Election Day - Our Favorite Voting Videos

After months of campaigning and strategizing, the 2012 presidential election has finally arrived. We have been fascinated by the candidates' messaging all through the primary and general election seasons. We've also enjoyed exploring different tools in the classroom to allow students to exercise their voices, before they are old enough to exercise their votes. If you'd like to look at some resources and lessons about "Designing A Candidate," check out these prior posts. For election day itself, here are some of our favorite videos to share with students. These lively, informative clips can make sure everyone is ready to understand the eventual electoral results.

Vote For Somebody! It's Your Civic Duty (from Democracy Prep)

 

Explain It To Me: Running For President (from CNN Video)

 

Does Your Vote Count? The Electoral College Explained (from TED-Ed)

 

Electoral College 101 (from NYTimes OpDocs)

 

Electing A US President In Plain English (from Common Craft)

 

Isarithmic History Of The Two-Party Vote (from David B. Sparks)

Making It Personal - Visualizations To Teach Hurricane Sandy

Here in Long Island, New York, we've been hit hard by Hurricane Sandy. We don't have power, heat, gas, or cell service, yet we are grateful for shelter and family. We are especially concerned for our friends who have lost their homes due to flooding, and our hearts go out to the communities in New York, Connecticut, and especially New Jersey that have seen neighborhoods destroyed and loved ones lost.

Source: The Huffington Post
(click for full graphic)

Our school, miraculously, is up and running. Somehow ours is the only school for miles with power, and our students returned yesterday to warm meals and a semblance of normalcy. We've been searching for ways to discuss the storm. The kids have plenty of war stories about transformers exploding and homes ablaze. Many have trees still on their roofs. Here are a few of the resources we've found useful in assessing the impact of Hurricane Sandy. It's also a good moment to remind ourselves of the indomitable, pioneering spirit of everyday heroes.

Finally, if you are in a position to help, please consider donating to the Red Cross to help those in need. Our entire region thanks you.

Visualization Links:

The Web's Best Visualizations Of Hurricane Sandy

Source: LiveScience
(click for full graphic)

The 5 Best Maps And Visualizations Of Frankenstorm Sandy
What Can Twitter Tell Us About Hurricane Sandy Flooding?
A Stunning Map Of Hurricane Sandy's Winds
Google Crisis Map - Hurricane Sandy

Teaching Links:

Teaching Hurricane Sandy: Ideas And Resources
Eight Classroom Resources To Help Teach About Hurricane Sandy
Using Hurricane Sandy As A Teaching Tool

Infographic Links:

Hurricane Sandy Leaves 17 Million People In FEMA Disaster Areas
Timeline Of Hurricane Sandy's Week Of Destruction

Click, Swipe, Touch and Learn

Source: ASIDE, 2012

It's been almost a year since we published our post "Is 2012 the Year for an Educational (R)Evolution?", and what did we get? For one, we got the Common Core standards being pushed into schools, and two, teacher evaluations based on student performance on standardized bubble tests.

We live in a world of digital media, global brands, and 24/7 connectivity. The power of children to teach themselves using technology wields more capability than anything we might have imagined, and it exerts more pressure to change than ever before on the teachers, the schools, and the educational system.

With the growing number of Massive Open Online Courses (MOOC) on the heels of higher education, the mounting use of resources such as Khan Academy, and the increasing realization that blended learning is no longer novel but necessary, we still see restrictions on the use of websites and devices by school administrations.

Robin Sloan and Matt Thompson produced the Epic 2014 video in 2004 to predict the future of media. Aside from a few name changes, it is eerily close to the changes we've seen over the last eight years. This year Bill Sam wrote and narrated The Future of Education: Epic 2020. The video starts with the same opening line from A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens, "It is the best of times, it is the worst of times." Instead of media, it predicts the future of education with the same melodious tone, taking the viewer through a strangely similar scenario that does not seem so far off, perhaps even fewer than the eight years of the earlier Epic 2014.



Today's learner is different. It doesn't matter if you are only three and a half feet tall, you are a force to be reckoned with when it comes to education. Watch any toddler use an tablet; they swipe and touch with ease.

Teaching With Infographics

s regular readers of this blog know, we've been fascinated for a long time with infographics as teaching tools. We like their interdisciplinary nature and their union of data and text to broaden students' learning. They also woo the eye with tantalizing designs that engage children in discovery.

Until recently, infographics had saturated the business and blog communities but were late to most schools' curricula. In the past few months, though, more and more practitioners have adopted infographics into their teaching tool kits.

