Creating a New Data Literate Generation
Through almost 20 years of experience, one of the biggest problems we’ve observed, not just within companies but within schools, communities, and the world in general, is a frightening lack of data literacy. Not only has this lack of data literacy translated into missed business opportunities to create really positive experiences for customers, but in a more important and serious way, the lack of data literacy has allowed companies, journalists, and politicians to effectively distort data in order to create divisiveness and chaos.
While we are actively doing a lot of work at the higher education level to help create the next generation of analysts, we felt education about data needed to start at a much younger age. And so the idea to create a children’s book was born.
We believe that if we can get children interested in data and analytics at a very young age, we have the ability to create a new generation of critical thinkers that can help take back our world from all the bad actors who have used data for evil rather than good.
While the book is targeted at early readers, it’s designed in such a way that it will be entertaining and educational for people of all ages. We’ve taken key analytics terms for each letter in the alphabet and paired the letter with a formal definition, a more child friendly explanation, and a corresponding illustration to help the reader visualize the concept.
The initial sketches for the book were made in January of 2021 and it has been an incredibly challenging and rewarding process getting the book ready for print and ready to sell to the public.
It would have been much easier to grab a few terms, slap a simple definition on the words and add in some stock photos, but we wanted to do this right. We wanted this book to be taken seriously, as the challenge we are looking to solve is an incredibly serious challenge.
The book is available on Amazon: A is for Analytics
For institutions that are interested in reduced rates for bulk orders, you can contact us through our website: https://www.aforanalyticsbook.com/bulk-order
This is just the beginning of a much larger mission that we are taking on to use data to create more good in the world. Stay tuned.
