Information Graphics / Interactive Data Visualization
Learning Standards for this project from the International Society for Technology in Education and listed on the syllabus.
3. Knowledge Constructor: Students critically curate a variety of resources using digital tools to construct knowledge, produce creative artifacts and make meaningful learning experiences for themselves and others.
6. Creative Communicator: Students communicate clearly and express themselves creatively for a variety of purposes using the platforms, tools, styles, formats and digital media appropriate to their goals.
Project Description:
My goal for this project is to have you develop a broad sense for how to find, make, and use infographics and data visualizations. They can be used to support student learning and give you different ways to think about areas of study. For this project you will find a minimum of five infographics or interactive data visualizations you would use in your teaching and learning. For each infographic or interactive data visualization write a minimum of 150 words describing how you might use it a part of a lesson or learning experience with your students.
This is an opportunity for you to explore and personalize your learning based on the content area and grade level you wish to teach. I encourage you to stretch your thinking and consider how these could support the learning in your class. There are many beautiful and effective infographics and data visualizations available on the web. Save and share any resources you find with us on Twitter using the hashtag #pacificutech or build a blog post in addition to the project. Follow me @mark_szymanski
Finding Infographics and Interactive Data Visualizations:
Google Image Search: Add “infographic” and or “interactive data visualization” to a keyword in a Google image search. Example: New York Times Infographic. As an example if you were working on a unit about bird migration, your search would be bird migration infographic, or bird migration interactive data visualization.
Kathy Schrock’s guide to infographics has a range of resources and links to articles that connect infographics and education.
Scoring Criteria.
- The description of each infographic is a minimum of 150 words and describes how you would use the infographic as a part of a lesson or learning experience with your students.
- The description should include details about when and how you would use your infographic in either a teacher-directed or a student-directed manner.
- Your plan should have students thinking deeply and complexly about the infographic in an engaging activity.
- The infographic you are using is posted above the paragraph. See the model example below.
Submission:
Post your work as a page of your website.
Model Project from an Art Teacher:
Infographic 1
This diagram would be great if teaching a painting course and focusing on modern art movements. How fun would a project be that required taking an image you’ve created and altering it to fit into the “molds” of say 3 of these movements? The diagram itself does a decent job of taking image “A” (Realism) and transforming it to fit into the mold of each of the following modern art movements. Again, I would use this infographic alongside my explanation for the project to allow the students to see how an image could be translated into these different styles of painting. For high school students learning modern art movements, copying a painting by Paul Klee or Picasso to gain an understanding of cubism can be useful, and copying the masters to gain understanding of a process certainly has its place. But I prefer the experiential rout that requires delving into the creative process in a way that is specific and unique to the individual. I would ask my students to take a work of theirs that they had already created, or allow them to create something new to work off of, and to choose 3 modern art movements that they are drawn to. I would then have them transform their image utilizing each of the 3 movements they had chosen to create 3 new works of art. In addition I would have the students write a short essay describing the modern art movements they utilized (explain the movement itself; the style/s it evolved from and who led the movement, where did the style originate, when did it originate, what does the style represent, and why was it created; what was going on in the world at that time and place that led to the creation of the movement), why they were drawn to each movement they chose, and how the styles related to or transformed their own personal image content.
Infographic 2
Each student would choose one of these 14 topics to translate into a 3 dimensional representation using any media of their choice that they think best suits their topic of choice. The sculpture must incorporate the proportions of the data within their chosen topic. It wouldn’t have to be a literal translation of the topic, but the sculpture would have to read contextually in relation to their topic of choice. Say a student chooses water; they could hand build or wheel throw a vessel of some kind and then remove, crumple, put holes in, or paint a portion of 13% of the vessel that represents those who don’t have access to water. For religion, you could build an icon that had parts of each god in relation to the percentage of followers out of 100. Really the options are endless, which would make it endlessly interesting. It would be really great to have all of the finished pieces displayed somewhere in the school with their topics as their titles alongside a short description of what their works represent.
Infographic 3
Religion and art have gone hand in hand since the inception of religion, yet we predominantly only learn of western art throughout our early education. I would like to incorporate world art into the classroom and get students thinking about cultures and religions they have never even heard about. The students would choose one of these religions, preferably one they knew nothing about. They would then research art related to that religion, does the religion use iconography, or solely symbols and flora and fauna? Is it a monotheistic or polytheistic religion and do they have gods? Goddesses? Both? How does the religion relate to daily life of a follower? I would then ask the students to create their own image based on the information they found based on the idea that they were present when the religion was conceived. At least 3 elements from the religion must be present as well as themes representative of the time period. They could be as creative as they want to be as long as the elements are accurate and distinguishable. They would also have to be able to convey their intent in an intelligible manner.
Infographic 4
I am not sure how to incorporate an infographic into an art course without it being purely a visual aid to communicate an idea, but I would really love to believe I would have the time and energy to translate this into a pin board image to illustrate how ideas can be translated to alternative media that may better serve the content. A pin board could be a really great tool if you’re talking about translating data into a visual work of art. I would use this image to visually illustrate how the elements of balance, rhythm, harmony and repetition are present within this graph, and how it utilizes symbolism to relay the content. Where the data is more densely compacted, their would be more intense color density and where the data is more spread out the color density would be more subdued. I would ask my students to create their own image based on a data set they collected on any topic of their choice. Their topic must be translated into symbolism that is relevant to their topic and must be utilized in a manner that is thought provoking. They would have to be able to describe their choice of symbolism in an intelligible manner and be able to relay how their work demonstrates the elements of balance, rhythm, harmony and repetition.