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Simple Complexity: data visualization blog

Simple Complexity: data visualization blog

Research shows that students have difficulty achieving deep understanding of many fundamental science concepts, for instance, the nature of matter, pressure, density, and electrical circuits to name but a few. After students have presumably learned the scientific explanations, they often revert back to their initial explanations. The Understandings of Consequence Project has demonstrated that part of the problem arises from differences in how students and scientists think about cause and effect. Scientific explanations often require students to structure knowledge in ways that contradict their expectations about the nature of how causes and effects behave. Such explanations can involve: causal mechanisms that are inferred or abstract; causal patterns that extend beyond linear and unidirectional to cyclic, reciprocal, and non-sequential; correspondences between causes and effects that are in various respects probabilistic; and causal agents that are decentralized and involve aspects of emergence. These are ways of thinking that students typically are not familiar with. Thus students attempt to assimilate information about complex concepts into simplistic causal structures which ultimately distort the information. In order to achieve deep understanding of scientific explanations, students need to learn the levels of these dimensions that fit the level of explanation needed. We have developed a taxonomy of causal models to guide these teaching and learning efforts. We have also developed a taxonomy of epistemological "moves", such as comparing more than one model and being alert to possible gaps in one's explanation, that serve scientific inquiry and lead to more complex conceptions.

Explaining Complex Concepts with Infographics

visual complexity: data representation

visual complexity: data representation

John Seely Brown: "Even when children are high achievers and facile with new technology, many seem gradually to lose their sense of wonder and curiosity, notes John Seely Brown. Traditional educational methods may be smothering their innate drive to explore the world. Brown and like-minded colleagues are developing the underpinnings for a new 21st century pedagogy that broadens rather than narrows horizons. John Seely Brown, former chief scientist at Xerox, has morphed in recent years into the "Chief of Confusion," seeking "the right questions" in a range of fields, including education. He finds unusual sources for his questions: basketball and opera coaches, surfing and video game champions. He's gathered insights from unorthodox venues, and from more traditional classrooms, to paint quite a different picture of what learning might look like. The typical college lecture class frequently gathers many students together in a large room to be 'fed' knowledge, believes Brown. But studies show that "learning itself is socially constructed," and is most effective when students interact with and teach each other in manageable groups. Brown wants to open up "niche learning experiences" that draw on classic course material, but deepen it to be maximally enriching. In basketball and opera master classes, and in architecture labs, he has seen how individuals become acculturated in a "community of practice," learning to "be" rather than simply to "do." Whether performing, creating, or experimenting, students are critiqued, respond, offer their own criticism, and glean rich wisdom from a cyclical group experience. Brown says something "mysterious" may be taking place: "In deeply collective engagement in processes...you start to marinate in a problem space." Through communities of practice, students' minds "begin to gel up," even in the face of abstraction and unfamiliarity, and "all of a sudden, (the subject) starts to make se

GimpGirl Community's mission is to bring women with disabilities together in the spirit of support, positivity and inclusivity. The world of women with disabilities is a complex place, often with no easy answers. We encourage an attitude of self-advocacy and self-efficacy with all of our members and are radically inclusive of all women with disabilities. With the strength of our members and allies throughout the global disability and women's worlds, we use the tools at our disposal to create a place for discourse, humor, art, research, resources, and most of all, community. We are a program of the 501(c)3 nonprofit People Helping People.

Transformations in writing - study at stanford on new literacies

OWP / National Center: Transformations in writing - study at stanford on new literacies

"Constellation Framework" allows you to create a working concept map of your website - while "Constellation Roamer" is a configurable SWF that can be embedded right in your web page

Graph Visualization for the Web: add value to your data. Asterisq's "Constellation Framework" allows you to create a working concept map of your website - while "Constellation Roamer" is a configurable SWF that can be embedded right in your web page

Cognitive FlexibilityTheory, Hypertext, and the Post-Gutenberg Mind

Great user design portal: UX Magazine

Data Visualization: Accuracy and Aesthetics

Data Visualization: Accuracy and Aesthetics

Government Data Visualization: Wallstats

Government Data Visualization: Wallstats

data visualization: Cartogrammar

data visualization: Cartogrammar

Sankey Diagrams: data visualization

Sankey Diagrams: data visualization

Well-formed Data: data visualization blog

Well-formed Data: data visualization blog

Data Visualization: data visualization blog

Data Visualization: data visualization blog

Data Visualization: Good (pushing the world forward)

Data Visualization: Good (pushing the world forward)

Data Visualization:juice analytics

Data Visualization:juice analytics

Data Visualization:junk charts

Data Visualization:junk charts