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A Quick Tour of Visualization and Modeling

This is a quick tour through a variety of visualization and modeling tools that demonstrate some of the affordances of visualization and modeling for learning. This list is not exhaustive by any means; one of the goals of this seminar is to develop a broad framework for thinking about the range of affordance of visualization and modeling tools, as well as the challenges educators face to using these tools successfully in classroom settings.

+ Increased resources - High bandwidth hierarchical interaction - Parallel perceptual processing - Offload work from cognition to perception - Expand working memory - Expand storage of information + Reduced search - Locality of processing - High data density - Spatially indexed addressing + Enhanced recognition of patterns - Recognition, not recall - Abstraction and aggregation - Visual schemata for organization - Value, relationship, trend + Perceptual inference - Visual representations make some problems obvious - Graphical computations - Perceptual monitoring - Manipulable medium (different affordances of vis)

1. Visualization as external memory

Example: multi-digit multiplication.

2. Visualization groups related information spatially

Example: mapping earthquakes.

3. Visual perception may reveal patterns not easily seen otherwise

Example: WorldWatcher displays of solar reflection

4. Visualizations may show change over time

Example: Heat Bars from Computers, Teachers, Peers.

5. Visualizations may be manipulated

Example: dynamic periodic table

6. Simulation environments are highly interactive and model the properties and causal mechanisms of specific domains

Example: Interactive Physics

7. General purpose modeling environments allow users to define properties and observe emergent behavior

Example: Stagecast Creator