Hi, everyone!
Welcome to our OER for week 11: Data Visualization! This week, we will be touching on: https://etecubc2022.wixsite.com/etec522-data-visuali
- What is data visualization? How do we see it and interact with it in our everyday lives? How do we use it in education?
- How can data visualization be applied in education – and what are some of the tools to use, and what is their potential?
- What exactly is the future of data visualization – and how does AI play a part? What are the opportunities, and at the same time, what are the risks?
While you are looking through our website this week, please navigate yourself through our various activities – there are many, so we hope this OER will keep you entertained – including:
- Tell us where you live your life – and see across a constantly-developing map where your peers do the same (note that this can be done anonymously)!
- Discuss how you have used data visualization: whether this be in your workplace, education, or your personal life. Give us an example!
- Watch a few TED Talks about data visualization, and let us know what your main takeaways were.
- Participate in a poll to vote on your favorite data visualization tool!
- Have you found a tool or resource YOU like? Add it to our OER – and see the toolbox archive which you can use for a later date.
- Play the Infinite Drum Machine to create beats.
- Use Chart AI to create your own mind map. Like Chat GPT – ask it anything – and see the data visualization it comes up with for you!
- Look through the t-SNE Map and find a piece of art that speaks to you!
Finally, we hope you enjoy learning about and interacting with data visualization by using Padlet to start discussions with your peers, play with maps, and use our resources to connect the worlds of science and art.
Discussion questions are included within the OER for you to participate in, or otherwise, please join the discussion below by answering a few questions:
- How have you used data visualization in your world – whether that be your workplace, education, or personal life? Give an example of what it may have looked like.
- After watching the TED Talks, in what ways do you see data visualization being used effectively in educational settings to enhance learning and information literacy skills?
- After exploring the OER and learning about data visualization, can you think of any additional opportunities or risks?
We hope you enjoy this week’s OER!
Terrence, Lena, and Emma
This was a great user experience, Terrence, Lena, and Emma. You peppered the OER with useful information and resources that I had not heard of before. I will be experimenting with these over the coming weeks, you can be sure of that. I found a lot of value in the David McCandless Ted Talk as he made me see Data Visualization as a Behavioural Economist would. I loved his term ‘data detective’ and the ways in which he found patterns in the mundane was fantastic. It was beautifully put when he noted that data is a convergence of the language of the eye and of the mind. I was shocked to see the political spectrum infographic as I’ve used that when explaining the political system to my students.
After reading your OER, I see that data visualization is a powerful tool that enables us to transform complex datasets into visually compelling and easily understandable representations. While I’ve always leaned towards the basic Infographic, there is a world of other options that you introduced me to. These options allow me to identify patterns, trends, and insights that might not be apparent in raw data alone. When I get my students to complete infographics, I explain that this is a way to simplify complex information. This simplification not only aids in understanding but also saves time and effort in analyzing extensive datasets. There is something universal and appealing about a good showcase of data. Basically, it can be a storytelling device. When data is presented in a visually engaging manner, it becomes more compelling and memorable to an audience. When it’s used in my business and economics class, I stress that well-crafted data visualizations can captivate attention and convey information more effectively than lengthy reports or spreadsheets.
The problem I’ve had with data visualization is one that David noted in his presentation… a good dataset presentation takes a lot of time to make visually interesting and still maintain a level of useful interpretation. I’m happy to note that some of the resources you’ve added cut down that time, but few of them actually interpret the data, which is the biggest challenge of all. Thinking like a data detective or a behavioural economics takes training, as you have to find and interpret patterns. My goal for the coming year is to train my students to find these patterns and better understand the world around them.
Thanks again for a wonderfully interesting and practical OER.
I am so glad to hear you enjoyed it, Simon!! I agree, a good showcase of data is a way to tell a story – and in a much more engaging manner than explain raw data/numbers themselves. I find the graphics so much more interesting and easy to understand… and they almost make the data seem that much more significant.
I also thank you for your insight on resources to help us interpret data – that is something that is tricky and does require a lot of training, but I would love to keep that in mind for the future with regard to looking into these types of resources that exist out there. I, personally, could benefit from that – and use it in my own every day work.
