What tools did you try?
I looked at a few tools, including 1001fonts, Prezi, Wordle, & TimeGlider. Prezi is a great resource to create a new style of presentations. 1001fonts was fun to explore. I will download some new fonts to use for newsletters. Wordle is a fun resource. I could see using this resource for an activity on adjectives, or even as a way for students to introduce themselves at the beginning of the school year.
What are you representing in the visualization you created?
I chose to use TimeGlider to create a timeline of the history of San Francisco. I use the Social Studies Alive curriculum in my second grade classroom. One chapter I teach is the history of San Francisco. We discuss the gold rush of 1849, how the population grew drastically, and then the earthquake and fire of 1906. I created a timeline of a few key events we discuss using TimeGlider. Here is a link to my timeline. I also included an image of my timeline.
What questions or "ah-ha" moments arise when thinking about representation?
I enjoyed the opportunity to explore several data visualization tools available online. While watching Karl Gude's video on Visual Information, he said something that I thought was very important and fundamental for teaching, "Words, words, words. We need to force ourselves to look at information differently." Then he shared his solution, "Show it. Why? They notice it, they get it, they remember it." Students of any age do not want to just sit and listen to a lecture. They want visuals, representations, etc. As a learner I know how important visuals are for me, so as a teacher I do my best to incorporate representations into my lessons.
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