Reflection on lesson 3

Reflection on lesson 3:
According to the Powerpoint (Session three), “We can present a lot of information in a small screen space, communicate complex ideas through visual simplicity.”
In lesson three, Professor introduces many visualization examples.

Here are the interesting examples:
1. Interactive Pictures: http://interact10ways.com/usa/information_interactive.htm
In this website, we can view many colourful pictures interactively. When the readers click one picture, many related colourful pictures will appear. It is a good and interesting experience.

2. BBC News (Urban Growth): http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/shared/spl/hi/world/06/urbanisation/html/urbanisation.stm
This visual information is presented by a rectangular maps of the Earth with Flash. Readers can easily find the specific countries in the map.

3. Market Map: http://www.smartmoney.com/marketmap/
Very attractive and powerful Flash.

4. Intentional Information Search: http://www.grokker.com/
The searching engine was developed by Groxis, Inc. which was founded in 2001, by a team of experienced executives and distinguished directors. The website enables information management and communication in our life. This visualization maximized the value of information assets for enterprises, content publishers, libraries and research-intensive organizations.

Reflection on Learning object:
According to Dr Daniel, “ A learning object is best described as a representation designed to be reused in different educational contexts.” Learning objects are involved in educational activities, especially teachers and students. Professor introduced many examples of various learning objects in the lesson. Here are the good examples of learning object:

1. Native Australian Animals
2. Language Dictionary Food
3. Moon Phases
4. Impact of Air pollution

For more information, please go to

http://www.learnactivity.com/lo/

What I have learnt from lesson 3:
Major Points:
1. Information Visualization is a process of transforming data and information into a visual form allowing someone to explore.

2. We can present a lot of information in a small screen space, communicate complex ideas through visual simplicity…

3. Information visualization examples: Intentional Information Search.

4. A learning object is best described as a representation designed to be reused in different educational contexts.

"Learning objects might reside in digital repositories, ready to be located and utilized by those involved in educational activities ."

They address:
(a) key concepts from disciplines, in visual and often interactive ways not permitted with previous technologies, for sharing of socio-historical heritage of humanity
(b) information and data that can be useful in the context of developing disciplinary-specific thinking, culture of practice, spirit of inquiry, theoretical knowledge and information work
(c) presentation of small, instructional sequences and demonstrations delivering encapsulated descriptions of some aspects of subject matter which can support learning processes by providing “just-in-time” information
(d) simulations of key equipment, tools and processes from a discipline to enable development of deep understanding of artifacts used in a culture of practice. (Danchill, 2006)

More information visualization examples:


http://interact10ways.com/usa/information_interactive.htm



http://www.smartmoney.com/marketmap/



http://www.textarc.org/



They are very interesting and funny. Please visit these websites after work.

Reference: Learning Object:http://www.learnactivity.com/lo/

Reflection on Information Visualization:
According to Gershon, Stephen, Eick, & Card (1998), “Visualization is the process of transforming data, information, and knowledge into visual form making use of humans’natural visual capabilities.”

Advantages of information visualization:
It enable users to get information fast and reach decisions in a relatively short time. Moreover, Information visualization can facilitate the user interaction with information residing on the World Wide Web.

Examples: WebBook and Web Forager.
With the increasing use of visual media, people’s visual literacy will increase. Users will become more efficient dealing with visuals and thus will get more information.
Reference:
Gershon, N., Stephen G. Eick, S.G., & Card, S. (1998). Information visualization. Interactions, March, 9-15.

Design a Learning Object

Learning object: Shape of a rain drop Flash.

The learning object aims to show how rain drop changes shape during its descent through atmosphere.

Learning Object Elements:
1. Different sizes of rain drop: 1mm, 2mm, 3mm, 4.5mm and >4.5mm
2. Useful Links
3. Colourful Texts
4. Brief descriptions

Please click the following links :

http://iln.cite.hku.hk/com/1374/users/swryuen/raindrop0320.fla

http://iln.cite.hku.hk/com/1374/users/swryuen/raindrop0320.swf

Your comments are welcome!

Reference:
http://www.stormcenter.com/envirocast/2003-04-01/envirocast-article2.php

Reflection on lesson 4:
The shape of raindrop depends on the following factors:
1. Air Resistance
2. Gravity
3. Velocity
4. Size
5. Angle
6. Wind and angle
7. Air Pressure and Surface Tension
8. Aero-dynamic forces
Improvement of my learning object:
1. It is too fast to jump to next slide.
2. It would be better if the longer time frame is applied for the first slide.
3. Improvement in hyperlinks.
4. Text should be larger and bright.
5. More colours.
6. Improvement in content.

Reflection on reading:
Schnotz, W. (2002) states that effective learning with visuo-spatial text adjuncts can be fostered through instructional design by the teacher and adequate processing strategies by the learner. The contributions of this issue include the following perspectives.

1. Instructional Design:
Effective learning with visuo-spatial text adjuncts is dependent on on the relation between these displays and the task demands and on the learner’s prior knowledge and cognitive abilities. The Instructional design of visual displays requires sufficient understanding of how the human cognitive system interacts with these displays.

2. Processing Strategies:
Visual displays can support communication, thinking, and learning. However, learners often underestimate the informational content of pictures and believe that a short look would be enough for understanding and extracting the relevant information.(Schnotz, 2002)

Reference:
Schnotz, W. (2002). Towards integrated view of learning from text and visual displays. Educational Psychology review 14(1), 101-120

Reflection on lesson 2

Lesson work Reflection:
I think the middle black picture is the best because of the following reasons:

1. Informative picture

2. background colour is special and attractive.

