The IDEMS Podcast

Lucie and David continue their discussion about Communities of Practice, focusing this time on the distinction between communities that have emerged ‘naturally’ and those that have been created.

David sits down with Sue Johnson, one of IDEMS’ non-executive directors (NEDs). They discuss Sue's transition from the corporate world to her role at IDEMS, motivated by the organisation's focus on social impact, and their recent in-person team meeting. Considering R-Instat in particular, Sue provides some insights into the challenges of effectively communicating IDEMS’ projects to external stakeholders, emphasizing the importance of balancing technical depth with a broader business perspective to achieve the company's goals.

For more information on R-Instat, search the podcast backlog or visit r-instat.org.

At the 100th episode milestone, directors David Stern, Kate Fleming, and Danny Parsons meet to celebrate their journey and discuss the evolution of The IDEMS Podcast.

Do you feel like using generative AI is affecting your cognitive abilities? In this episode, Lily expresses that she believes that using such tools for some tasks has had a negative impact on her ability to perform those tasks herself. David has an interesting perspective on why this needn’t necessarily be seen as a problem – at least not a new one.

Lily’s closing thoughts:

“As we wrap up, I think it's clear that generative AI, like many advancements before it, may shift the way we think and operate. However, the key point is that we have choices: Technology doesn’t strip us of our abilities unless we allow it to. We can choose how to engage with these tools in ways that preserve or even enhance our skills. It's about finding the balance: embracing what's new, while staying mindful of the skills we value. Thank you for joining David, and we look forward to continuing these conversations.”

In this episode, David and Abib discuss their decade-long friendship and Abib’s journey from being part of the inaugural cohort at AIMS Ghana to making impactful contributions in data analysis and university policies. Their conversation covers the evolution of AIMS programs, Abib’s diverse career across Africa, and a significant project showing sports admissions do not affect academic standards. They reflect on the role of sports in mental health, the maturity of Ghanaian institutions, the increasing relevance of mathematics and technology, and potential IDEMS collaborations.

The Agroecology (AE) Hub, a community of NGOs working with smallholder farmers in Kenya that IDEMS has been supporting for the last 5 years, is entering a new phase. David and Lucie review some of the outcomes of the AE Hub’s activities following a symposium that brought together all of the members to identify potential plans for the coming years.

In this follow-up episode, Lucie and David discuss data literacy from a more qualitative perspective, building on discussions between David and Lily in previous episodes. They explore themes like variability, uncertainty, and the value of different data types, highlighting the deep analysis of specific contexts versus the current rich data world. The conversation imagines a future where data literacy is as integral to society as traditional literacy.

In this episode David and Kate discuss the difficulties they faced telling the IDEMS Story and how Kate has helped in doing so. They discuss the challenges of telling any story of tech interventions for social issues, touching on the objective of not doing harm and producing impactful, thoughtful interventions. They consider the complexities within IDEMS and how its diverse projects converge through commonalities, and different mechanisms explored, including The IDEMS Podcast.

Lily and David consider the complex and often contentious topic of whether data and statistics can be considered a subset of mathematics. David proposes the radical idea that the current mathematics curriculum, heavily centred on calculation, should pivot to emphasise data interpretation, advocating for a future where data literacy is foundational in education.

David discusses his experiences of working in communities of practice. With Lucie, they discuss what brings a community together, and how it can be maintained. The discussion covers communities such as mathematics educators, agroecology researchers, and IDEMS.