Why Understanding Data Visualization is Key

 

Todays post reminded me of back in teachers college (yes I know the 1800s) we had a prof I call Dr Flooby Stats as he always would produce a graph and state something about it that I would always lose my mind over his interpretation.  The worst was when he had a bar graph with no vertical data and no sample size.  One bar would be twice the size of the others  and he would say that this bar was much larger than that bar and blah blah blah.  I would raise my hand and say your data has no values so I cannot judge myself.  When pressed on his data it usually turned out that one bar was only a couple percent larger as when he put real numbers on the chart it was not to scaled from zero.  He would then say, "well it is statistically significant".  I would then usually say something like, I should be the judge of that.  You should place numbers on your graphs and tell me what the sample size is.  If you would like to read the article that reminded me of this click here, hopefully after checking out my amazon.ca ads below.   If you are Canadian and making any amazon.ca purchase please click on my links below first as I will get a small commission on anything you buy even if it is something else.   Thanks.  This post may contain affiliate links that earns me  a commission at no extra cost to you.  Buy your Christmas gifts soon and check out the pre Black Friday ads below.

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Cloud Stop Motion

If you ever wanted to make a short stop animation video for free try this website by clicking here.  You could have your students use this in science to show how they do a lab or in any other class where they want to demonstrate something.

Spicynodes

According to Common Sense Education, "SpicyNodes is a website that can be used to create mind maps, take notes, write a story, or capture any information that lends itself to a non-linear presentation. You'll begin by adding content into separate nodes using a database-like interface. Content can include plain text, images, video, or audio, which you can upload or snag from the Internet. Things look pretty technical at this point, but you can always click Preview to view how your info will look in the actual nodemap. Once a map has been developed, you can fly around it, zooming in on nodes and exploring info."

This strikes me as a way to present  information, similar to Prezi but different.  As an educational tool, I think Spicynodes would be great to preview a course or review a unit.  See an example by clicking here.  For a tutorial, watch the video below.  To see the website, click here.

12 Visual Design Principles

The following infographic and corresponding lesson will help you design your visual presentation.  Take a look at the following infographic.  If you go to their website(click here) and go below the infographic it will expand upon these 12 points.

Genially

This site will help you create infographics, presentations, interactive visuals  and much more.   To see their site click here.  

Voice Thread

According to Joseph Taylor at Warrior Ed Tech, "Are you looking for an alternative to PowerPoint with the power of screencasting? Do you want your students to work on their presentation skills?  Do you want your students to show what they know through a presentation but do not want to take 5 class periods to get though everyone in the class? VoiceThread is the answer!"  In the embedded video below Jenna Moore shows how to use VoiceThread  in the classroom.  To see their site click here and go to the K-12 Learn More section.

Slide Hunter

Last month I made several posts on slides and presentations.  Here is another site to get free PowerPoint templates.  Just set up a free account or give them a shout out or vote on twitter or google+ to get the free download.  In fact I just clicked on the twitter icon and then closed the pop up box to login and was then able to click the download box without even signing in as I do not tweet.  The slides are easy to edit.  To see the site click here.  This is a picture of a template that I altered to use for my track and field team.

Projeqt - Dynamic Slides

Three out of four Fridays this month I have posted about slide presentations. Projeqt is a dynamic slide maker.  You can easily import your old static  slides and then add some real-time dynamic elements from your favourite services like Facebook or Twitter.

To see the website, click here.

Emaze

Emaze is a free website that offers  presentation software.  It is an alternative to  Power Point and Prezi.  Take a look at the video below and if you would like to see the website click here.

Sliders for Dynamic Math Presentation

With desmos you and your students can create dynamic math with their sliders.  I thought an obvious example was working with the parameters in a parabola.  What do the "a", "b" and "c" do?  Note in the video below to get the square for the parabola I used the ^ key.  Check out their site by clicking here.

Animated Videos with Powtoons

On this site you or your students can create online animated videos and presentations.  To see the website click here.  Too see an example of a students work using PowToon see the embedded video below. 

Prezi

Many teachers and students use power points.  I have posted about alternatives to Power Points ( click here) before.  Many teachers at KCI have seen or have used Prezi but I thought it might be worthwhile showing some.  The first one below just shows what you can do as an educator using Prezi.

Here are a couple of examples of Prezis by French teachers.

Here is a Prezi about making Prezis from a grade 7 student.