Thanks again!
Great presentation this week! Throughout your OER there were so many applications for data visualization I hadn’t thought about before.
Looking at data in a 3D visual and the potential for using AR/VR to interpret data I found very interesting. I hadn’t seen that Tik Tok video before about Messi’s statistics, that was very captivating and I could see tools to create data visually appealing such as Flow Immersive being a huge resource in education. Being able to take multiple elements of data and weave them together into an understandable presentation that isn’t overwhelming to the viewer, who may not have a background in that field, is very impactful. I think it allows a field that has a reputation for being mundane and complex the opportunity to engage more of the public by being visually captivating.
In my own world I have used data visualization through Strava to track my activity level, mostly runs, I have found that to be a motivating way to stay active and compare statistics. At school, as en elementary school teacher, I have used data visualization to track student reading levels and math concepts through the charts and graphs created through apps like Mathletics and Prodigy. There were so many other applications you shared in your OER that I could see being very useful, and will have to explore further on how to integrate some of those technologies.
I’m glad our presentation offered you new ideas and applications for data visualization. Exploring these technologies further can enrich the learning experience for both you and your students. If you ever need more information or assistance in integrating these technologies, feel free to reach out. Thank you again for your positive feedback, and I look forward to seeing how you incorporate data visualization in your teaching and personal life.
Hi Kelby,
I like that you mentioned the Messi Tiktok, we decided to add this particular video to also demonstrate how data visualization can really be hosted anywhere and particularly through some very accessible digital spaces, like TikTok. I think something to further think about here, is how children are likely to access TikTok and digital videos like this one for information about certain topics. I know Messi is a great example of that because lots of young boys are interested in soccer and look up to Messi as a player, so young boys would be one of the biggest demographics of this Tiktok video. This speak to your point about how impactful these visualizations can be to folks who may feel overwhelmed by the possibility of interpreting data.
Thanks for
Kelby makes an excellent point about how we often use data visualization in our own lives as intrinsic rewards and motivations. I, too, use Strava in addition to my Apple Fitness app to further track my Cardio Fitness and make goals based on the data to further my performance.
I often think on the optimistic side of data and the various opportunities that exist that your group has widely exemplified. However, I do have one potential risk in mind. In the application section of the OER, there is mention of how AI has the potential to identify various characteristics of individual students and create personalized learning experiences for teachers. All of this sounds very endearing and helpful, but I wonder if AI has the ability to include the human perspective when evaluating each student. In my work as a Diverse Learning Teacher, my colleagues often come to me when they need assistance with understanding various learning or behavioural needs. I use a therapeutic model called the Fairy Tale Model, which understands the individual student’s story. I would be impressed if AI were to describe, in detail and with empathy, student stories, attachment styles, and core beliefs.
Thank you for sharing so many resources – it has been fun to explore, and I am excited to use some moving forward!
Hello Data Visualization team,
Thank you for the OER, in particular, the hands on games and activities. I think that the t-SNE map Google Arts and Culture website could be useful for art teachers. They could use it at the beginning of the academic year as a hook to explore “What is art?” and “What is art to you?” The visualization includes sub-sets such as empty frames, air compressor canisters and furniture, so the teacher can ask guiding questions related to “Does art mean anything that is man made?” “Does it have to serve a purpose?”
I mentioned Strava in one of the Padlets, and other data visualizations that I have been using recently while travelling have been Gojek and Grab (SE Asia’s versions of Uber), Google Maps, Calendars and just the other day, one called Windy. We are in a very remote part of Indonesia right now and it has been incredibly challenging to get here. Windy is, as you may have guessed, is an app that shows wind patterns. We found it helpful to understand why our ferry was cancelled the other day to get to this island. As you can imagine, information travels slowly here and we only found out about the cancellation after our arrival. The ferry company does not have a website to purchase tickets nor to learn about routes and cancellations. So Windy allowed us to see the yellow, green and blue wind zones to help us with making educated guesses about the following day ferry availabilities. We made it the next day despite some yellow patches! We could also see the typhoon gathering speed just south of Taiwan!
