:Connecting the Dots

Whether you’re an AP Statistics teacher or just trying to get your fourth graders ready for their state math assessment, most teachers will acknowledge that it is important for students to understand how to create and read graphs and charts.  Beyond passing tests, I feel this is an indispensible information literacy skill for students in the 21st Century who are constantly bombarded with data presented in diverse – and sometimes misleading – forms.  To be able to understand and critique these presentations of data, students need to not only see and discuss them; they must create them.  Again and again.  Until they see graphs and charts as tools for understanding and presenting complex data.

 Of course, any teacher who has tried to help students graph even the simplest data using Microsoft Excel will tell you that this is no easy task.  Even adults who have spent years making charts and graphs in Excel’s wizard (read: me) still struggle to create them at times.  I’ve been on the lookout for tools that would provide a simpler and/or more powerful solution than Excel.  Recently, my quest brought me to Swivel and NCES Create-A-Graph.

Swivel

Swivel is Web 2.0 to the core.  Users can upload data sets and then choose from a number of formats for presenting the data in visual form.  The data they upload and the graph(s) they create become accessible to all visitors to the site.  Additionally, students can view the data and graphs uploaded by others.

I found Swivel difficult to use.  To upload data, it must first be saved as an Excel spreadsheet or CSV file.  While there is an option to type data directly into the application, it must be formatted by hand in a single large text entry box.  Once the data have been uploaded, the user must tell Swivel which columns to use and what format the data are in (currency, dates, etc.)  Surprisingly, while I could view data and graphs created by other users, I couldn’t find a way to make my own graphs based on another user’s data.  On the plus side, you are required to cite a source for your data when you upload it, a nice reminder for students.

Once the data have been uploaded, Swivel creates a basic line graph of it.  You can then edit the graph to change to another form (pie chart, bar chart, etc.) or to change its appearance.  Of course, like any web 2.0 application, you tag your creation to help others find it.  There are options to permalink your graph or to embed it in a web page or blog.

Swivel is, potentially, a very powerful tool for creating visual representations of data.  Unfortunately, it is probably too difficult to use for most students who are looking to put together a quick graph or chart.  In Swivel’s defense, it was still in Beta at the time of this writing.  And while it is somewhat limited as a graph creation tool for the K-12 set, it could be an excellent place for students learning about graphs or doing research to find a treasure trove of examples based on real life data.

NCES Create-A-Graph

Did you know that the National Center for Education Statistics has a “Kids Zone” and that it’s coolest tool helps students create their own graphs?  Unlike Swivel, Create-A-Graph is geared squarely towards K-12 users and will be especially useful to students in elementary classrooms.  Its feature set is far more limited than Swivel’s and none of the sharing/tagging options are there but for a teacher looking for a simple but effective way to help students create appealing and accurate graphs of their data, it is just the ticket.

Create-A-Graph’s interface features five tabs which students work through as they develop their graph: Design, Data, Labels, Preview, Print/Save.  In the design phase, they select a format (line, bar, pie, area, X-Y) and colors for their graph.  In the data tab, they describe and then key in their data set, specifying the color and thickness of each line or region as they go.  There is no option to upload data entered into a spreadsheet or database.  They then add labels, preview their creation, and then output it in one of three formats: print, download (as a JPG or PDF file), or e-mail.   Unfortunately, you cannot save a graph and then come back to it later.  A graph must be created start-to-finish in a single session.

Create-A-Graph is simple enough for a third grader to master and powerful enough for the classroom teacher who wants to show parents the class’s progress on spelling quizzes over the course of the year.  It’s a real gem for teachers who want students to put down their rulers and graph paper and start putting the computer to work in presenting their data.

Together, Swivel and Create-A-Graph fill the yawning void between Tom Snyder’s Graph Club (which is a wonderful tool to introduce lower primary grades to graphing) and Excel.  If you want simple and friendly, try Create-A-Graph; the more adventurous and social among us might want to give Swivel a go.  Happy graphing!

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This video was made in 1989 – a high school student’s vision of what school would be like 30 years down the road.  Well, here we are 18 years later.  What did he get right?  What did he miss?  I look at this video and see project-based learning, multimedia, content management systems, distance learning, student collaboration… but no teachers! 

 What an interesting exercise for students in today’s classrooms: Ask them to describe the classroom of the future.  I think that would tell us a lot about what students find exciting – and lacking – in the classrooms where they are learning today.

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Er, make that seven (sorry Pluto). I’ve been wondering lately if/when Google would launch a “Google Mars” similar to Google Earth. Why can’t they take all of that Mars Orbiter and Mars Pathfinder imagery and wrap it around another 3D rotating sphere? I did find a Google Mars and Google Moon based on the 2D Google Maps system – a nice start. But imagine following the path of the orbiter around the red planet, seeing the whole thing from (electronic) bird’s-eye view? Imagine flying down to ground level and tracing the route of the pathfinder. Imagine students looking for water on Mars…

While I’m dreaming, why doesn’t Google turn its gaze outward to the stars? A search engine for stars which can fly you through space to that special star in the Pleiades at the click of a mouse. Google Galaxy, anyone?

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For a long time I’ve been looking at models of professional development that go beyond the one-shot after-school workshop. As I’ve studied models of adult learning and become more familiar with the ways that teachers are successful at improving their practice, I’ve realized that good professional development experiences share a few core qualities:

• They are sustained, occurring over weeks, months, or even years.
• They are gradual and incremental, involving a lot of short but connected steps with moments of reflection and integration in between.
• They are collaborative, involving questions, support, and conversation with other teachers in similar situations.
• They directly meet the teacher’s needs, offering solutions to real problems in our every day experience in the classroom.
• Over time, they change the way we see the world and therefore what we do with our students each day in the classroom.

As I become more invested in reading and tracking blogs through RSS, I’m coming to realize that those 15 minute sessions browsing headlines in Pageflakes and posting comments on blogs are starting to add up. Every day I have a little opportunity to see what others are doing and to ask myself why I do what I do and how I could do it better.

When a teacher starts using an RSS aggregator to keep on top of news stories, blog posts, and wiki updates, she is really taking the reins and becoming the editor-in-chief of her own professional development journal. “I want to learn about differentiating instruction in a social studies classroom and using a SmartBoard. I found six or seven experts in each area and they are going to be frequent contributors to my journal. When I don’t understand or disagree, I’m going to let them know and listen carefully to their responses and the comments of other people like me. At the end of the year, I’m going to know a lot more about these topics than I do now.”

The best part of it is that the singular voice of the workshop lecturer or methods text (shudder) gives way to a cacophony of differing agendas, viewpoints, backgrounds, and ideas. We are forced to confront the complexity of our classroom experience and to forge – and frequently thereafter to re-visit and re-evaluate – our own understandings and practices. Simple answers provided by gurus don’t long satisfy intelligent teachers: they need to pick and choose from a buffet of best practices and ideas. Our RSS professional development journal does just that.

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