Hans Rosling Interacts with Health Data: 200 Countries, 200 Years, 4 Minutes

Hans Rosling's enthusiasm for data visualization has increased my appreciation for statistics. In the video below, Rosling interacts with 120,000 data points related to 200 countries over 200 years. I especially like the "Alternate Reality" effect.



"Unveiling the beauty of statistics for a fact based world view"

Hans Rosling is a Professor of Global Health in Stockholm, Sweden, and the Director of the Gapminder Foundation.  The Gapminder World website has a wealth of resources for teachers, students, and anyone who is interested in learning about things through the use of information visualization.

According to information from the website, "Gapminder is a non-profit venture – a modern “museum” on the Internet – promoting sustainable global development and achievement of the United Nations Millennium Development Goals.Gapminder was founded in Stockholm by Ola Rosling, Anna Rosling Rönnlund and Hans Rosling on February 25, 2005. Gapminder is registered as a Foundation at Stockholm County Administration Board (Länstyrelsen i Stockholm) with registration number (organisationsnummer) 802424-7721."


Below is a list of annotated links to various Gapminder webpages:

Gapminder Labs: "Gapminder Labs is where we experiment with new features, visualizations and tools. Some of these might later gain a more prominent place on Gapminder.org."
Gapminder for Teachers: "This section is for educators who want to use Gapminder in their education. You'll find shortcuts to tools and guides for Gapminder in a classroom."
Gapminder Downloads: This section includes links to downloadable content, such as Gapminder Desktop, handouts, lesson plans, including teacher guides, and a good number of interesting interactive presentations.
Gapminder Videos: The videos include interesting presentations as well as a number of Hans Rosling's TED talks. The material is free to use and distribute under the Creative Commons License.
Data in Gapminder World:  This section includes all of the indicators displayed in Gapminder World.
Gapminder World
Gapminder FAQs

Cross-posted on the TechPsych and The World Is My Interface blogs

Teach Parents Tech website by Google employees - gotta love it - it includes tech "how-to" care package videos!

Google employees know what it is like to play the role of the extended family tech support person.  For the holidays- and beyond - they've created a series how-to videos that might prove to be useful to parents  and other extended family members who are interested in joining World 2.0 but need some sort of useful roadmap.


Teach Parents Tech is a great website to visit to learn the basics and a bit more. Here is the introductory video:



There is a "how-to"video for nearly everything.  Below is a screen shot of the home page, that lets you create a customized tech support "care package" that you can email to a parent:

http://www.teachparentstech.org

Multi-touch SmartBoard! (SMARTBoard 800 Series)

Take a look at the video demonstration of the new SMARTBoard (800 series) that offers multi-touch and gesture interaction support so that two students can interact with the board at the same time.

• Students can use 2 finger gestures to enlarge objects and move them around.
• Two students can interact with the board at the same time to complete activities.
• SMARTInk/Calligraphic Ink creates stylized print as you write. Whatever is written or drawn on the SMARTBoard becomes an object in the SMARTNotebook, allowing for things to be resized or rotated.   (2:04)
• Multi-touch gestures enabled in Window 7 and Snow Leopard work with the SMARTBoard.
• Software development kit (3:28):  Example of a physics application developed by a 3rd-party developer.  The application supports two students working at the SMARTBoard at the same time

This video, in my opinion, does not provide viewers with the full range of possibilities that the new features provide.   I'd like to see a "redo" of this video using a live teacher and a group of students.  For example, it would be interested in seeing how the physics application would be incorporated into a broader lesson or science unit.   I'd love to hear what real students have to say as they interact with the physics application, too.

Comment:

I think a multi-user interactive timeline would be a great application for the new SMARTBoard, because students could work together to create and recreate events.  This would be ideal for history, literature, and humanities activities, across a wide span of grade levels.

Video School Online: Free from Vimeo

Prosumers, DYI, hobbyists, multimedia wannabes, and even a few film or video pros might want to take a look at Vimeo's Video School Online. 


I'd like to use a dolly for a couple projects, and found the following video on the Vimeo Video School website that gives a great step-by-step demonstration of how to make your very own dolly for about $45.00:

My DIY Dolly from Knut Uppstad on Vimeo.

Interesting animation made with Google Docs presentation app. (Google Demo Slam), via Flowing Data

The video below was an entry in the Google Demo Slam,  an effort started by Google to share the word with the world about their innovative technologies.  By the time I learned of Epic Docs Animation, the video had over 800,000 views.  I plan to view a few more Google Demo Slam videos over the holiday break!


-Tu+, Namroc, and Metcalf 

For more information and Demo Slam videos, visit Google's Demo Slam website: "Welcome to Demo Slam, Where Amazing Tech Demos Battle for Your Enjoyment"

RELATED
Epic animation in Google Docs
Nathan Yau, Flowing Data, 12/22/10
Google's rationale for creating Demo Slam:
"We spend our time making a whole bunch of technologies that are free for the world, but a lot of people dont even know about them. And that kind of sucks. So, we thought organizing the world's most creative tech demo battle would be a great way to help spread the word and teach people about tech. Not to mention, it is a lot of fun."
About Demo Slam
Hall of Demo Champs

"Design is the Solution-From Visual Clarity to Clarity in the Mind" (gem of an article by Gerd Waloszek, SAP User Experience)

Design is the Solution - From Visual Clarity to Clarity in the Mind
Gerd Waloszek, SAP User Experience, 12/7/10


In this article, Gerd Waloszek provides an overview of traditional usability principles and shares his thoughts about broadening the concept of clarity to include mental states and models. His article includes charts/concept maps as well as links to great resources.


If this topic interests you, plan to block out some time to read this article and explore the links.