Thank you,
Maurice
Oh ! One last thought: today an important data visualization I used was the diving watch during a scuba dive. These are extremely helpful as they show my depth, my dive time and my Safety Zone time (the amount of time to help you decompress after having gone deeper than 10 metres). The watch is handy to track your dive but also to keep you safe from getting the bends!
Hi Maurice!
Oh – those are two awesome examples of data visualization you’ve mentioned (Strava and outputs from your diving watch). I feel like these are relatable examples that people see everyday, given the amount of people I know (including myself) who use fitness apps and smart watches (whether it be to track fitness, sleep, etc.).
I really like this week’s topic as it truly can resonate with anyone. Thank you for interacting with the games 🙂
Hi Maurice,
Your reference to “Windy” is such an interesting one! My best friend’s father is a meteorologist and he always pulls up his weather pattern app when we’re wondering if it’s going to rain. They inherently do the same thing with visualizing weather patterns through maps and layers of colored data points to demonstrate where and when rain clouds and moving. It is also such a great example of how most folks can easily access information, like temperature and wind patterns, through visualizations.
Great job team, some thought provoking ideas here and the OER was well done.
I use data visualization primarily to manage the technology tools and resources that are used at the college I work at. Many of loan manage tools have good graphic ways of showing who is using what tools, how often, etc. It allows me to see what is working and what is not, and I can follow up with students based on this information. I would love to be able to merge the visual data among a variety of resources, to give me a quick idea of how these resources and tech strategies are working together with one another. Are multiple tools being used at once? If so, which ones?
Another example of simple data visualization that my students use is when they take advantage of the Speaker Coach tool in MS Powerpoint https://support.microsoft.com/en-gb/office/rehearse-your-slide-show-with-speaker-coach-cd7fc941-5c3b-498c-a225-83ef3f64f07b
It’s a great way to practice presentations and the “report card” at the end has useful visualized data feedback. I would love to see more products have this sort of feature.
Hi Lowell,
You ask a great question, “Are multiple tools being used at once? If so, which ones?”. This was a question I continued to ask myself as I researched the emerging markets within this field. There are certainly more companies looking to expand their API integrations, and I think we will continue to see that more frequently with the development of AI. I suspected that in the next few years, we will start to see more extensive AI data analysis with visual outputs (think AI-created art). So the combination of the several technologies advancing at once will allow lots of interesting doors to open.
Really great presentation team! This was a topic I was very interested in explore so apologies in advance for the lengthy responses!
How have you used data visualization in your world – whether that be your workplace, education, or personal life? Give an example of what it may have looked like.
Much of my current position is focused on the collection, analysis, and communication of different sources of data. I have had a few recent successes using data visualization to highlight some key information.
My school is separated into three main sections: Early Childhood (Kindergarten and Nursery sections), Lower School (Primary, Grades 1 – 5), and Middle/High School (Grades 6 – 12). In addition to being broken into these departments, they are also physically separated into their own buildings and the transition between departments has been identified as an area for improvement. Up until now, discussion about the challenges students face transitioning has been largely based on observations and as a result, not much has changed to address this challenge. I spent some time compiling academic and perception data throughout the school and presented it to our department heads as a student’s journey through the school. I animated the drawing of the line graph to show academic progress and student satisfaction. This was compared to regional standards for academic progress and student satisfaction and what the department heads saw that really hit home was the significant drops in both academic and satisfaction in transition years coupled with a slow recovery in follow-up years. Seeing the data presented like this spurred action amongst the staff and we now have the early stages of a transition improvement plan developed.
After watching the TED Talks, in what ways do you see data visualization being used effectively in educational settings to enhance learning and information literacy skills?
The first thing that jumped out at me was mimicking David McCandless’ presentation style when presenting data. The portion of the presentation where he presented an unlabeled set of data only to reveal that it was representing the amount of break-ups as per Facebook data, got me thinking about using that to present a summary of perception data to relevant stakeholders. Showing them a blank data set and then eliciting responses prior to revealing the actual data could double as a means of identifying what stakeholders are thinking.
