Eleven thousand shoppers, one question
Your manager asks, "Are more people shopping on their phones this year?" You have one hour.
You could ask a colleague, read a statistics page, watch a video or check the shop's own app numbers. Each gives you knowledge. Some are better for this question than others.
Key words
| Word | What it means | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Source of knowledge | a place or person you get facts and ideas from | |
| Academic publication | a book, journal or magazine written by experts and checked before it is printed | |
| Search engine | a website that finds pages for you | Google or Bing |
| Wiki | a website that many people can edit | |
| Forum | a website where people post questions and answers | |
| Statistical website | a site that publishes counted facts, often from a government office | |
| Social media analytics | the numbers a social site gives about how people reacted to posts | |
| Blog | a web page of articles by one person or a small team; a vlog is a blog in video form | |
| MOOC | a free or cheap online course that anyone can join | |
| Professional network | a group of people in the same line of work who meet and share what they know | |
| Peer | someone who does similar work to you |
The cells students fill in are left blank in this preview.
By the end of this lesson
Note
I can name eight kinds of source of knowledge, and say what each one is good and bad at for data work.
Starter
Have a go
Starter
3 questionsYour answers are marked here and are not kept. A college account keeps every student’s marks.
The eight kinds
| Kind | Data-work example | Good at | Be careful |
|---|---|---|---|
| Academic publications | A statistics textbook, a research journal | Checked and deep | Slow and can be old |
| Search engines | Google, Bing | Find pages fast | A finder, not the answer |
| Websites | A wiki, a forum, a statistics site | Many answers, often free | Anyone may write one |
| Social media | Analytics for a shop's page | Quick view of reactions | Only people on that site |
| Blogs and vlogs | A review of a new charting tool | Real experience and opinion | One person's view |
The cells students fill in are left blank in this preview.
The eight kinds, continued
| Kind | Data-work example | Good at | Be careful |
|---|---|---|---|
| Professional networks | A conference on data skills | Meet people who do the job | Costs time and money |
| E-learning | A MOOC, a recognised vendor course | Planned, step by step | May be out of date |
| Peers | A colleague, a contact, another analyst | Knows your data and your site | May be busy or wrong |
The cells students fill in are left blank in this preview.
A search engine is a finder
A search engine does not know the answer. It finds pages. The page it finds is the real source.
So say more than "I found it on Google". Was it a wiki, a forum, a statistics site or a blog? That is the kind of source you must judge.
Websites come in three shapes
A wiki can be edited by many people, so it is quick but can hold mistakes. A forum gives real answers from users, which can be wrong or old.
A statistical website publishes counted facts. A national statistics office is one. These are often a strong source for a data question, if you read how the numbers were counted.