Data Visualization

First, I went to makeagif.com and uploaded a picture from my baby’s future room.  It was easy and quick to upload. Then, I tried to upload several of photos Baby’s room, but when it was uploading it said the files were too big.  I was hoping that it would automatically create a slideshow or something similar, but didn’t get the chance to find out.

I used Delicious.com in the past- I have bookmarks saved and even show up on the top of my Firefox screen for easy access.  This time, I decided to try to search for good researches on the site.  Under Tags, I clicked on education, then teaching, then cooltoolsforschools.wikispaces.com.  It took me to a website with a list of links to resources organized by topic such as audio tools, research tools, music tools, writing tools.  I like that Delicious takes me to sites that others have recommended, so it can me more useful than simply searching for resources.

I have also used Diigo in the past to collect resources for a group project.  We were all able to add, tag, and annotate our own links to share with each other.  It was very useful for group collaboration. 

Today is the first time I tried Glogster.  I love Glogster.  I have been trying to focus on teaching my students ways to use technology to present information from their research projects.  I like that using Glogster keeps everything in one place like a traditional poster, but gives students so many more options, like adding audio and video. This is something I would love to use with my students in the future.

I also spent a little time looking at the BBC Pinball site.  I like that it can be used so simply.  It would be a really useful tool to use when teaching and pulling out main ideas and details. 

As I was scrolling through the list of resources choosing ones to try, I was hoping to find Wordle, and I did.   I had heard of it in the past and loved the idea that it could help pull out main ideas and important words for kids .  I never used it before, so I wanted to try it.  I was excited to see that I could use it with my blog- all I had to do was post the URL of my blog, and it created the Wordle using words in my blog posts.  Now, I have a Wordle that gives me a quick overview of everything I have been working on and learning in my CEP classes.  I was interested that the words ‘group’ and ‘presentation’ were my biggest words.  It really isn’t too surprising, considering how much time I have ended up spending blogging about projects I have worked on in these classes. 

Here is the link to my Wordle: http://www.wordle.net/show/wrdl/3209316/MyCEPBlogWordle

There were also many links in the wiki that I clicked on but ended up not wanting to try, such as tools for animation.  Some of them looked too complicated for me, and definitely too complicated for my elementary-aged students.

As I was exploring and thinking about data visualization, I realized how many options there are.  There are a ton of simple programs like Wordle and Pinball that can really add to a presentation used by a teacher or a student.  I think that using some of these easy programs can really benefit our visual learners and be a simple way to integrate technology into teaching for very young students.  If I taught older students, or even had elementary students for longer than one weekly period, I would love to look into teaching my students to use some more complicated programs and also integrating them into my own lessons.