the reflection questions lend themselves to education contexts and may be useful for pedagogically-focused archaeologists or archaeology and anthropology students interested in pedagogy.
Regardless of which group you might identify with, we hope these Data Stories connect archaeological learners with publications that introduce them to data literacy, the process of creating their own data-driven narrative publications, and to get the most out of any publication through thoughtful reflection. With that, we hope you enjoy our Publication Series Data Stories!
