FTT - Our World in Data

Our World in Data 

@LisaBerghoff/@MrKimDHS

The Information Age spurred on in the mid-20th century by unprecedented growth and innovations in technology has generally been seen as a resounding success for us as a species. What an incredible transition it has been going from transforming materials (metals, tools) and energy (steam, electric, etc) to finally transforming information (knowledge). But as recent blog posts on bias and information would suggest, we're currently witnessing an existential crisis unfold as channels of disinformation can be just as influential and communicable as objective truth (whatever that is). 

Hilbert 2020, Dialogues in Clinical Neuroscience

So it's always nice to find resources as well-sourced, professional, and aesthetically pleasing as Our World In Data. Our World in Data is an online publication founded by Max Roser, a social historian and developmental economist, that focuses on macro issues that impact humanity. Roser and his team from the University of Oxford shed like on issues like poverty, education, climate change and more through a lens of data, graphs, maps, and interactive charts. Scientific journals, government departments, major new outlets, academic foundations all regularly use the site as a source, considering all of their visualizations, data, and code are fully open access. 

Topics

They have a wealth of topics to choose from: everything from global environmental and health data to cultural trends and education is well documented. 

Their statistical design team also does a wonderful job taking complex ideas and concepts and presenting them in interactive, beautiful graphs and maps. A quintessential skill for effective teachers: Can you present complex ideas to people in simple, effective, and scalable formats? (Their graphs can even be embedded in any site format with HTML!) 

Every article is well organized and the information is structured and scaffolded for accessibility, and thankfully they commit to a very transparent and thorough source/citation section. 

So if you've ever geeked out about well-organized and accessible information before, this place is a dream come true. A nice reprieve from the information chaos of social media and attention-grabbing breaking news sites. Are you using Our World in Data in your classes already? Do you have other similar sites that you love? Let us know below!