There's plenty of buzz around about data, visualisation, and how we can best make use of it in the classroom. David McCandless demonstrates it better than most in his TED Talk "The Beauty of Data Visualisation." That's all well and good, but that data's not always the easiest thing to get hold of in a form that's raw enough to turn into something accurate and powerful, and actually processing it is [...]
Gapminder: Unveiling the beauty of statistics for a fact based world view. - Gapminder.org. Use Gap Minder to bring real world data in to your classroom. Find real world facts and stats on a wide range of topics. Useful tool for SOSE and maths tasks. Generates some great conversations and raise the thinking in your classes.
Some colleagues of mine in Singapore linked me to this video about the value of visualising data. Giving your numbers some visual form and aesthetic sense helps bring your message to life for those of us not blessed with a naturally quantitative brain. The notion of incorporating elements of design also raises some interesting ideas about where we draw that blurry line around what counts as "literacy" with regards to communication. [...]
