Proposal Description

Innovative co-operation in statistical literacy

The International Statistical Literacy Project (ISLP) aims to promote statistical literacy around the world. In different places, creative community-focused initiatives are using media and communication channels in powerful ways to build statistical literacy. Projects worldwide employ diverse formats, such as web platforms, interactive applications, educational games, school competitions, multimedia programs, and curricular modules, that are all designed to promote active engagement with data.

This session celebrates projects that are innovative, useful, and developed through teamwork between different types of organizations. One of the ways to highlight these projects is via the ISLP’s Best Cooperative Award, an award given by the ISLP every two years. In this session, some of the best practices and lessons that have been learned during the 17 years of giving out this award are grouped together and presented. Past awardees include an international post-primary school census CensusAtSchools (UK), a computer game called “Exploristica” that describes statistical concepts (Portugal), and a multimedia educational program LeME (Brazil).

The projects often use real-world data, which is made accessible through participatory learning and thematic relevance. Accessible formats enable learners to explore statistics in contexts ranging from social issues to environmental questions or community-based research. In this session, innovations from National Statistical Offices are also highlighted. This session presents the Covid-19 Tracker Slovenia, a volunteer-driven, crowdsourced initiative that delivered transparent, reliable, and accessible pandemic data to the public, uniting experts across disciplines to support informed decision-making and strengthen statistical literacy during a critical global crisis.

The International Statistical Literacy Project (ISLP) has been promoting statistical literacy since 1994. From the beginning, collaboration has been the most effective way to reach wide audiences and help people understand basic statistical concepts. Statisticians have a responsibility to ensure that information is accessible not just to the scientific community, but to everyone. For this reason, it is important to continue developing innovative approaches and supporting statistical education to build a more informed and data-literate society. The ISLP strives to advance statistical literacy via its country coordinator network, the ISLP newsletter, and presentations sessions in different scientific conferences, as well as organizing the ISLP Poster Competition and awarding the Best Cooperative Award. In this session, the future outlook for collaborative projects in statistical literacy will also be mapped out - a future whose stakeholders will need to understand the benefits and pitfalls of AI.