Blog Post 4: Visualization

Please click the link below to see my visualization project I created to review myths of constellations.

Voice Thread

1: I did a lot of looking around at many different digital platforms. I bounced back and forth with many of them. I could not think of what I wanted to do and how to present it. At first, I wanted to make a comic strip of the myth of a constellation, then I wanted to create my own myth for my own constellation I created, then I decided to create a review of myths associated with a few constellations. Instead of using the platform for an example of an activity my students would do/use, I decided to create something they can look at for review and include it in my lesson. Using the platform Voice Thread allowed me to use images and sound to create a series of slides. I selected images that represented what I was talking about on each slide. I wanted the pictures to be full of color to capture the audience’s attention. I kept my slides short and sweet so they can retain the information. 

2: Creating this visualization helped me take the highlights of our readings we looked at and narrow it down to a few main points. It helped me break down the information on each constellation to give a short review on them. It was taking what I read and learned to being able to explain it to someone else. I also had to find visuals that showed the mythical character/item along with how its mapped in the sky. When I looked online to find these images and more research connected to my topic I was learning more about it at the same time. The readings did a long-detailed story of each constellation. Here I just associated it with something without describing the whole in-depth story.

3: This processed influenced my thinking on visualization as a vehicle for learning because it is being able to take what you know, learned, and researched and put it into a different platform. It gets us away from paper and pencil, basic apps, and changes how we present information. It is taking what they learned/know and applying it in a way they understand. Sometimes students don't understand something until they do it a different way. So, by engaging in visualization projects students can deepen their understanding as they work through creating it. Also, by giving options to the students also encourages engagement. I really enjoyed this platform. It was really easy to use. I see how I can add it into my scaffolding assignment. This may be a platform student use to create their project on a constellation. In my own classroom the use of visualization can be done in many ways. Just recently students created a brochure, PowerPoint with voice over, and next we will use flip grid.