The concept of statistical literacy needs to be refreshed, regularly. Major changes in the ways that data can be accessed from government and non-government agencies allow everyone to access huge databases, to create new variables, and to explore new relationships. New ways of visualizing data provide further challenges and opportunities. The Open Data movement, and the rise of data driven journalism are increasing public access to large scale data via the media. Here, we map out some opportunities and potential pitfalls, and discuss the rebalancing of statistics curricula that is required. The most obvious challenge is the need to introduce students to the exploration and analysis of large scale multivariate data sets. The curriculum should also address issues of data provenance and quality. We present an example of our visualisations of complex multivariate data, used in classroom trials. General issues of pedagogy and curriculum innovation are discussed.

Technology has revolutionised society and it has revolutionised the way in which statistics, as a professional discipline, is done. The collection of data is growing exponentially both in relation to the quantity of data assembled on any particular measure and also in relation to the range of topics, and the measures, on which data is collected. Accessing data has become much simpler, and tools for exploring, manipulating and representing that data visually have multiplied, both in commercially available software and open-source freeware. However, the curriculum in schools in the UK is constrained by important factors which restrict the use of technology in assessment. The statistics curriculum is largely dull and does not address the core issues of most relevance in statistics today. Here, we explore ways in which technology can enhance the teaching of subjects in which statistics are used, and also the teaching of statistics within mathematics.