Data Display of the Day: Studying Abroad

 

As a subscriber to Daily Infographic, I receive a daily dose of data visualization awesomeness in my in box. Today’s share comes from the newest contributor to Daily Infographic, Lindsey Lawrence. Lindsey shares with readers a very useful visualization for young folks considering studying (or teaching) overseas created by Course Hero, a site devoted to providing college students with useful supplements to their formal instruction. My 18-year-old sister is currently in the process of choosing where she will complete her undergraduate study. Although studying abroad hasn’t come up as an option yet, it’s an opportunity I wish I’d taken advantage of as a student (hint, hint, Karen Kacir…just a semester!).

(Original Source)

Professional Communication and Presentation Reboot: Infographic as a Teaching Tool

Alex Rister and I have been busy creating videos, tweaking slides, revamping/rewriting/overhauling assignment sheets, and generally obsessing about all things presentation education for the past few weeks in anticipation of our upcoming online course reboot. One of our challenges has been to create a streamlined educational experience that appeals to all learners. We also have to restructure the four week class to focus entirely on one major presentation, the Ignite speech. In an attempt to do this, I’ve chosen to create an infographic tipsheet on choosing a strong presentation topic.  This is a draft/work in progress, and I’d love the critical feedback. What do you think? Is this a welcome and useful break from text-based instruction? Is it too busy to process? Is it learner-centered?

Data Display of the Day: Kitchen Cheat Sheet

At the risk of saturating readers/viewers with Tweak Your Slides overload, I am sharing with you another awesome sampling of design from the web. This link comes by way of former superstudent and current superperson Sapan Shah. Check out this incredibly useful and also beautiful visualization from Everest Home Improvements.

Data Display of the Day: Two views on Online Privacy

All infographics by GDS Infographics

After seeing this beautiful video by Michael Rigley’s Network via an Ethos 3 Motion Design analysis, I was both fascinated and terrified.

Network from Michael Rigley on Vimeo.

Rigley’s approach to explaining data networks, a topic that most of us (including me) would find much too abstract and puzzling if presented in report-form, is beautifully illustrated and animated–it’s also understandable and impacting. Rigley doesn’t just lay out a series of facts, he interweaves them with a visual representation. It’s the approach to presenting this information that makes it that much more impacting. The information comes to life in a way the audience can understand; one cannot ignore the ramifications of our networked world. I found myself surprised and shocked at what I didn’t know about my digital footprint, and of course wanted to know more.

I ran across this infographic created by Abine, an online privacy company,  from Daily Infographic, and it only confirms what Rigley explains in Network.

Through our activities, our private information and habits, from shopping and liking someone’s status to making travel plans, are being mined and sold to advertising and tracking companies. This may seem innocuous when a site raises a price because an individual looks up a certain item, but when it can cost a person his or her job of affects his or her credit, the need to stand up for privacy becomes greater. Today’s examples amplify their important messages through design, so what design lessons can we draw from today’s examples?

Lessons from Today’s Examples

1. Use simple shapes and icons to convey complex ideas.
2. Organize information so it sequentially builds towards a solution.
3. Infographics in print do not necessarily follow the glance media rule; they are meant to be absorbed over time.
4. Video motion display should have a cohesive theme that helps further clarify the complex concept being animated.

Consider these four lessons, and remember, there is always room to…

Tweak Your Teach: Women as Academic Authors

One of the key frameworks of any professional academic career is published research. One reason I did not pursue a PhD in Literature is because I found that pure research paled in comparison to actual teaching. However, one of my goals for 2013 is to finally return to school to pursue my Ed.D in educational leadership or instructional design. Another goal involves submitting a paper on the community of inquiry  and the community college model to an educational conference. So, research must and will be done! I ran across this interactive infographic from the Chronicle of Higher Education while conducting preliminary research on schools and ideological approaches to the studies of educational leadership and instructional design:

The infographic provides a historical analysis of the place women have had in academic research in specific fields (I found it interesting that most humanities are left out of this list) including education. Here are a few interesting numbers:

• From 1991-2010, women accounted for 46% of articles published in the field of education, with the two biggest areas being student learning and teacher development.
• From 1665-1970 women contributed only 3.9% of articles on mathematics, 5.4% from 1971-1991, and from 1991-2010, that percentage increased to 10.7%.
• From 1665-2010, women published more articles in pollution and occupational health than all of political science (domestic and international) combined.

It is interesting to see which disciplines have grown and which still have some room for growth. Does academic authorship reflect other demographic imbalances in academia and professional work? What do you think?

Infographic Candy: David McCandless’s Rhetological Fallacies

Logical fallacies are an element of Professional Communication and Presentation that have fallen a bit by the wayside–with only one month of class and a semester’s worth of material to cover, it’s difficult to talk about everything without just lecturing at students for 4-8 hour periods. Any true superteacher knows this doesn’t work. That’s why I am glad for beautiful visualizations by the master, David McCandless of Information is Beautiful. Check out his infographic on all things logical fallacies, “Rhetological Fallacies” below and at his site, Information Is Beautiful.

Via Alex Rister, Design: The Bountiful Year Infographic

Check out Alex Rister’s excellent share! As a would-be gardner myself, I appreciate the usability of this infographic, and cannot wait to find a way to print this out in color!

Design: The Bountiful Year Infographic.

Infographic of the Day: Picture Superiority Effect

Why is it that we retain more information when we see something rather than when we simply hear it? The phenomenon is known as the picture superiority effect. Pairing images with text brings retention up from 10% to 65%. Check out this short infographic for a simple, yet thorough visual explanation of how this phenomenon works:

Tweak of the Day: LinkedIn Bootcamp

Ah, Monday, the end of vacation. Well, for a workaholic like me, it’s just another day to tweak and get ready for class tomorrow (though I think some much needed cooking and baking time is in order tonight as a sort of final farewell to the pure unadulterated joy that is holiday eating). This is what updating the overhaul of the online version of Professional Communication and Presentation was like:

But, now that that’s done and out of the way (thanks again to superteacher, Alex Rister), I can move on to today’s tweak of the day, which comes to us from Column Five Media.

LinkedIn Boot Camp

As the introduction to this awesome infographic asserts, LinkedIn is the “dark horse of social media.” I myself have a LinkedIn account, but rarely update it, in fact, it’s not even complete. However, devouring this visually delicious infographic, along with a bit of prodding from my resolutions center (one of my resolutions this year is to apply for x number of jobs and to really market myself effectively as a teacher and designer), has made me recall just how often I emphasize to my students the importance of a strong professional persona. I have gotten pretty good at building physical muscle and keeping active, I think it’s time I start working on building my LinkedIn muscle. What do you think? Is LinkedIn truly as worth the effort as this infographic claims?

Day one of Pinterest: Men’s Restroom Etiquette

Pinterest has rendered me a useless fool. I’ve spent half of my night reading recipes for shortbread and pizza monkey bread. In the midst of all this, I found this amusing visualization:

Source: 9gag.com via Elizabeth on Pinterest