For ideas about using infographics in the classroom, check out these tips and suggestions. For extensive lists of infographics in every subject and discipline, browse this curated list.

Create With Students

Source: Anum Hussain, Hubspot Blog

To see colorful examples of student-generated infographics, take a look at "Designing Infographics Easel.ly." Susan Riley at Education Closet also reinforces the value of hands-on artistry in her post, "Creating Infographics In The Classroom." She offers a clear tutorial video on how to produce graphics via the free online portal Easel.ly.

Anum Hussain at the Hubspot Blog presents another painless method for creating images with his free downloadable template. His guide provides three different types of easy-to-make, good-looking infographics using PowerPoint, which is familiar and accessible to most teachers and students. 

For more advanced experimenters, check out The Top 20 Data Visualisation Tools from Brian Suda at Net Magazine. Suda lays out the array of instructive resources, many of them free, ranging from professional applications to interactive GUI controls.

Use In Teaching

Below, we've gathered together several Slideshare presentations about how various educators are approaching graphics in their teaching. Slideshare is a terrific, efficient resource for sharing PowerPoint and other linear media with viewers across the web. These slides offer approachable introductions to the possibilities of visuals in the classroom.

Web & Social Media Infographics from Stefano Principato

Visual Communication through Infographics from Ecaterina Valica

Visual Literacy: Part 1 from The Ohio State University, College of Education and Human Ecology

Visual Literacy: Part 2 from The Ohio State University, College of Education and Human Ecology

Teaching with Infographics. from Lisa Marie Johnson, Ph.D.

Halloween Eye Candy - Infographics

Source: Infographics Archive (detail)

A year ago, we published our post about Halloween infographics. Since that time, the proliferation of infographics for all topics has grown in leaps and bounds, and with it a whole array of new visual treats has entered the pool. Halloween is revered by kids young and old. As teachers, it’s perhaps one of the hardest days to keep their focus, particularly for elementary and middle school students. For that reason, integrating these colorful, data-loaded infographics into lessons keeps them engaged and helps quiet the distracted.

So here are a few of our new favorites. Oh, TheHorror! is a clever arrangement of popular horror films within a bloodshot eyeball. The radial chart includes the rotten tomato critics’ ratings, movie budget, and box office revenue. It’s great for lessons in the humanities, with crossover connections to economics and math. It could be a discussion opener for ranking current movies that relate to pop culture in the ranking, too.

Source: Pronto (detail)

Halloween Freaky Nomics includes data on spending, from candy to costumes, using graphs and charts. Check out the “costume inspiration” bar chart comparing online and offline places adults seek ideas. Social media seems to have the edge. For more integration of financial information, take a look at Tricks, Treats and Too Many Bills for a “scary snapshot of Halloween spending.”

Source: Degree Se

Of course no discussion about Halloween would be complete without candy. For this we recommend Trick-Or-Treat. Kids will love the visual, candy bar charts using Starburst and Smarties. It’s a novel design to show the percentage of adults who celebrate the day, including the dollar amount they’ll spend on everything from cards to costumes. It screams math.

Last but not least, take a look at HalloweenStatistics 2012 Creepy Calculations for ideas related to economics, social studies, and language arts. Find out facts about the best and worst cities for trick-or-treating, or the ranking of the most popular Halloween songs, films, books, and games.

Source: Visual.ly (detail)

With all of these infographics, the learning opportunities are endless. They also afford a chance to compare the data for possible discrepancies in the information.

Let's not forget the media literacy applications as well. Branding and marketing this holiday have pushed Halloween to be a major money-making industry, one that contends with other major holidays.

Mapping The Visual Beyond The Visible - IVLA 2012

Source: IVLA

We just returned from the 44th Annual Conference of the International Visual Literacy Association in Portland, Maine. This gathering created an exciting opportunity for top professionals from disparate disciplines to shape the evolving field of visual study. The IVLA conference was a balance between professors presenting traditional white papers and educators sharing new media. In talking to IVLA board members, we learned that by its own admission the organization is at a crossroads. The association is negotiating an identity crisis as it welcomes the emerging technological streams of visual information and still maintains its peer-reviewed, scholarly standing.

We enjoyed getting to know new like-minded friends, such as Richard Emanuel, Associate Professor of Communication at Alabama State University, and we hope to stay in touch to exchange ideas and resources. One of the conclusions that became apparent in talking to our new colleagues is that for many academics, the ultimate definition of "visual literacy" is still a work in progress, notably in the ever-marching world of digital image interactions.

