Interactive mapping website that takes demographic, economic, environmental, and political data sets and creates maps based on those data. Size of each country changes based on the particular data. Downloadable and embeddable.
Graduating from high school means better job prospects and higher earning potential for individuals, but what does it mean for the community or country as a whole? In partnership with NBC News' Education Nation, and using data from the Alliance for Excellent Education, Visualizing.org challenges you to visualize the projected benefits and economic ripple effects that would result from improving America's graduation rates.
From a review by Alice Yoo (here: http://mylifescoop.com/featured-stories/2011/05/top-6-sites-that-inspire-and-educate.html)
"Information is Beautiful was started by London-based writer and designer David McCandless. It's a blog that takes information - facts, data, ideas - and turns it into well-designed charts, graphs and data visualizations. Relevant to not just designers but anyone who appreciates statistics and facts, this site will not only keep you entertained, it will educate you on the world we live in."
Love infographics - love to be able to do them as well as these people!
Example - An image can be used to show
what an idea might look like. The picture may be used to illustrate a concept
that is being described within a text or strengthen a point of which the author
is trying to persuade his or her audience
Evidence - An image can be used to add
new information. The picture may be used to represent data that is being
described within a text or highlight one aspect of an argument of which the
author is trying to persuade his or her audience.
Expression - An image can be used
to express a feeling or attitude. The picture may be used to stylize information
that is being described within a text or make an ironic or emotional comment on
the point of which the author is trying to persuade his or her audience.
Suggested
Procedure
Feed readers
are probably the most important digital tool for today's learner because they
make sifting through the amazing amount of content added to the Internet
easy. Also known as aggregators, feed readers are free tools that can
automatically check nearly any website for new content dozens of times a
day---saving ridiculous amounts of time and customizing learning experiences for
anyone.
Imagine
never having to go hunting for new information from your favorite sources
again. Learning goes from a frustrating search through thousands of
marginal links written by questionable characters to quickly browsing the
thoughts of writers that you trust, respect and enjoy.
Feed readers can
quickly and easily support blogging in the classroom, allowing teachers to
provide students with ready access to age-appropriate sites of interest that are
connected to the curriculum. By collecting sites in advance and organizing
them with a feed reader, teachers can make accessing information manageable for
their students.
Here are several
examples of feed readers in action:
Used specifically as
a part of one classroom project, this feed list contains information related to
global warming that students can use as a starting point for individual
research.
While there are literally dozens of different feed reader
programs to choose from (Bloglines andGoogle Reader are two
biggies), Pageflakes is a favorite of
many educators because it has a visual layout that is easy to read and
interesting to look at. It is also free and web-based. That
means that users can check accounts from any computer with an Internet
connection. Finally, Pageflakes makes it quick and easy to add new
websites to a growing feed list—and to get rid of any websites that users are no
longer interested in.
What's even
better: Pageflakes has been developinga teacher version of their tooljust for us that includes an online grade tracker,
a task list and a built in writing tutor. As Pageflakes works to perfect
its teacher product, this might become one of the first kid-friendly feed
readers on the market. Teacher Pageflakes users can actually blog and create a
discussion forum directly in their feed reader---making an all-in-one digital
home for students.
For more
information about the teacher version of Pageflakes, check out this
review:
Group items tagged 
Checklist to use before embarking on a blogging project with students