3. Size of the animal is large and funny.

4. Clear expression.

5. Quality of the picture is the best.

6. Sharp and bright information and discription.

7. Creative

8. Content is good and reasonable.

9. Very Impressive.

10. Beautiful graphics.

The picture shows that visuals are instruments that help people to reason about information. Visuals can also present data, information, reality, knowledge and ideas by pictures .

Reflection on Lesson two:
"Visuals can communicate complex ideas with clarity, precision, efficiency and convey the most knowledge in the shortest time in the small space.” Tufte (1983)
There are many visuals in our daily life. They include: photorealistic Images, paintings ,drawings, cartoons, abstract art, maps of territories, symbols, icons, diagrams, charts and 3-dimensional diagrams.

In lesson two, I have learnt how to use professional tools to organize our graphics and diagrams. For example, SmartDraw helps us to create, modify and style our mind maps (or concept maps) for our presentation and reporting. SmartDraw's innovative SmartTemplates™ technology is very productive. We can choose a template and customize to fit our needs and achieve our goals. Moreover, entree Workflow is another powerful application for organizing our graphics. It enables people to streamline and automate data processing, form routing and approval processes. Their tools can easily define workflow processes by point and click, drag and drop. Here is the link for the Graphic organizer tools: http://www.graphic.org/goindex.html

Furthermore, Professor introduces some excellent and powerful tools for us to develop visuals. The powerful tools include PowerPoint, Photoshop, Illustrator, Flash MX, Fireworks, FotoFx free software, Swish, Authorware and Cristal Xcelsius. 3D Studio Max and Swift 3d or PixAround for QTVR are used for developing 3-dimensional graphics.

What I have learnt from lesson 2?

Major Points:
1. Visuals can present data, information and ideas lively.
2. Graphics are more effective than words.
3. Pictures invented to communicate complex thought.
4. Types of visuals: paintings, symbols, 3-dimensions, maps, charts and mind maps.
5. We can use Powerpoint, Authorware, Photoshop, Fireworks, Flash and other professional tools to produce powerful and excellent visuals.

Reflection on Semiotics:
The definition of semiotics is "the study of signs". There are many signs in our daily life. The kinds of signs include road signs, pub signs and star signs. The signs can also be drawings, paintings and photographs. According to the article “Semiotics for Beginners”, Gunther Kress and Theo van Leeuwen adapt a linguistic model. The semiotic system has the following three essential metafunctions:

1.Ideational metafunction - 'to represent, in a referential or pseudo-referential sense, aspects of the experiential world outside its particular system of signs';

2.Interpersonal metafunction - 'to project the relations between the producer of a sign... and the receiver/reproducer of that sign';

3.Textual metafunction - 'to form texts, complexes of signs which cohere both internally and within the context in and for which they were produced'. (Kress & van Leeuwen 1996, 40-41)

Reference:
Tufte, E. R. (1983). The visual display of quantitative information. Cheshire, Connecticut: Graphics Press.
Tufte, E. R. (1990). Envisioning information. Cheshire, Connecticut: Graphics Press.
Lester, P. M. (2000). Visual communication. Belmont, CA: Thomson Learning.

Semiotics for Beginnershttp://www.aber.ac.uk/media/Documents/S4B/semiotic.html

Reflection on lesson 1

Reflection on Lesson One:

In lesson one, Professor advised us to create a Blog. Blog is kind of reflective journal and platform for us to develop a portfolio that demonstrates our learning progress. We can write reflection, discuss changes in thinking, provide artifacts and useful links in our Blog. We can create a Blog by Blogger (http://www.blogger.com/), Xanger (http://www.xanga.com/) or Edublogs (http://learnerblogs.org/).

Meanwhile, Professor introduced interactive and visual displays of Information and Knowledge. We call these "representations”. In lesson one, I have learnt how to conceptualize and develop interactive visual representations. It is possible to create dynamic and animated displays and to add audio to visual displays through technology.

Here are the examples of the interesting visual representations.

1. Reponsive Face http://mrl.nyu.edu/~perlin/facedemo/
We can create a responsive face animation in the website. Information can be presented by animation and flash.

2. BBC News (How the Bird Flu has spread)

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/shared/spl/hi/world/05/bird_flu_map/html/1.stm
This website shows that visuals might include maps, pictures, flash, images, icons, symbols and signs.

2. BBC News (Animated guide: Hurricanes)
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/4588149.stm
This website shows the animated guides to the world's most devastating phenomena, such as tornadoes, earthquakes, volcanoes and tsunami.

3. News map http://www.marumushi.com/apps/newsmap/newsmap.cfm
This website shows the colourful visual representations.

In lesson one, I was impressed by the Google Earth (http://earth.google.com/). In this interesting website, Google Earth combines the power of Google Search with satellite imagery, maps, terrain and 3D buildings. We can search for our houses, schools, parks, restaurants, streets and hotels. We can also rotate the view to see 3D terrain and buildings. Google Earth is a good example of visual representations. Its has good techniques to integrate a variety of information

Reflections on Infographics:
"Infographics are visual representations of information, data or knowledge. The types of infographics include signs, maps, flowchart, histogram, concept map and mindmap.” Inforgraphics are extensively used in our daily life. For example, in newspapers, infographics are used to show the weather, maps, site plans for events, and statistical data. Infographics are also used in the modern maps, route maps for transit systems, local landmarks, Traffic signs and technical manuals.

Reference:
1.Meyer, Eric K. (1997). Designing Infographics. Hayden Books.
2.Tukey, John Wilder (1977). Exploratory Data Analysis. Addison-Wesley.
3.Tufte, Edward R. [1983] (2001). The Visual Display of Quantitative Information, 2nd Edition, Cheshire, CT: Graphics Press.
4.Cleveland, William S. [1985] (1994). The Elements of Graphing Data, 2nd Edition, Summit, NJ: Hobart Press.
5.Information graphics:From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Infographic