Source: IVLA

A highlight of the conference was Friday's keynote address from Rob Edsall, Associate Professor of Geography and Earth Science, Communication and Digital Media at Carthage College. Edsall stressed that maps by definition are distortions of reality, requiring as critical a lens as text, and that iconographic "maps in the wild" reveal untold stories of power and culture.

Another high point was the riveting talk from Patricia Search, former IVLA President, accomplished artist, and Professor of Language, Literature, and Communication at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. Search opened our eyes to the semiotics of space in new augmented-reality applications, which may be obstructing the very environments they seek to enhance.

Source: ASIDE, 2012

Thursday evening's tour of the Maine College of Art (MECA) introduced us to a fantastic, below-the-radar gem of a school. The high-ceilinged, beam-and-brick facility in a former department store offers individual spaces for students at work and emphasizes creative problem solving. We especially appreciated our conversation with President Don Tuski, who described MECA's efforts at keeping student costs low and involving the community in coursework.

Source: ASIDE, 2012

We would like to thank everyone who attended our presentations on "Visually Mapping Marks of Content" and "Designing Information: Infographics As Visual Literacy." We would also like to thank our gracious hosts at the Osher Map Library of the University Of Southern Maine, particularly Jeff Beaudry, Associate Professor of Educational Leadership, who in warm humor gave us first names when we needed them most.

If you happen to be in the Portland area, we highly recommend dining among Old Port's cobblestones. Gritty McDuff's is still the best for a post-workshop ale, and Five Fifty-Five steams the savoriest cherry pepper mussels. The Old Port Sea Grill also prepares a meaty hake with clams, and both spots highlight the briny freshness of Maine's local oysters. A shout-out, too, goes to our buddy Vin and his mom, who played tour guides and made us feel like locals.

Graphicacy = Visual Literacy + Visual Thinking

Source: ASIDE, 2012

As schools increasingly look outside of their common cores to pinpoint skills for global competitiveness, they recognize the need to educate students beyond the written text. This curricular expansion can at times encounter uncertainty over instructional fads versus educational scholarship. For example, questions occasionally arise about where the skills of graphicacy converge with the similar sounding terms of "visual literacy" and "visual thinking."

Visual literacy is about learning how to look. It involves learning how to internalize and deconstruct the images that the brain sees. It involves input.  

Visual thinking is about learning how to design. It involves imagining graphic representations of new or traditional concepts based on the mind's unique creation. It involves output.

Graphicacy, therefore, is the union of the two acuities. It marries the essential skills of decoding and encoding to embrace a range of pictorial proficiencies. Due to technology and media, today's visual kinetics demand a firm grounding in the illustrative arts.

In "Just In Time For Big Data: Graphicacy Levels On The Rise," Anne Milley of the International Institute For Analytics reinforces the need for graphicacy skills amid the burgeoning age of "Big Data." She emphasizes that data visualizations typically require more analysis (and, therefore, more training) than information visualizations. She acknowledges, "it is good to see that we are poised to take greater advantage of our amazing visual bandwidth through more graphic encoding of data."

Source: ASIDE, 2012

The charts and graphs that Milley champions have been key mathematical tools for generations, but they have not always made their way into other disciplines. Today's infographics, for example, sometimes blur the line between "pure" data charts and what Edward Tufte derides as "chartjunk" (i.e., unnecessary ornamentation that serves no communicative purpose). A 2010 white paper out of the University of Saskatchewan, however, pushes back on this notion of visual purity.

"Useful Junk? The Effects Of Visual Embellishment On Comprehension And Memorability Of Charts" (Bateman, Mandryk, Gutwin, Genest, McDine, & Brooks) suggests that the cleanest form of data design may not always be the most useful. This thesis gently insists that elaborations to stark graphs do offer value. For example, there is a difference between a standard bar chart of corporate earnings and an infographic of McDonald's annual revenue depicted as a series of french fries sticking out of a container. The first focuses solely on the raw numbers, while the second combines the data with branding associations, visual mnemonics, color and logo cues, and even emotional connections.

This excellent slideshow from Andy Kirk of Visualising Data reminds us above all else why graphicacy matters. In "The 8 Hats of Data Visualisation," Kirk recounts the design process and the mindset of creating great graphics.

The 8 Hats of Data Visualisation

View more PowerPoint from Andy Kirk

For more information, please check out our other posts on graphicacy.