Infographics

How does Education use the Internet? (Infographic)

December 22, 2011 By Angela Wilkinson 2 Comments

When I was at school it was in the day of chalk, and spirit duplicators with the occasional photocopied page. At college, sure the photocopies increased, but visual aids were more often than not a textbook page or diagram printed onto a transparency slide for the overhead projector. When working on assignments the key information for your work was most likely to be found in that book…you may know the one…there’s 4 copies, no one’s looked at them for months but every year when that assignment question comes round they’re suddenly all borrowed out from the library.

The library was the font of all knowledge during college and when I graduated my learning was work related and via colleagues or at night class; which was still textbooks, photocopies and overhead projectors – you wanted to learn something you bought a book. Then I got internet access at home…

These days, the majority of my learning is via colleagues and the internet, if I want to learn about or check something, an on-line search is the first port of call. I’m seeing younger family members use the internet for school, last week we were searching on-line for information about meteors to present back to the class. In fact, a recent infographic from SEO.com flagged that over 90% of students will go online to search rather than use the library, 83% go online because the library is closed (the internet can cater for those unsociable all nighters typing/writing up assignments).

Of course students will need to learn how to verify the information gained and most folks would have guessed that Wikipedia would be the most used resource. That may be why 1 out of 3 academic leaders consider the internet inferior to face to face instruction! While I don’t believe it can beat a good educator in a face to face lesson, it can be an excellent tool for many tasks – the logistics of administration, engagement in class with a challenge or interaction during an assignment. Take a look… I’ve embedded SEO.com’s infographic at the end of the post so you can see some of the numbers and how the internet is used by different colleges and universities.

Final Thoughts

The internet has changed education and I think it has changed for the better and will continue to grow in use. Some 8 out of 10 faculty report using video for class, you can see an excellent example in this TedTalk about using multimedia in math class. In a Nov blog post, TED advised that 2012 will see the launch of a new initiative called TED-Ed for students and educators; a library of videos organised in categories and playlists to provide an “immersive insight into a learning concept”.

More than six million students are taking an on-line course - I don’t see myself going back to night class in 2012, but I will be taking an online course or two. How about you, do you use the internet for your studies? Or are you a full time educator either teaching about or using the internet as part of your lessons?

Thanks to Killer Infographics for the idea for the article – Killer Infographics creates
infographic design and promotions for clients around the globe

Filed Under: Infographics, information technology

Lies, Damn Lies and Info-graphics

July 21, 2011 By admin 2 Comments

Should we just consider badly constructed Info-Graphics as nothing more than pieces of “Graphic Art”, or should the potential to mislead be a serious concern to us all?

The persuasive power of numbers, in the form of statistics, has been used and abused by everyone with an argument to make since the first abacus was invented. However as we all know pictures “speak a thousand words” and the growth of Info-graphics, and the tools that produce them, has been prolific.

And so to my point… given how our little human minds work, our eyes are literally “drawn to pictures”, (see the link to a revealing example of this below ! ). Pictures make an impression like no table of numbers ever can. Properly executed this is a powerful tool for education and good, badly executed this is not only a waste of an opportunity it could even be used to deliberately mislead.

What factors determine a good info-graphic from graphic-art? – Here are a few suggestions and I welcome your thoughts….

Credible source data and source accreditations
Accurate interpretations of scale (e.g. don’t represent stated numbers with a picture unless the scale accurately represents those numbers)
Careful use of color conventions (try painting a start sign red and a stop sign green and you will see what I mean)
“Balanced” written commentary

Try working through this recent info-graphic (click to view) from the good folks at Cisco. Since the source is a reputable one I am going to take the figures as read – even the ones we can’t easily prove or disprove such as the number of IP addresses vs atoms on earth. (personally my first instinct is surprise at this however any physicists out there please reveal your answers now…)

It’s an interesting picture that combines simple line and picture drawings to represent connections and tell a story over time. It also uses diagrams such as the world population that are unclear as to whether the size/volume of the shapes represents actual numbers (or just a graphic to show rising size).

When you take an info-graphic apart in this way its surprising how more questions than answers can be raised.

(For those of you interested in the focal power of images on the human mind – in this case the male mind – and who haven’t yet heard of the (true) story of how Schiphol Airport in Amsterdam reduced their cleaning bills in the gents restrooms you might want to check this out)

Infographic Resources

Visual.ly – an infographics resource with promise of more tools to follow…

Gooogle Public Data Explorer – in beta with Google Labs, so I’m not sure where the team will relocate this app to but it’s worth checking out before it moves

Infomous – we’re divided on this Twitter graphic as to whether this is a true info-graphic or more graphic art, what do you think?

Filed Under: analytics, data analysis, Infographics

The Fundamentals of Designing Good Infographics

June 14, 2010 By Manoj Jasra Leave a Comment

Guest Post by Jennifer Hogan

I just finished reading “The Wall Street Journal Guide to Information Graphics” by Donna Wong. I think it is an essential read for anyone tasked with communicating information and data.

The book is straightforward and reads like a style guide, primarily using visual examples over text. Using side by side comparisons of what to do and what not to do, Wong covers everything from collecting data to visual design. She includes the importance of accurately presenting data, how to choose the best chart, and how to use graphics, colours and fonts effectively.

The book is positioned towards business professionals, but regardless of who you are and your experience level, you’ll learn practical tips to create clear and informative charts. Anyone interested in information design should read and keep this book as a reference.

Below are some simple tips that the Dona Wong would like you to consider:

Don’t set a huge amount of text in bold, then nothing get’s emphasized
Don’t use highly stylized fonts or turn the type sideways to save space
Don’t plot horizontal bars in a random order. The main quality of a horizontal bar chart is the ranking of items by the same attribute
It’s difficult to compare and contrast between many segments. A pie chart shouldn’t have more than five slices
Adhere to the correct chart type for each series, lines for continuous data and bars for discrete quantities