Data Literacy ~ Data Systems and Tools
Data Systems and Tools
The knowledge and skills required to use appropriate software, tools, and processes to gather, organize, analyze, visualize and manage data (Statistics Canada, 2020).
Many different types of databases exist. The most common types in use today include flat files, spreadsheets, relational databases, multi-dimensional databases, and NoSQL databases. Data literate individuals need to be capable of working with databases of many different kinds (Wells, 2020)
• Spreadsheets (such as Excel and Open Office) – essential tools for quickly scanning
and checking data as well as providing simple data manipulation and combination.
• Geographic Information Systems (such as QGIS and ESRI’s Arc toolset) – tools
for holding, managing and integrating spatial information.
• Databases (such as Access, SQL Server, Oracle, PostGres, PostGIS) – powerful
tools for manipulating and querying larger volumes of data.
• Database management tools (such as Toad, SQL Developer) – provides clear
access to database structure for exploring and querying databases (Heeley & Wilkinson, 2018).
Relevant Links
These links are typically articles defining data literacy that include this theme in their definition.
, Canada.ca, 2021;, Statistics Canada, Canada.ca, 2020;, Open Data Institute, 2020;, Chantel Ridsdale, et.al., Dalhousie University, 2015;, Annika Wolff, Daniel Gooch, Jose J. Cavero Montaner, Umar Rashid, Gerd Kortuem, 2016;, Andreas Grillenberger, Ralf Romeike, Proceedings of the 13th Workshop in Primary and Secondary Computing Education, 2018;, Edith Gummer, Ellen B. Mandinach, Teachers College Record, 2015;, Australian Public Service Commission, Government of Australia, 2021;, Dave Wells, Eckerson Group, 2022;, ;