After exploring the OER and learning about data visualization, can you think of any additional opportunities or risks?
I do think there is an inherent risk in data visualizations’ ability to potentially mislead observations. The fact that effective visualization can be so impactful in conveying information while minimizing the amount of raw data presented could lead to inaccurate conclusions. For example, in McCandeless’ TED Talk, when he presented the balloon chart highlighting research done on various supplements, before taking the time to truly understand what the data was saying, my brain went immediately to the idea that “I should be drinking green tea.” The big green tea bubble drew my attention immediately and I assumed that all the research done on green tea was research supporting the consumption of green tea but maybe in reality, it was the opposite. Data visualization is effective in providing easy to digest data summaries but with that comes the risk of not communicating everything behind the data.
Hi Ben,
We’re really glad that you liked our OER!
I really like the real-world example that you shared, because I think it demonstrates how valuable it is to be able to process and communicate information in fast and efficient ways. In certain contexts where time is extremely valuable and all stakeholders do not have the time to process and understand data, visualizations can be really effective tools for understanding the “bigger picture” and setting up a foundational understanding. It seemed to be the case that the staff needed to see the data in an organized fashion to be able to 1) comprehend the circumstances and 2) be able to make actionable improvements in your school. What this tells me, in combination with some of the risks outlined, is that data visualization is a really great starting point for conversation, but oftentimes might require more research into the nitty gritty.
Really great work this week, Data Visualization team.
In particular, I enjoyed the Emerging Markets Opportunities like others have mentioned above. There are a lot of resources presented that I’ve marked down to revisit later.
In responding to your third question: After exploring the OER and learning about data visualization, can you think of any additional opportunities or risks?
Perhaps the biggest takeaway from this week is that you’ve quelled the risk I originally had about data visualization. In my experience, I have often found that data visualizations are only as good as the human inputs of that data, which can often be prone to error. However, as I mentioned on Padlet, I really enjoyed the perspective of Frank Evans in thinking about data visualization beyond dashboards. Data applications that offer an immersive experience are less about creating a visual to answer a specific question and more about affording the learner/educator the ability to form their own connections through critical thinking. The amount of data to populate these tools can be time consuming, but AI would assist in this regard. I think this is an exciting tool that positions itself to be viable for the foreseeable future.
Thank you,
Richard
Hi Richard,
I worked on the Emerging Markets section and I actually had so many additional fun resources and examples that I chose to emit! I certainly went down a longggg rabbit hole for this presentation and was so excited by my research that I ended up with TOO MANY resources. I felt like having too many example integrated into our OER would be overwhelming and detract from our presentation, so I opted for a few rather than overloading on all the interesting ones that I found. Perhaps, in our revised OER I will add some of the others that I came acorss so that people can click around if they are interested.
An interesting risk that I thought about in my research, is the fear that can come from really strong data visualization. There is this really awesome series through Google Experiments called “Heartbeat of the Earth” (one of these experiments I included in the data art section) that does data visualization in relation to climate change. I went through all these and they honestly made me so sad – and also absolutely terrified. The one in particular, Coastline Paradox (https://experiments.withgoogle.com/coastline-paradox) integrates the Google Maps street view feature with a data visualization of rising sea levels over the years, which basically allows you to see what cities/shorelines are going to be underwater. It’s so incredibly depressing to think about, and so much more real when you can literally see through street view. And I think with the development of AI, these data visualizations that predict future trends like global warming, are going to start to feel like inescapable (and real-life) black mirror episodes. These visualization tools will allow us to predict and depict the future in very real and tangible ways. As AI processing becomes faster, smarter, and stronger, and regularity integrates big data, our predictions are going to be more complex and more accurate. I wonder if the combination of big data, machine learning, AI, and data visualization will allow us to create a crystal ball that can look into our future? Are we ready to handle this technology?
Sorry to reply with a long tangent, but the series is definitely worth exploring and might be a great resource to use in the classroom.
