The ability to turn large amounts of raw data into useful information is increasingly important in both the workplace and in society, but K-12 schools aren鈥檛 teaching the required skills and knowledge adequately.
That鈥檚 the conclusion drawn in a new 鈥渙ccupational skills profile for the big-data enabled specialist,鈥� released recently by the , a part of the Waltham, Mass.-based nonprofit Education Development Center, Inc.
鈥淭his really is a new area,鈥� said Ruth Krumhansl, director of the ODI. 鈥淭here aren鈥檛 a lot of curricular tools out there to use. The goal is to develop more.鈥�
The institute pulled together the with the help of more than 150 鈥渂ig-data professionals,鈥� including an astrophysicist, an expert on ocean-floor mapping, a Microsoft data scientist, a Google search-engine analytics expert, a law enforcement analyst, and (my personal favorite, of course) a journalist. Krumhansl described as a 鈥渂ig risk鈥� the effort to charge such a diverse group with reaching consensus about the common skills needed across their jobs. But once they started talking, she said, 鈥渋t was like they found their own tribe.鈥�
Hard skills such as applied statistics and familiarity with algorithms were deemed essential for 鈥渂ig-data enabled specialists鈥� (defined in the report as 鈥渁n individual who wrangles and analyzes large and/or complex data sets to enable new capabilities including discovery, decision support, and improved outcomes.鈥�)
But equally important, the panel emphasized, are 鈥渟oft鈥� skills such as analytical thinking, problem solving, and the ability to discern patterns.
Pressure from employers has led to a 鈥渂and-aid鈥� approach of on-the-job training and nascent graduate-school programs, but the real problems begin much earlier in the educational pipeline, Krumhansl said.
鈥淚n most K-12 science classrooms, they鈥檙e doing very simple controlled experiments with only one or two variables,鈥� she said. 鈥淪tudents really need experience with working with multiple variables, when there are a number of different things that could be causing a certain result.鈥�
She cited as a model K-12 project for teaching big-data analytical skills the EDC鈥檚 鈥溾�� project, which allows students to develop their own research questions and conduct their own investigations and analysis based on publicly available oceanographic data. After tracking sea animals鈥� migration patterns, students might seek to find causes for certain patterns, looking at everything from sea-surface temperatures to chlorophyll maps.
Efforts to develop more such curricular resources are in their early stages, Krumhasl said, and should be aided by the growing availability of public and 鈥渙pen鈥� data sets.
The should also help, she said, although she contended that the standards are limited because they don鈥檛 specify that students should master the specific skills needed to work successfully with complex sets of big data.
If today鈥檚 students want to study the stars, solve homicides, teach in tomorrow鈥檚 data-driven classrooms, and, yes, write award-winning journalistic reports, those are the skills they鈥檙e going to need, Krumhansl said.
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