Data Visualization

Data visualization just fascinates me. Looking at something familiar through a different lens, or looking at something complex or unfamiliar in a way that we're used to seeing... very cool stuff. Hans Rosling is adorable:

And while I love what Hans does with statistics, I also really enjoy the meaning one gains from text visualizations such as Wordle. Taking the entire text of a speech, then pasting it into wordle.net, gives an instant summary of the words used most frequently. At right I've embedded a wordle of Mother Teresa's speech at the National Prayer Breakfast in Washington DC in 1994. What if, in Civics or Government we pasted in the text of stump speeches to see if candidates' word choice seems consistent with what they are trying to portray? This sort of data visualization gives students a tool to make meaning of complex text, with some interesting and thought-provoking questions that jump right out.

A new tool for me this week has been American Heritage Dictionary's You Are Your Words site, which isn't exactly data visualization, but is still a pretty neat way to pull together text and image. Here I am, created from text from my blog. I see some interesting applications in which students select articles or definitions from Wikipedia that represent themselves to use as the text for their images.

As our students continue to explore what their digital footprint is, these sort of tools can help them to better create a presence that they are proud of, that represents their point of view, and that they can safely share with the world.