After conducting some preliminary research on infographics, I have
decided that the easiest part of my Final Vision Project, so far, was actually
choosing the vehicle that I wanted to use to showcase my learning over the
duration of this class. I didn’t realize
that all the elements that make me love infographics will actually cause me the
most difficulties when creating one: delivering a large amount of information
in an interesting, concise, and visually stimulating manner. Pair that with my broad topic of Digital
Literacy, and I have a recipe for frustration and potential hair-pulling (my
own, so as not to cause harm to others).
Who is this Project for & Why?
I have been able to narrow my scope and have decided
who my target audience will be for this particular project, and I believe it’s
very apropos: educators, like myself, who want to incorporate Digital Literacy
into their classroom teaching, but may not know where to start, or what would
be the most effective way to do so. I can’t,
and won’t, believe that I am the only person in the education field who isn’t
so tech savvy, but would like to be (as I now find myself), and could benefit
from having an amazing infographic that, at a glance, can assist them in
incorporating all of the multi-literacies of the digital age into their
classrooms.
Participant Qualities &
Characteristics
This is a little embarrassing,
because I will basically be describing myself for this section, although I have
been fairly open about my shortcomings where technology is concerned. The educators who will utilize my infographic
the most, will be those who are aware of the need of having digitally literate
students, but they won’t know the best way to meet the need; they will envy
their colleagues for the technology based lesson plans they seem to produce out
of thin air, but they won’t know the best websites to find and adapt their own;
they will have the desire to become Digital Natives themselves, but they won’t
know the path to take from being a Digital Immigrant to becoming a Digital
Native; and most importantly, they will want to incorporate all of the digital
multi-literacies in all of the subject areas, but they won’t know how to
effectively do this while meeting all of the PLO’s.
Learner Considerations
As this project is
reaching out to those who are like myself, I have been thinking about what I
need from a visual tool, what I find to be the most attention grabbing element,
and I was having a difficult time trying to vocalize exactly what it is that
makes for an outstanding informative, visual tool. This little roadblock, of course led me to TED,
my favorite go-to for help in almost all matters (and what TED can’t answer,
Pinterest can J), and I found a TED
Talk that was singularly exceptional in voicing what I could not. The speaker is David McCandless, and the talk
is called The Beauty of Data
Visualization, filmed in July 2010.
There were three things that he described, that are absolutely perfect,
that cannot be rephrased, and they are as follows:
1. How we process images:
“combining the language of the eye, with the language of the mind, you start
speaking two languages simultaneously”
2. How we process data: “we
need relative figures that are connected to other date so we can see a fuller
picture, and then that can lead to us changing our perspective”
3. Why data
visualization is so important: “visualizing information like this is a form of
knowledge compression, it’s a way of squeezing an enormous amount of
information, and understanding, into a small space”
Please watch the rest of David’s talk here:
References:
http://www.ted.com/talks/david_mccandless_the_beauty_of_data_visualization
Well done post! You've captured your essential audience attributes, and researched what you need to do to meet their needs. I think the TED talk was very useful in understanding how to present your information, in graphical way to make the interpretations and understandings of the data "pop out" at you and tell a basic story as you work through the info-graphic! Good, authentic writing that is honest, transparent and valuable in helping others navigate through similar challenges!
ReplyDeleteI like the idea of data visualization. I used to organize silviculture research conferences and we would choose a variety of speakers. Partly because the researchers would show lots of graphs and some of the audience, familiar with graphs would be fine, but for others they just turn off their brain when they see them, and lose out on the rest of the talk. So speakers with photos would be important contrast to reengage this part of the audience. I think a variety of images on your infographic is important to pull in the wide variety of people in your audience.
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