Showing posts with label visualization. Show all posts
Showing posts with label visualization. Show all posts

Monday, December 8, 2008

Augmenting Arguments: Debategraph

Famed polymath and writer Johann Wolfgang von Goethe once stated that "Nothing is more terrible than ignorance in action." Intelligent people know this and constantly seek to clarify their understanding. We need to able to review, refine, and correct what we think we know about issues and situations that concern or affect us. More importantly, we, as educators and citizens, must model how we go about formulating, analyzing, and clearing up our thinking. The young minds we teach need help with and examples of strategies for dealing with the tough situations that create debate and controversy.

A website called Debategraph is an excellent tool for helping people get a better, more visual representation of contentious issues. There are rarely simple simple solutions to the innumerable disagreements, disputes, and differences of opinion that plague humanity. Thankfully,however, there are options. One course of action is getting a perspective of the ideas, opinions, and facts that permeate an issue. Debategraph has the power to make this possible.

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Wednesday, November 5, 2008

Out of This World Visualization

Yesterday, I presented a session with all kinds of resources for visualizing ideas. Even though I mentioned ways to conceptualize astronomy, I forgot to mention the following gem. Created by the student team of Michael VanDaniker and Andrew Lund, the Solar System Visualizer is a helpful resource that shows the motions of celestial bodies in our solar system.