Visualization

Draft

Definition

The idea is to use a graphical representation to represent an information space, e.g. a complex concept, a WebSite or parts of the Web as a whole, user activities ....

DSchneider doesn't know if we should split this up like for example the Wikipedia:Visualization article (and add multimedia animations which are not necessarily the same as what they call Wikipedia: Knowledge visualization).

Types of visualizations

Lloyd Rieber (2002) categorizes visualizations according to their physical characteristics.

• representational - resemble the object represented ranging from realistic (photographs) to simplified lines and shapes.

• analogical - using a representation of an object with similar qualities to those of the object under study to highlight particular characteristics and phenomena (e.g. billard balls to introduce the concepts of momentum and kinetics of atomic particles).

• arbitrary - graphics that do resemble the concepts in question but reveal information through their spatial characteristics and the relationships between different elements of the graphics (e.g. charts, graphs, concept maps, outlines).

Visualization in education

Here is (quick) some brainstorming regarding different areas:

• To organize complex information spaces (a good example is the visualization of this wiki.

• To map out concepts and relations with some kind of graph semantic map [e.g. Wikipedia: Mind map Wikipedia: Concept Map

• To display social webs and show what people do

• To display complex (subject) data, i.e. students use a real tool

• To organize & moderate group or class discussion (e.g. [1] [2] [3] [4] [5]) writable tables or other devices

Learners, can either use or build visualizations (or both of course). We shall put some emphasis on building of course ...

Technology

• Various concept maps (e.g. mind maps)
• Topic maps
• Tree maps and pyramid maps
• Fractal maps
• Dynamic diagrams (e.g. [6])

Links

• Knowledge Maps of Researchers and Methods in the Visualization Field.
  • Check the "periodic table at the bottom of the page": Open the link and move your mouse over the cells. A really spectacular summary of different methods !
  • There is also an associated paper

• some links collected for a course

References

Rieber, L. (2002) Supporting discovery-based learning with simulations. International Workshop on Dynamic Visualizations and Learning. Online-Proceedings, Knowledge Media Research Center (KMRC), Tübingen, Germany pdf