I am going to use this blog to post some of my work from IDE 656,
Computers As Critical Thinking Tools.
Project 2 prototype of the deliverables that I would expect my (11th grade) students to create during the lesson using visualization tools:
Prohibition Timeline A
Wordle: Women's Christian Temperance Union (article on PBS.org)
Short reflection on the two visualization tool activities above (please note that details for the assignment are found in the lesson plan):
My Reflection on the Use of Visualization Tools for the Prohibition Lesson
The timeline visualization helped me use critical thinking
skills to determine what events should be selected for the timeline
visualization activity. I had to
identify and analyze various events and people associated with the prohibition
era and select those for the timeline with associated verbiage, dates, and
images. I enjoyed using the tool to
learn about the content. It was fun to
express the prohibition concepts/events in this manner. I also appreciated how the tool separated the
events and each would pop up, with the description and image. The Wordle visualization tool provided a
visual of the words that were used in the article I selected, which was about
the Women's Christian Temperance Union (and from PBS.org). The Wordle was a fun, artistic way to look at
which words were used the most and analyze if those words were indeed the key
concepts. Some words that appeared
larger and were therefore used most in the article, include the words
immigrants, Temperance, Christian, cause, alcohol, organization, and
women. These words truly do align to the
key concepts involved in the Women's Christian Temperance Union.
Both visualization exercises helped me better understand
prohibition. The timeline allowed me to
identify then evaluate the specific the key social, political, and economic
trends that influenced the prohibition era in order to determine what and how I’d
list the items on the timeline visualization activity. The Wordle activity provided a quick visual
in which I could identify words that were used most often in an article and
then evaluate those words to see if they were indeed key concepts. I found from both my Wordle and the Wordles
from my classmates’ articles, that the vast majority of the larger words in the
various Wordles were indeed key concepts.
Both visualization activities allowed the prohibition era to come alive
for me, through my research and the use of the tools. Using visualization tools made history a
little less boring for me!
As I noted above, from the discussions we had in class, the
Wordles very accurately expressed key content and themes. It was an added bonus to be able to change
the font and look of those words that came out larger and thus, reflected the
key content/themes. The timeline
visualization could have a range in accuracy in regard to expressing key
concepts and themes. It visualized
exactly what I inputted so hopefully my example is accurate. I think it is, given the time I took to
identify, analyze, evaluate then articulate the various timeline events,
descriptions, and images that I selected.
I hope we can use these visualization tools again in class –
both seem to align well to historical events and specific writings about these
events. I am going to use both tools at
home as they are free and fun to use.