Hi Richard,
The idea of using AI to assist in populating these data tools is a promising one, as it can significantly reduce the time-consuming process of gathering and organizing data. AI can play a vital role in enhancing the efficiency and accuracy of data-driven experiences. Overall, the concept of immersive data visualization seems exciting and has the potential to be a valuable tool for education and beyond, positioning itself as a relevant and viable solution for the foreseeable future. It’s always fascinating to see how technology continues to advance and revolutionize the way we interact with data and information.
After exploring the OER and learning about data visualization, can you think of any additional opportunities or risks?
I am not so sure it would qualify as a risk but I think that we need to be teaching students how to properly interpret data that they see? Because the visualization tools nowadays are so powerful it is really easy to make something look like a much larger (or smaller) deal than it really is with data visualization. I really like how this was brought up in the TED talk by McCandless when he spoke about the spending of the US military and the number of soldiers in the Chinese army. I think that is a real risk with data visualization tools. As mentioned in the TED talks our brains can really quickly process the information that they are seeing when presented in this form but it is easy to manipulate graphs and charts to make them look a particular way. I think data literacy for students is really important. I like the acronym “OPVCL” to help students think about where the source of information is coming from and why it is being presented in the way that it is. Graphs can be used very easily to manipulate people as we frequently see with large companies and politics. This website https://towardsdatascience.com/ has some great examples to share with students and discusses how COVID-19 testing data was manipulated by countries who wanted to appear that they were doing a good job of testing. I think that we need to ensure students and as a result adults are increasingly data literate in order to understand the new world of big data.
Thanks for all of your work, I really enjoyed the site and found the different activities engaging! I particularly enjoyed the Messi TikTok.
Thanks, Mike! I agree – data literacy is extremely important and I think it it something often missed (as even I will accept and admit my lack of knowledge in this area). I appreciate your relation to the COVID-19 testing data manipulation – and I think it shows us how this could apply to any data visualization we interact with daily, whether it be political, social, etc. I think this is something individuals of any age could benefit from – and it would be great to teach this so early on.
Thank you so much for interacting with our OER 🙂
Hi Data Visualization Team,
Thanks for a great presentation! I really enjoyed exploring your OER and discovering so many new data visualization resources that I had never heard of before. I will definitely be taking notes and using them in teaching and personal applications. I can see Stretch being a great tool for my students to explore various topics in more depth and gain a better understanding of how they are interconnected. For myself, I spent a lot of time exploring the Ocean of Books visual experience and viewing with fascination the size and proximity of various favourite authors’ islands. What a unique and thought-provoking example of data visualization!
To answer your question, how have you used data visualization in your world:
– K-7 Education: – Xtramath.org – To represent student progress in memorizing math facts, view individual progress & class progress overall, view growth over time, set practice goals
– ClassDojo – To represent student achievements as a classroom citizen in point form (translating into a classroom monetary system), track attendance and look for
trends (eg. absent every Friday), view class trends over time, set goals based on data
– Health & Well-being – Fitbit – To view active time vs. sedentary time, set goals for daily steps/distance walked, view heart rate improvements over time when starting a new workout
plan, view sleep stats over time and look for trends in order to make changes to improve sleep.
Thanks again for a great week of learning! I thoroughly enjoyed exploring everything you put together.
Excellent job Data Visualization Team! I appreciate the interactivity of your OER and the resources provided. After exploring your OER, I realized that data visualization has more impact on us than I initially imagined. One example of data visualization that never occurred to me before is Kahoot!, in which a visualized percentage of each option is seen after every question. It is a great way for teachers to understand where the confusion is and what needs to be explained more, and examples like this can be easily found using other applications and platforms.
I think that one opportunity of using data visualization in education is to pass the tool to our students. If we teach students how to collect data, visualize data, and analyze visualized data appropriately, it will allow them to (a) gain deeper insight into any topics that they want to explore individually, (b) understand themselves better in terms of what types of learners they are and how they learn better. Too often the assessment data is only viewed by educators in early primary. I wish to see more of this information shared with young children, and data visualization is such a useful tool for the little ones to understand what the data means and to make personal connections with numeric facts. That being said, to me, the risk of data visualization is user privacy, which links to last week’s topic. Since everything is cloud-based, ensuring the safety of student data is going to be an ongoing challenge.